hartrick11

I have had my Scotty Hollywood model locked in for ~4 years now after extensive self-fitting, trial and error and general bad putting with a classic Ping Anser handed down by my dad. The flow neck, high toe and less than full offset on the Hollywood just suit me. I do wonder if a real fitting would confirm my self-fitting and my guess is one of the newer mallets with some toe hang might technically be an improvement for me from an MOI standpoint, but I have been putting well for a couple of years now and don't want to ruin a good thing! *also have a Monterey 1.5 on standby after some buzzed ebay-ing one evening, but that hasn't made it to game action.

Got an email that the black version was released today. I love my Cobras, but maaannn do those look nice. If the feel is anything like the Ft. Worth with a little bit of help in the long irons, it will be impossible for me to resist!

Nice! Do you use that 58* D grind in the desert too, or do you switch to something with less bounce when you go there?

Jim Furyk -11

Ugh what a bargain for that Del Mar! I'm a sucker for the California line, but already have a Monterey 1.5 collecting dust in the garage...

I'm late to this party but great start fellas! I love this test and will be following along closely. Like many I have spent countless hours tinkering with this part of my bag, generally with mixed results.

Made it two weeks with mismatching wedges in my bag! Mental midgetry. Anyway, seems like a waste to have them sit around in my garage, and I am not going to go down the re-shafting route, so I will be putting the Bridgestones up on the classifieds soon in case anyone is interested, and will be sure to send back some of the proceeds as an MGS donation thank you. All in all, I would definitely consider these with the next set of wedges I purchase, but it would need to be a custom order vs. the stock wedges we tested. Even then, I would ideally like to see more selection on sole grinds, at least at the SW lofts of 54* & 56*.

Great start fellas! I'm a fan and user of the MTB-Black for the last year or so after I got a test pack of the Red and Black, and am looking forward to hearing more about the MTB-X. In addition to seeing if your individual experience backs up the performance of the MTB X in the MGS testing, I'm curious for any and all descriptions of feel, especially compared to the other Snell offerings. Thanks in advance! In the looks department the MTB-X seems pretty close to the Black which I like, last year's Red had a weird sheen to it that made it seem cheap IMO. I also like that they got rid of the red paint on the "S" that tended to streak.

Update - I took the 50* & 60* out of my bag. Not 100% ready to throw these wedges on the BST yet, but want to go back to a LW that I feel comfortable using for chips with a square face, which is my preferred shot for most chips. My Glide ES grind LW allows for that, and is a rock star out of bunkers. The 50* is more of a full shot club for me, and the Bridgestone's high-flying Modus 105 shaft can't compete with the heavier $-taper in my set GW. I still have the Bridgestone 54* in the bag and love it for full swings and the more creative short game shots, but my OCD about matching SW & LW might lead me to go back to the Ping 54* too LOL.

Lucas Bjerregaard -9

So with this news, when should we be seeing current model sales start to trickle out?

I have two: the first was not purchased by me though - a junior set of clubs my dad got me when I was ~12. Instant improvements from the MacGregor blades from the 70s that he had cut down and re-gripped for me (I still shudder at the thought of thinning that 3 iron on cold nights at the driving range), and these babies got me hooked on the game & stayed with me for 6 years until I scrounged up the money to buy a used set of adult size DCIs. The best purchase I made was an ebay special in 2016: Scotty Cameron California Hollywood that I had refurbished by BOS Golf. It got me down into single digit HC range and will never leave my golf bag, except when I send it back to BOS to refinish it again in another year or two.

I had an iron fitting last fall and before I left we got to talking a bit about wedges. One interesting thing the fitter said was that the most common setup he ends up recommending is to use the same grind for both SW & LW, and then set wedges for PW & GW. It seemed counter-intuitive to me on the SW & LW part, but his theory was that for the average amateur, the consistency of turf interaction provides more benefit than the versatility provided by various grinds. I think unless you're able to get a lot of practice working on the varying shots that you hope to take advantage of with multiple wedge grinds, this concept is pretty logical.

Always love this topic. The great part is, with the expansion of product lines we have endless options. 20th century options: Blade, CB, shovel 2019: Blade, CB, "Players" GI, GI, SGI, and now more and more companies are blending their sets (I think this will only increase too). To each their own! Personally I love my Cobra CBs and they are far more forgiving than CBs of old despite being scary small when I first tried them, and the feel absolutely cannot be beat by a multi-piece GI offering. The one compromise I made was to start the set at the 5 iron (26* if we're comparing apples to apples ). I definitely appreciate the forgiveness on my GAPR LO and Forged Tec 4i for longer shots where, for me at least, mis-hits are penalized more. Anyway, I lose way more shots from sh*t drives and mental midgetry than from my irons that I am technically on the fence for as a 7 HC.

I have not been able to play the 2018 vintage either, but for this year's clubs, I would be willing to bet that the mass being more dispersed with a slimmer and repositioned "B" would lead to a larger area of the club face that retains the sweet spot feels. I still found plenty of shots making contact outside of that sweet spot, and it is still clicky when that happens, but that's not something I mind.

Nice work! Now I feel like I was too generous with my grades when our conclusions were so similar...

Tier 5: Scott Piercy Total Winning Score: -9

Stage 2 is up! I just need to update my video links to be embedded from instagram instead of clickable links... Let me know if anyone has any questions.

I'm wrapping up my review as well and will include pics, but they've worn better than I expected for forged clubs. I thought the AZ desert courses I played would eat them up and I had plenty of errant shots into waste areas to test the durability, but they came out of testing looking close to new.

Seem to have a consensus on Sun Mountain. Now I just need to convince myself to like their looks...

Thanks - I have issues with the stand deployed while playing, so I just keep it upright while taking clubs in/out, but when I go to the range and have other clubs/orange whip/layers in the pockets, the tangle is significant. I'm not experienced with the Sun Mountain line but will check out the reviews, thanks - I do like how you can search their site by the top opening size!

I have a Ping Hoofer Lite from 2015 or 2016, and it's been great, but I'm ready to get a new bag and hoping for one with a larger opening for less tangle. My first thought was the 2019 Hoofer that just won most wanted, but I read in a few other places that tangle may still be an issue with these. Anyone care to weigh in here? Has anyone played with the new Titleist 5 Hybrid bag, or the Cobra staff stand bag? They both seem like they would be bigger but I can't find the info there... Aside from those three, what would people recommend for a stand bag with a larger opening? I'm not picky about an extra LB or two - I have a pull cart, so will only end up walking like 5 times/yr and am young and reasonably fit enough to where that shouldn't bother me. Also I don't care about 4-way, 5-way or 6-way, as long as it isn't 14-way! I just want the extra space for an Orange whip and/or extra club or two to bring to the range when I am trying out different clubs.

I played this weekend at a course that was wet and not in great condition. You know when the rough around greens is patchy, and when you take practice chip swings the grass & dirt/mud below just gives way really easily? Not ideal! And not ideal for me with these wedges in particular. The sharp leading edges dug in on several shots from chips out to pitches. It didn't really burn me on the pitches as I was able to catch ball first, but on the chips in these conditions, when you're even a fraction off, it's chunk city. In fairness there is probably a good chance that the bad chips would've also been bad with other wedges given the conditions, but in my head I was mad at the clubs! Bigger picture as I think back on the last handful of rounds, it seems like my good chips & shots with the Bridgestone wedges are better (and feel better) than my good shots with the Pings, but the flight on full shots is higher, and the margin for error on chips is lower, and as a result my mistakes are more frequent/penalizing. My challenge now is to determine if I will just stick with the Bridgestones and plan to get better/more precise to take advantage of the versatility & enjoy the forged feel, or go back to what is basically a solid, if unspectacular, performer for me in the Pings. I've got one more round scheduled this weekend and two more practice sessions over the next week. I will plan to post the stage 2 review toward the end of next week.

I played on Friday at a course that had lush, thick grass throughout, which made for perfect fairway lies and penalizing rough. I shot a 78 with 12 pars and 6 bogeys, which is a strong round for me. The interesting part was that I only hit 7 greens, so I had 5 up-and-downs, and none of those were on a crazy long putt - hellooo Bridgestone! The versatility and stopping power of the 54 and 60 shined during this round. I still haven't made up my mind on keep vs. trade, but I do think there are certain golfers out there who would really appreciate what these wedges have to offer.

Yes they would benefit from different grind options, but given limited budgets and the fact that this is still essentially a niche club, their choice is understandable IMO. Knowing what I know now, I would’ve been interested in their “most forgiving” A grind on a 54 if available, and then M grind for the 60 (or 58 even). I’ve had the birds nest lie a few times and these can get through the lie with no issues, and in fact I think the sharper leading edges help here. The only thing I have had to get used to for these is the weighting which is lighter than what I prefer, and caused some distance control issues at first.