Rarely does a golf club’s appearance get our reviewers excited. At The Hackers Paradise we get to review so many pieces of equipment each month that the aesthetics sometimes all run together. However recently we were shown pictures of a wedge that made us stand up and take notice. That wedge was the Bridgestone WC Black Series of wedges. While at the PGA Merchandise show we did not get a chance to check them out, so at the conclusion of the show we immediately got in touch with Bridgestone to see about getting our hands on a few of these to review.
There are a million different choices in the wedge category right now and choosing the right ones for your game is crucial. When picking a wedge for your bag, make sure you hit as many types as you can. This particular club, like the putter, feels different to each and every person that touches them. When The Hackers Paradise reviews a wedge, we have certain criteria that we grade the clubs on. Feel, spin, price point, aesthetics, and playability. We make sure that we have multiple golfers hitting each club to make sure that we cast a larger net of the playing public than just giving one player’s opinion. Before we even received these wedges we had half our reviewers in love with them and half not wanting to try them. The looks of the wedge had people chomping at the bit to get them up close, but lack of bounce options was scaring a couple of our low handicap players.
We quickly learned that the players worried about lack of bounce options need not worry at all. Bridgestone Golf has created Variable Bounce Technology. VBT is incorporated into all the wedges in the WC Design series. The VBT sole is created with less bounce on the heel and toe of the wedges, providing more versatility for opened and closed face shots, and additional relief from difficult lies. The West Coast Design Black wedges feature a unique black nickel finish, designed to reduce glare and frame the ball better at address. As with their previous wedges, the new Black series features a CNC milled face for consistency in distance control and additional spin on shorter shots, especially greenside. Bridgestone’s WC Design Wedges all undergo a precision milling process that cuts more consistently shaped and spaced U-Grooves. The Milled U-Grooves produce higher and more consistent backspin from all varieties of lies and turf conditions. The Bridgestone WC Design Wedges are constructed of 8620 mild carbon steel and heat-treated for a softer, yet more solid feel at impact.
But regardless of all the technical stuff out there, THP bases its reviews on how the clubs perform for people not the statistics. After a couple of days of waiting, the wedges arrived and we opened the box to see if the pictures did them justice. We were actually more excited than before. In person the dark finish is absolutely gorgeous and it had all of us nervous about hitting them because we were unsure how the finish would maintain. Would it turn raw and rust like the “oil can” type of finish or would they stay like this?
We packed up the two wedges that were sent and headed over to the range. There were 4 golfers with us today and we took turns hitting every type of short game shot you could think of. Pitching, chipping, flop shots, and sand shots, we threw everything at these clubs and at the end of the day, all four of us were extremely happy with the results. The Bridgestone WC wedges played as well as they looked.
Over the course of the next few weeks myself and a couple of other golfers alternated playing these wedges on the course. Between the three of us the clubs saw about 20 rounds over that time and each one of us ended up enjoying the playability of them even more. The VBT works. We had no problem playing this club from just about any lie. Not surprisingly, the most asked question we got while using these clubs was about the finish. And will it wear off? The answer is “we shall see”, but it shows no signs of coming off as of now. In fact it barely even shows scratches that most clubs have from normal wear and tear.
Bridgestone Golf.
Till Next Time
Josh B.
