TaylorMade ATV Wedges Review - Forum Testing

[Mr. Satchmo]

Mine is pretty worn as Ive ... dropped it a time or two but the face and grooves are still in excellent shape. While its a little beat up you can clearly see the micro grooves are still intact.

Mine is pretty bad too but it performs just as great as the day it came in and the grooves are untouched and deep

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Just got home from playing 18, another lack luster round capped with fairly terrible wedge play. Again, no fault of the ATV, this was user error...that I am certain of. I will get a recap review up tonight.

On the plus side, I got to hit it from some different lies...like baked bunkers, so I will have some thoughts on that when I put it all together tonight.

Maybe so. It's just weird for me to want TM wedges. They aren't exactly known for that.

It's very weird to me, too. Weird or not, they work, and they are great...so that helped me to get over the initial weirdness very quickly.

 

[JeffReedMO]

Do any of you have glare issues with these being chrome? I like Satin and Black Pearl finishes on my wedges.

I have said the same thing a few times in this thread, I wish these were in Satin or Black Pearl. That's primarily all I have ever used and I just like the look better. That being said, there are no glare issues with me in regards to the ATV.

 

[10YardDraw]

When I was at the range I did not have any glare issues at all. I will be playing my first round with this Saturday morning and I can't wait to see what it can do on course with a good ball.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

I have said the same thing a few times in this thread, I wish these were in Satin or Black Pearl. That's primarily all I have ever used and I just like the look better. That being said, there are no glare issues with me in regards to the ATV.

They are in satin? At least at address...or are you just strictly speaking in terms of looking at the club (i.e. in the bag)?

 

[JeffReedMO]

They are in satin? At least at address...or are you just strictly speaking in terms of looking at the club (i.e. in the bag)?

In the bag. I have a CG14 in Satin and I just love the look of that club. My CG15 is in Black Pearl, and I played Black Pearls in the CG10 line. Just a look I am used to and have used for ages. The ATV looks good at address, no doubt about it, but I just prefer the overall look of Black or Satin.

 

[Ole Gray]

Do any of you have glare issues with these being chrome? I like Satin and Black Pearl finishes on my wedges.

Not me especially looking down on a shot. Maybe while it is sitting in the bag but that's because you are looking directly at it. I think you really need to give this wedge some serious thought.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

In the bag. I have a CG14 in Satin and I just love the look of that club. My CG15 is in Black Pearl, and I played Black Pearls in the CG10 line. Just a look I am used to and have used for ages. The ATV looks good at address, no doubt about it, but I just prefer the overall look of Black or Satin.

I'm with ya on that, man. I love both of those finishes...although I do surprisingly like the look of the mix on the ATV. I'd still prefer all satin or black.

 

[More Gooder]

Im thinking of switching from 54°/58° ATVs to 50°/56°, any of you testers foresee any problems?

 

[FrankA]

Im thinking of switching from 54°/58° ATVs to 50°/56°, any of you testers foresee any problems?

I have that combo and love it.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Im thinking of switching from 54°/58° ATVs to 50°/56°, any of you testers foresee any problems?

I vote 52°/58°, but that's just because I think it's the best two wedge combo for most.

To answer your question, I don't foresee any problems...it's what I have in my bag at the moment.

 

[Ole Gray]

Im thinking of switching from 54°/58° ATVs to 50°/56°, any of you testers foresee any problems?

I have the RBZ AW 50 degree which I really love and the ATV 56 and I have been happy with this combo. There might be a small problem with that large of a gap for some folks. I have one hole on my golf course that really plays better with a 54 from the senior tees. It's a par three that can require a bit more than a 56 especially on windy days.

 

[thedue]

Do any of you have glare issues with these being chrome? I like Satin and Black Pearl finishes on my wedges.

Come to Iowa in September, you can hit my ATV all you want, lol. No glare at all and such a "solid" feel. I'm not crazy about the looks, but gets the job done.

I just ordered three of these wedges. I demoed the ATV and a SCOR side by side for a month.

My concern, as small as it is, is that it seems these wedges show wear rather quickly. Does that mean the grooves could lose their effectiveness quick as well?

I think the wear may be more from sand or something because I play a ton a very little wear at all on mine. We have a rocky region, but no sand.

 

[MWard]

Love all the responses testers, thank you for that. Kinda surprised about the people losing a bit of distance on full swings but I wonder if the bounce is working too much and getting the ball up too high too fast? Or just causing the ball to hit higher on the face?

 

[More Gooder]

I have that combo and love it.

Well, I may just go with that then...forget what bahester says about this guy.

I vote 52°/58°, but that's just because I think it's the best two wedge combo for most.

To answer your question, I don't foresee any problems...it's what I have in my bag at the moment.

I thought about doing that, but I just don't use the 58 as much as I think I would 56.

I have the RBZ AW 50 degree which I really love and the ATV 56 and I have been happy with this combo. There might be a small problem with that large of a gap for some folks. I have one hole on my golf course that really plays better with a 54 from the senior tees. It's a par three that can require a bit more than a 56 especially on windy days.

That's part of my dilemma, my Burner 2.0 AW (50*) is my "most money" club for me, but I ordered i20's today and wouldn't be able to stand the aesthetics of my bag with that oddball.

 

[Ole Gray]

Love all the responses testers, thank you for that. Kinda surprised about the people losing a bit of distance on full swings but I wonder if the bounce is working too much and getting the ball up too high too fast? Or just causing the ball to hit higher on the face?

My previous wedge setup was a 50, 54, & 58. Of course with the 54 you going to get more distance so the 90 yd average for me with the 56 is normal. I don't really see a problem with too high of a ball flight. I hit all my wedges better with a 3/4 swing so I'm not into the full swing thing.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

Love all the responses testers, thank you for that. Kinda surprised about the people losing a bit of distance on full swings but I wonder if the bounce is working too much and getting the ball up too high too fast? Or just causing the ball to hit higher on the face?

Forgot to respond to the "sidehill lie" question earlier, sorry about that man. I think the sidehill lie problems are user errors, as others have stated. One wedge isn't going to handle them better than another...at least not IMO, I don't see how a wedge could really help or hurt. Either you know how to handle these lies and are comfortable with them, or you're not.

 

[Ole Gray]

That's part of my dilemma, my Burner 2.0 AW (50*) is my "most money" club for me, but I ordered i20's today and wouldn't be able to stand the aesthetics of my bag with that oddball.

I hear ya but if the thing is a birdie machine it gets real pretty real fast. :thumb:

 

[InHartWeTrust]

MY ATV REVIEW POSTING INDEX:
INTRO POST/ABOUT ME: Click HERE
INITIAL IN HANDS/LOOKS THOUGHTS: Click HERE
INITIAL LONG RANGE THOUGHTS: Click HERE
INITIAL SHORTS GAME THOUGHTS: Click HERE
SECOND RANGE/SHORT GAME SESSION THOUGHTS: Click HERE
THIRD RANGE/SHORT GAME SESSION THOUGHTS: Click HERE
FIRST 9 HOLES: Click HERE
SECOND 9 HOLES (WITH VIDEO): Click HERE
PHOTO ROUND (BEFORE AND AFTER) 18 HOLES: Click HERE
VIDEO REVIEW: Click HERE
18 HOLE REVIEW (7/21): Click HERE
"HOW TO" #1 - THE 80 YARD SHOT: Click HERE

DATE: 7/29/2012 & 8/2/2012
WEATHER: 90-95°, slight breeze
BALL PLAYED: Callaway Hex Black
HOLES PLAYED: 18 each day
ATV RATING ON THIS DAY: 7/10

I am going to keep this one short and sweet (at least for me, we all know I am long winded).

I have sucked at golf during both of these rounds. I am a bit heated about it, and a bit down on my game at the moment...but I know this is part of the game, and in a way, I am happy it happened during this testing. I have had a very impressive run since this testing started, and it's good to have humbling rounds now and then. I want people to see the ATV's aren't a club that is going to turn bad swings into good results...at least not all the time.

These were rounds mixed with splashes of brilliant shots (176 yards to 1 foot), and seriously piss poor shots (wedges barely on the green, lots of OB off the tee, etc.)...being honest, there was more of the piss poor shots than brilliant ones. Let me be clear on one thing...if I suck, I do not expect my wedges (or any club for that matter) to be magically solid, regardless of how confident I am in them, or how much I like and believe in them. As such, my wedges have followed suit and have not been that great these last two rounds. Before I go any further, I want to stress that this is a "me" issue as a golfer on these days, not the clubs "not performing" or anything of that nature. I hate in reviews, or comments (online and offline), when people are off their games and somehow blame it on the club and turn it into a negative review or conclusion on a club...let's be real here, it's the golfer, not the club. Make a bad swing, you're going to get a bad result...if you expect something different, find a new sport/hobby. No club is magically going to make a bad swing a good one. Club thoughts should be based off of normal to good swings and how they perform on those swings, not the terrible swings, as no club is going to fix those. Your goal is to make as many good swings in a span of 18 holes as possible (or as few as possible, depending on which angle you're looking at it in); you should not be forming conclusions off of your bad swings. That's like saying the 10 you chatted up at the bar and got to come home wasn't good looking enough for you to perform, just because your ED kicked in. Vigra might fix that, or lessons might fix your swing, but blaming the club or the girl will not.

Even in my struggles, I have hit some solid shots here and there with the wedges. I can recall a few full shots that I put inside of 20 feet, maybe even a few inside of 10 feet. Greenside, I have been focusing on "getting the ball rolling as soon as possible"...something very new to me, but something I feel will benefit me greatly. With this in mind today, I used the 50° ATV for a lot of bump and runs when the green space allowed for it. I can remember 4 or more times where I didn't even have to get my putter out of the bag. Once on hole 16 I commented "I'm not even bringing the putter to the green, I won't need it" when I pulled the 50° for a bump and run...well, I needed it. That was the only time all day I needed it though, which I am pleased with. Alas, the swing on hole 16 was a bad swing on my part...I jerked at it, and gunned it right past the hole. My mistake totally and I immediately took blame telling my playing parter "I stabbed at that one, I dunno WTH that swing was".

Today's course showed me baked bunkers like I've never seen baked bunkers before. We are talking loud crackling noises when you step in and walk around, and regardless of how hard you try to dig your feet in...they aren't digging in a centimeter. It was basically rock solid hardpan with a VERY thin dusting of dirtish sand over top. So to those of you asking about hardpan performance, listen up. This is hardpan like you won't find many places, it's as hard as hardpan gets. I was in these monstrosities twice today...both times I had surprisingly great results, even with my overall lack luster performance. First was on the par 5 fifth hole. I bombed a drive down the middle and laid a 6 iron out to the right of the green going for it in two. The water left played into this, but me being late on my swing played the most intricate role. This left me with this shot, bear with me while I try to paint the picture: 25-30 yards to the pin, another medium sized bunker between me and the green (in my line), the fringe is just over the lip of the bunker, the pin is a flagstick off the edge of the green, and a lake looms behind the green waiting for me to get aggresive and drop one in the drink. In short, the worst gosh damn shot you can imagine...something I wouldn't even wish on DL3 (and I hate DL3). But I degress, I decided to play with a line just off the right edge of the bunker in front of me to be safe, and swallow that I can take a two putt for par from the middle of the green and not blow up on the hole. Before the shot, you tell me I make par, and I'd take it any day of the week. This is exactly what I did when I hit the shot...it was a shot that required me to pick it clean and absolutely perfect, no standard bunker methodology could be used here. In all reality, anything inside 20 feet in my mind was going to be a great shot if I went right at it, and I had it pegged about 50/50 for water/bunker in front of me to me ending up on the green. In hindsight, had I just had some balls and aimed right at the pin, I would have actually pulled the shot off perfectly and probably been inside 10 feet. Perfect distance control, perfect flight, perfect spin, perfect line were the results of my shot...my ball stopped exactly where I thought it would based on the line I took. Had I just aimed to barely land over the bunker and go right at the pin, I would've been pretty close. However, it wasn't realistic to expect myself to do this, so I played it safe, took my 2 putts and moved on.

Again on hole 18 I found myself in one of these POS's. Again, I knew I needed to pick it clean...and again, I did it perfectly. The putter never came out of the bag on hole 18. I set up and played it just like I would have a shot off a tight fairway lie, and trusted it. This shot was just a standard 15 yarder from the bunker, and I put it inside the leather...the only variable was the crap bunker I was standing in.

I would rate these two bunker shots as about as high of difficulty as there is. Not because of the length (long bunker shots are difficult, lets face it...and these were not long), but because of the low quality of these horrendous sand traps. The first one was about as difficult a shot as I could create, the second one was not, but the bunker itself made it a shot where I knew it was going one of two ways: good, or absolutely terrible. On the par 5, looking at the water and other bunker between me and the pin...I didn't take much time. I didn't want my mind to realize what I truly was facing. I bitched a little to my playing partner, laughed at the shot I was facing (sarcastically while shaking my head), got in the sand, picked a landing spot, said "pick it clean", and swung. There was no reason to over-analyze...I know the ATV can handle these shots, I know I can handle these shots, I just needed to trust it. I did, and the ATV didn't let me down.

On the mid-range shots over these two rounds...I left a lot of shots out on the course. Multiple times I put it well outside of 25 feet, and once or twice I even missed the green long or right...mostly long, my distance control has been terrible these two rounds. Does the ATV now all of the sudden suck? No, I do...the wedge had nothing to do with the bad shots. I made bad swings, I was late, or I was too firm, or I lifted up, or I did something...none of these times did I feel the ATV was at fault in the least. I'm not one to hit a bad shot and then look at the club like "WTC was that?!" If I hit a bad shot, it's my fault, not the clubs.

Also worth mentioning: Today I saw a lot of lies where the rough and fairway had burnt out dead spots that left "divot like" holes or indents in the turf. Numerous times I found my ball sitting down in these crevices, and each time the ATV performed admirably. One time I tried to punch at it a bit too hard and got handsy on the bump and run, and the ball rolled long past the hole. After I finished the hole, I revisited the crevise, hit the shot again with a smooth tempo and I put it to about a foot away. I then pulled the ball back again and hit it a third time, and I put it to 2-3 feet away. I needed to show myself the shot was easy if I just trusted it, and when I did, the result was great.

CONCLUSIVE THOUGHTS: What is the moral of this review post? If you trust the club to do it's job, regardless of the bad break you got or the bad lie you are facing, it will do the job for you. When you go into the shot doubting it, or wondering "Can it handle this?" you are only setting yourself up for failure...be more surprised you succeced than if you fail. What it all comes down to is the fact that it is a golf shot, not much different from the thousands you have hit before it, and regardless of the lie, you have been blessed with a club that can handle the adversity. Keep your confidence high, trust yourself and trust the ATV, and I think you will be impressed with the results you see.

Also, I lied...theat was not short, or sweet. Sorry...once I get typing, all hell breaks loose.

 

[Ole Gray]

IHWT --- Man you are good testing brother :clapp:! Your way with words and instruction is second to none and you have been a tremendous asset to this testing thread.

 

[InHartWeTrust]

IHWT --- Man you are good testing brother :clapp:! Your way with words and instruction is second to none and you have been a tremendous asset to this testing thread.

Thank you, OG....I appreciate that man, I really do. Any updates on your injury? Wishing you a quick and speedy recovery, sir, we need you back ASAP...but more importantly, we want you back in good health.

 

[Kmac]

Solid review IHWT. I really like your conclusion and completely agree with you.

 

[CharlieMoy]

This thread makes me excited for when I get to use my ATV wedges. I work doubles until my Poconos vacation, there they sit, in the corner looking at me.


IHWT, youre reviews in here alone were enough to push me on these. All of the testers have done a fantastic job.

 

[Keehno]

I finally got my 52* ATV yesterday. After 20 swings on the range there is a huge gash on the face. At least half an inch diagonally across the middle grooves. I'm assuming you guys will want to see pics, but is this this something I should contact TMAG about? I have had the 56* for over a month now and it only shows norrma wear and tear.

 

[Ole Gray]

Thank you, OG....I appreciate that man, I really do. Any updates on your injury? Wishing you a quick and speedy recovery, sir, we need you back ASAP...but more importantly, we want you back in good health.

I'm hanging in there as my issue with the knee is long term so I just have to work through it. Knee replacement surgery is on the agenda and I am putting it off for now. I'm going out today and play, so we will see how it goes. I will report back this evening on the results. Thanks for the well wishes! I'm a tough old coot and can hang with the pain however not being able to play up to my potential, gets on my nerves