Each year The Hackers Paradise holds “Shoot Outs†with most categories of golf equipment. We put together a panel of testers that are not affiliated with our site or any company and ask them to test equipment and based on their tests we determine rankings for each club. These are the results of those tests and are not the views or opinions of the staff here at THP. We offer spots in these “Competitions†to almost all of the major equipment companies and most are kind enough to be a part of it. Last month we concluded our Putter Shoot Out and after that, and it was time to move on to the one most requested by our readers. That is the wedges!
None of this is scientific and we hope every person reading this tries as many wedges out as they can when making their decisions on what will work best for them. However as THP is the site For consumers, By consumers, we think it is a great way to get through all of the marketing out there and find out once and for all which clubs worked best for our “Panel of Judgesâ€. We assembled 18 golfers set up in 3 categories to test each club in this “competitionâ€. Six Low Handicap players, Six Mid Handicap players, and Six High Handicap players. Click here to read a short biography for each person included in the testing. You can also click here to read the thoughts and quotes of each participant as they were going through the process.
Bridgestone B330RX was the ball that was used for every single participant in this event and in some ways, the ball may have been the star of the show. More than 75% of the participants wanted to switch to this particular ball by the time they were done testing, something that they brought up themselves without us mentioning a thing.
A couple of things to note before we get into the results.
1. Not one of these wedges performed poorly. Every single one of them did quite well.
2. Players were given a series of shots from a variety of locations, such as chipping, bunker shorts, pitching, and full swings.
Here is the complete list of entries
Titleist – Vokey Spin Milled
Callaway – X Forged
Cleveland – CG12
Cleveland – CG14
Taylormade -Z TP
Nike – VR Forged
Eidolon – V-Sole
Nickent – Arc Wedges
Bridgestone – WC Liquid Copper
Mizuno – MP R
Mizuno – MP T
Adams – Puglielli
Feel – Designer Series Dart Thrower
Wilson Staff – TW9
Hippo – HWT Forged
Srixon – WG-706
We based our rankings on four categories
1. Looks
2. Feel
3. Spin
4. Performance (Counts Double)
Then we take those rankings and calculate an overall winner. Again, nothing scientific, but we feel by letting consumers get the chance to hit each club the same in real world golf situations, it gives other consumers (people like us) the ability to compare with some that play similarly to their style.
Looks
Each tester was asked to rank each wedge based on aesthetics only, and rank them 1 through 16. Here is the top 5 in the looks category. With the exception of 1st place that was almost a runaway from the rest of the pack, most of the wedges in the lineup were very close in the rankings. The Wilson Staff was the clear choice by our testers in this one though.
1. Wilson Staff TW9
2. Taylormade Z TP
3. Bridgestone WC Liquid Copper
4. Nike VR Forged
5. Titleist Vokey Spin Milled
Feel
Nothing more subjective than this. We asked each tester to rank each wedge 1 through 16 based on feel and their own personal interpretation of how the clubs felt. This is the one that the testers seemed to have the most fun with because each golfer is different in how they interpret this. Things such as texture, softness, and feedback, were commonly used when the golfers were determining the feel. Each player noted more and more how different every wedge felt that they got to try. Nike was tops on this list followed very closely by so many other great wedges. Both sets of Mizuno wedges made this top 5.
1. Nike VR Forged
2. Mizuno MP T
3. Adams Puglielli
4. Callaway X-Forged
5. Mizuno MP R
Spin
This was a measurement after each shot on 3 different segments of the test. Most of the players felt going in that the spin would be the same and when they finished they could visibly see how each wedge performed differently. It was also very interesting to see how different wedges performed in spin based on the different handicapped groups of testers.
1. Cleveland CG14
2. Titliest Vokey Spin Milled
3. Eidolon
4. Adams Puglielli
5. Callaway X-Forged
Performance
This category was based on the results of each shot performed by the equipment testers. Based on measurements and how close to the hole each ball was. Again, this was very telling by handicap groups as well. In determining an overall winner, THP feels that this is the most important category in a wedge and is counted as double points.
1. Cleveland CG14
2. Eidolon
3. Nike VR Forged
4. Taylormade Z TP
5. Callaway X-Forged
Overall
After we totaled each category from all 18 people that are involved with this project we came up with overall rankings. Here is the top 5 for the overall rankings in our Wedge Shoot Out.
1. Cleveland CG14
2. Nike VR Forged
3. Callaway X-Forged
4. Titleist Vokey Spin Milled
5. Taylormade Z TP
Not one wedge in this entire “contest†was a bad wedge or a poorly made club. In fact what we noticed is that so many of the clubs are excellent and the results backed that up. It in some cases came down to inches in determining the overall winner. It goes to show that every club will feel and perform differently in each player’s hand and to test out as much equipment as you can to determine which is a perfect fit. If you would like to see all of the pictures taken of the gear used in this shoot out, click here for 2 full pages of pictures.
Another Shoot Out has come to an end and we had a blast doing it. We hope everybody enjoys reading how other players “just like you” perform with the different clubs and will continue to do them as long as our readers enjoy reading them. The equipment companies have been gracious enough to supply their equipment for these tests and we want to thank them for the chance to put these great clubs in the hands of the players for this event.
