While not thought of as a wedge company, TaylorMade Golf has found a nice little niche for themselves since the introduction of the first Milled Grind (MG) series. Since then, the continued evolution has taken a fair design, and made it quite a high performer. As you might expect, however, when you have a Tour staff like TaylorMade, the feedback on how things can improve is aplenty.
So, today marks the introduction which comes via the culmination of efforts to sort that feedback and make tangible improvements within their wedge designs. Yes, that means the debut of the new Milled Grind 4 (MG4) wedges from TaylorMade Golf.
TaylorMade Milled Grind 4 Wedges
There has been a continued focus by TaylorMade in their wedges to find the right combination of performance and sound/feel which puts them alongside the best brands in wedges. Milled Grind brought forth that intent, and since then you have to give TM credit where it is due as they have certainly evolved the clubs to be worthy of the attention they seek.
This time around, TaylorMade is going with a much more subdued green as their accent color, including a custom white and green label on the standard True Temper Tour Issue 115 wedge shaft. Other than that, the big aesthetic changes are in shaping, finish, and new “Laser Face Treatment”.
As for the finish, the Raw Face design returns, meaning the face will rust in the right conditions. Again, this is not about friction for spin like the old tale goes, but rather the removal of a finish layer ensuring the radii of the grooves are as sharp as legally possible. The rest of the wedge features TM’s new, darker, “scratched finish” Tour Satin which aims to mimic a raw wedge, without the raw wear.
Shape wise they definitely didn’t go back to the drawing board, rather, the focus was on finding a better flow within the shape as well as massaging the overall mass and sole designs. The overall look on the flange with the channel is familiar, though the dimensions have moved with more mass low near the sole behind the hitting area. The “toe pad thickness” on the upper flange is still there but doesn’t add anything visual at address. This does offer a progressive design based on what loft you are hitting to better dial in the trajectory of the wedges.
More refinement has gone into the shape at address as well. The topline is now more rounded and flows into a better hosel transition. There is also a more progressive leading edge now with lower lofts remaining very flat, but higher lofts now featuring more “belly” in the leading edge which just means more rounded. Since the toe height of the shape has not changed from the MG3, TaylorMade does state that the changes might make the wedges appear slightly larger at address this time around.
The largest tech story with the Milled Grind 4 can be seen on the face. Using a new “Laser Face Treatment”, TaylorMade has laser milled in tiny channels at angles between and around the grooves. These operate as you would expect, much like the smaller treads on a tire that surround the larger ones, to give any type of moisture a place to go. The reasoning here is keeping the spin rate as close to “normal” conditions as possible, making for more predictable performance with or without moisture.
Also returning is a very underrated and simplified bounce/grind setup, though there are a few new ones thrown into the mix. The base options are once again the LB (Low Bounce) which is a C-Grind, the SB (Standard Bounce), and HB (High Bounce) wide grind.
New to the arsenal, however, are the LBV (Low Bounce Versatility) which is a narrow V-Grind, the SBC (Standard Bounce C) that is a super subtle C-Grind, and HBW (High Bounce Wide) which is the widest sole TM has ever created in the Milled Grind series. Also, for those of you wondering, yes, the TW Grind is also back with the TW 56 and TW 60.
The Details
As you can see, TaylorMade has certainly stuck to their roots with the new Milled Grind 4 wedges by continuing to offer a high performance 8620 CS design with all the precision that milling can offer. However, they also have not been afraid to evolve with the times as well as the needs and wants of their Tour staff.
The new Milled Grind 4 wedges will hit retail on 9/8/23 at $179.99 per wedge, with MyMG to follow on the TaylorMade website at $229.99.
