TaylorMade Milled Grind 4 Wedges - Review

While some film sequels are better than the original they follow on from — Top Gun: Maverick was pure cinematic genius and clearly should’ve swept the Oscars last year — most are cringingly awful.

The critically acclaimed Matrix had disappeared up its own source code by the time Matrix: Revolutions mercifully brought the trilogy to an end, while the irritating Zoolander 2 was so bewilderingly unfunny it should’ve been considered a crime against comedy.

The fact is, the longer a franchise is drawn out, the sillier and less relevant it becomes.

No matter how good the original is, few films ever make it to a fourth sequel (although tip of the cap to the Fast & Furious franchise, which has maintained a breathtaking level of bombastic absurdity ever since kicking off in 2001).

Luckily, wedges don’t suffer from the same fate.

Club designers generally steer clear of messing too profoundly with the successful formula of the original, content to let the lineage flow by initiating a slight nip here and a tuck there.

In TaylorMade’s Milled Grind timeline, the newest wedge has always performed slightly better than the one it was replacing.

Did TaylorMade get it right again with the new Milled Grind 4?

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

There was a distinctly premium feel about the Taylormade MG4 wedge but shaping wise, it all looked fairly familiar.

Stylistically, the jump from the MG3 to the MG4 has barely caused a ripple; it’s more of a Botox top-up than the minor rhinoplasty of the MG2-MG3 transition.

The unadventurous upgrade is testimony to the popularity of the MG3 wedge, which has been TaylorMade’s best-selling wedge.

One aspect of the MG4 that did catch my eye was the new raw face and meatier rear flange; less noticeable, however, was a redesigned leading edge (more on that later).

No doubt some potential buyers might be doing a spot-the-difference between the two models.

But standing on its own, the MG4 is a slick-looking wedge.

ON FACE VALUE

My wife reckons I need to get out more but tearing protective plastic off new golf clubs is a particular highlight of my week.

Testing the new Milled Grind 4 wedge offered me double the enjoyment because its raw face meant I got to peel a sticker off too.

There is a certain irony that a face designed to rust is vacuum sealed like an astronaut’s dinner to prevent premature rusting.

But it’s no coincidence the MG4’s raw face is the area that has received the most significant update.

I’m not going to say TaylorMade got it wrong with the raw face in the MG2 and MG3 wedges, but to generate more spin — particularly on shots around the green — TaylorMade experimented with what can best be described as a textural morse code in between the grooves.

The MG2 had a staccato stitching pattern etched into its face that made it look like TaylorMade had run a Janome over it.

In the MG3, TaylorMade inverted that idea by implementing raised ridges in between the grooves — it looked and felt like the face of an acne-afflicted teenager.

Naturally, those excrescences caused some division. But because the spin and performance backed it up, players generally got on board.

Compared to those elaborate efforts, TaylorMade’s Spin Tread Groove pattern in the MG4 wedge largely shrinks into the background.

Etched into the face at a 45° angle, the new grooves-between-the-grooves pattern looks altogether less offensive yet is said to offer a more consistent spread of spin.

The new grooves act much like wiper blades on a windscreen, channelling water off the club face to increase grip at impact in wet weather.

And that means the MG4 should be a more consistent wedge, in any type of weather.

A RAW EXPLANATION

For those who haven’t been paying attention, raw faces rust and oxidise because they are unplated.

The premise is that the absence of plating or a finishing coat means the geometry of the grooves stay truer to the intended design and the face provides maximum grip and spin.

In 2023, wedge designers seem intent on preparing us all for an unplated future as shiny chrome finishes seem to be about as popular as a vegan cheeseburger.

Like TaylorMade, all the major wedge manufacturers offer a raw face option.

However, the MG4 wedge clicks it up a gear.

The Satin Chrome option (the MG4 is also available in a Vader-like Tour matte black) won’t rust but it’s designed to look like it has — sort of like the wedge equivalent of acid-washed denim.

HOW’D IT PERFORM?

One of the things I liked about previous Milled Grind wedges was that they seemed to have a personality.

They all had the classic teardrop shape, not as pronounced as a Vokey, Cleveland, Callaway or Mizuno wedge, but there was a roundness to it that suggested a high degree of open-faced dexterity and acuity.

The MG4 wedge had a similar personality to its predecessors but it felt slightly more punchy.

I tested a 56° and 60° model, both sporting the low bounce grind and Satin Chrome finish, and with it being wintry and damp, it was perfect to see how the Spin Tread Grooves affected spin.

I have to say the MG4 certainly lived up to its reputation as a mudlark in the wet.

There’s always a sense of hesitation when playing wedges out of damp turf or sodden rough.

Spin often degrades to the point where it feels like you’re tiptoeing along wet tiles barefoot.

But I’m happy to report that when the MG4 wedge burst through thick, wet rough, the ball checked up with plenty of spin on the initial bounce.

The MG4 isn’t the most compact or nimble of wedges — Bettinardi’s HLX wedge takes that mantle — but it offered a fairly soft feel off the face, even though it did sometimes sound a little clicky around the greens.

The wet and friable turf didn’t particularly suit the MG4’s low bounce sole, which generally performs better in firmer conditions, but I was determined to give it every chance.

The low bounce grind wasn’t discernibly different from that of the MG3, however with 8° of bounce it was on the upper limit of a low bounce wedge.

TaylorMade suggest input from tour players has delivered the MG4 wedge an “increased belly” (unless we’re talking about Shane Lowry’s Guinness gut, I’m still drawing a blank on that one) but a wedge’s bounce and leading edge are inextricably linked.

The leading edge did have a fraction more roundness, or “belly”, about it.

But I’m not convinced it worked as well in the low bounce grind as it might’ve with TaylorMade’s standard, high or  Tiger sole grind (still waiting on Tiger to send his TW grind to me).

Low bounce wedges are suited to nipping the ball cleanly and I felt the slightly rounded edge diminished some of that sharpness, particularly when playing straight faced chip shots and pitches.

Having said that, the MG4 really started to talk to me when I was trying to spin and control the ball on full shots.

Stopping power on the greens was impressive and playing lower trajectory shots, with the hands well ahead of the ball, were particularly entertaining.

The only unfortunate news was that I didn’t feel quite as comfortable playing bunker shots with the MG4 wedge.

Opening the face provides a different perspective of the leading edge, hosel and topline and whether it was something visual, or the fact I was playing a low bounce wedge out of a bunker, I had a hard time adjusting to the MG4 wedge out of the wet sand.

THE FINAL WORD

How to sum up the Milled Grind 4 wedge?

Well, TaylorMade have basically taken all the best bits from the previous three Milled Grind wedges and combined them with a new raw face to make the MG4.

The Milled Grind wedge range is important for TaylorMade as they push upwards into the premium space and, as a package, the Milled Grind 4 does a fairly remarkable job.

More than any club in the bag — with the exception of a putter — wedges really do have their own character and the MG4 feels like the haughty youngest sibling who just posted the highest ATAR score in the family.

I suspect TaylorMade is going to sell heaps of them.

THE VERDICT

Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror.