Equipment
Bridgestone J15 Forged Wedges
Bridgestone’s new J15 Forged wedges are designed to increase spin, versatility and durability using three main technologies — a Sure Contact Sole, Pro Groove Design and Durable Heat Treatment.
The Sure Contact Sole has increased heel relief, which allows golfers to play shots from various lies with both a square and open face. A number of companies achieve a similar effect by hand-grinding the soles, but Bridgestone implements its heel relief into the forging process to better ensure a quality grind on each wedge.
For moree spin, Bridgestone’s has added its Pro Groove design, which increases the area of each groove. The grooves are said to help channel dirt, water and debris away from the face for more consistent contact.
Durability is always a concern for wedges because of their frequent use. To offset that, Bridgestone heat-treats each wedge to give them a longer life.
Bridgestone J15 wedges will be available with black oxide and satin finishes in lofts of 50, 52, 54, 56, 58 and 60 degrees. They hit retail on Feb. 1, 2015 and will cost $119 each.
Left-handed versions (52 and 58 degrees) are only available in the black oxide finish on April 1, 2015.
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Equipment
Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage
Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.
It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.
When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”
“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”
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According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.
Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:
“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.
“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.
“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.
“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.
“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”
So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.
His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.
See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here
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It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.
We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.
From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.
“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.
TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°
TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 RBC Heritage
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- Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-TW11)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0
Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord
Ball: TaylorMade TP5x
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Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)
Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here. Driver: TaylorMade...
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At the 2022 RBC Heritage Jordan Spieth defeated Patrick Cantlay on the first playoff hole after nearly holing his greenside...
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Ludvig Åberg what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Titleist TSR2 (9 degrees, D4 SureFit setting)...
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Ray
Mar 21, 2015 at 11:50 am
Excellent looking wedges, they have a great forged feel and I really like the design. I have the 54 and 60 chrome wedges and my only comment is they come about 1/2 inch longer so I cut them back to 35.25″ and 35″ respectively and now, they are perfect. Quality offering from Bridgestone.
That guy
Jan 18, 2015 at 1:10 am
Good looking wedge but the grooved grinds will just collect dirt. Everything Bridgestone makes is top notch. Hit their cb’s and mb’s, you will feel the quality immediately.
marcel
Jan 19, 2015 at 5:13 pm
absolutely – can wait to wear my j40s down to get these babies
Steve
Jan 17, 2015 at 9:20 am
A lot of competition in this type of designed wedge. For me I will buy the best priced one, I am not good enough to know any better. Any quality wedge in this design/look is fine by me.
Golfraven
Jan 17, 2015 at 5:38 pm
honestly, don’t decide on price. Any golfer can sense the difference between a good performing and eye pleasing club. If you decide on price you just cheat on yourself. money you saved will not stay in your pocket. Ok dont go out there and spend money in high end stuff if you are not absolutely love that stuff – otherwise choose wisely
christian
Jan 17, 2015 at 4:25 am
Great looking wedges, shades of Tourstage in the shape and “serious” looking graphics and finish.
adam
Jan 17, 2015 at 12:39 am
I’m a righty but I have to say based on all of the recent club announcements that lefties get screwed. I am not familiar with production on these things but have wondered why they don’t make the same options available but require direct order from manufacturer.
Tom Duckworth
Jan 16, 2015 at 8:20 pm
They look great. The long groove across the back reminds me of Mizuno’s wedges. In fact they look very much like Mizuno wedges. Not a bad thing. I would like to see Bridgestone do well with these. They make very nice clubs across the board irons, drivers and fairway clubs. They and Wilson should be getting a bigger market share. I hope more golfers open up and take a look at them. I will try these out.
Golfraven
Jan 16, 2015 at 4:49 pm
Bridgestone came out with some beauties. Entire J15 line ist just gorgeous. black oxide finish is looking really nice but wonder how those will wear out. maybe I may replace my vokey LW with one of those. Forged sounds promising. Way to go. Titleist should come up with some awesome 916 line otherwise they will loose out to Bridgestone fairly soon.
Jim
Jan 16, 2015 at 2:09 pm
I wonder how they will hold up against Vokey wedges. They look really good and stand out against the competition is a very good way too. Love the grooved ‘grinds’ too.