Review: Mizuno S5 wedges

No Blues Around The Green
There is nothing more disappointing than hitting bad wedge shots around the green.   Wedge shots happen usually for 2 reasons; 1.  you bomb a drive and only have a wedge left, 2. you miss you approach shot leaving you a wedge shot to get onto the green.  Either way, if you don’t execute a good wedge shot, your chance for par is unlikely.  If you can improve your short game, you can lower your scores.  The Mizuno S5 Wedges will give you confidence around the greens, they will chase away those bad shot blues.
Obviously one of the selling points of these wedges is the blue finish.  Mizuno does offer the S5 in a satin finish as well, but these ion blue wedges look amazing.  I love the creative look without being too bold or weird.  Since the finish doesn’t really have much to do with hitting good wedge shots; let’s focus on the head shape, sole grind and weighting which really are the keys to making these great wedges.  When you look down at them, they are a fairly rounded head with a good transition from hosel to leading edge.  It is fairly straight which I like for alignment and confidence when the wedge is behind the ball.  I feel confident that I’ll get a clean hit on the ball.

The Mizuno S5 wedges have a forgiving weight across the lower back portion of the head.  It is notched in ways to offer solid feel at impact, but almost like a small cavity with perimeter weighting for forgiveness.  The low and back weight also helps lift the ball cleanly and efficiently from the rough or the fairway for high launching and soft landing shots.

The sole grind is nice across the full spectrum of wedges.  I call it a soft c-grind.  They don’t have crazy heel or toe relief, but enough to allow creative shots from a variety of lie.  I found them really good out of the rough.  They cut into the deep stuff and popped the ball out nicely with only minimal dig.

I went with a 3 wedge set-up in the Mizuno S5 wedges because I needed a gap wedge to go with the Mizuno MP-5 Irons.  I really appreciate the fact that these wedge are available in 50* to fill the gap between a PW and the 54* wedge.  I was able to have a solid 110 yard club in the bag.  It was mostly a fairway club, but even if I needed to approach from the rough, this wedge hits the ball a very accurate distance.  The 54* wedge I use basically as another gap wedge, usually around that 100 yard range in the fairway or 90 yards out of the rough.  It too worked great in hitting the distance I wanted.  Sometimes I also use this club for roll-out chips around the green.  It pops the ball up quickly, but offers more roll and less spin issues than the 58* wedge.  The 58* wedge is virtually everything inside of 85 yards.  I use it out of the green-side bunkers, I use it to pitch, chip and lob anytime I don’t hit the green.  I’m impressed by the versatility of this club.  I hit some amazing flops over the bunkers to tight pins.  It digs into the sand nicely for accurate bunker shots too.

Flightscope X2 Launch Monitor

Mizuno S5 58* Wedge

    • Spin: 9855 rpms
    • Launch Angle: 53.9*
    • Dispersion: 2.8 yds
    • Club Head Speed: 77.1 mph
    • Ball Speed: 78.2 mph
    • Total Distance:  86.3 yds
    • Carry Distance:  80.6 yds

The Mizuno S5 Wedges have so many things going for them and the “cherry on top” is the feel.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that these wedge feel great.  #NothingFeelsLikeAMizuno is so true.  The Grain Flow forging is as soft as anything.  The soft feel and sharp grooves give real bite and control to these wedges.  They spin the ball nicely as you can feel it compress on the face.  I felt like I could control the spin off the face of these wedges.

Mizuno makes great irons.  They’ve also make great wedges.  The S5 wedges are a perfect compliment to the MP-5 irons.  I think they’d actuall work well with just about any of the new irons sets.  Dial in your loft needs and decide of the awesome blue finish is for you.  I think you will be happy with these around the greens.  They offer great fell, easy to hit head and sole, and spin the ball nicely with control.  You don’t have to worry about the blues in your short game with these wedges in the bag.

For more information: www.mizunousa.com/Golf

Quick Hits:
+Good headshape
+Amazing forged feel
+Nice spin
+Easy to control
+Cool blue finish
+Multiple loft options