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Bridgestone J15 Forged Wedges

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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.

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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.

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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.

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. christian

    Jan 17, 2015 at 4:25 am

    Great looking wedges, shades of Tourstage in the shape and “serious” looking graphics and finish.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

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Whats in the Bag

Christiaan Maas WITB 2026 (June)

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Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100

Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.

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Equipment

TaylorMade MySpider Tour and Tour X: More customizable build options now available

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TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.

The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.

One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.

Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.

See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:

MySpider Tour

MySpider Tour X

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Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

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In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.

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