Tiger switches to new 56-degree wedge

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Since 2018, Tiger Woods has been using TaylorMade Milled Grind 56- and 60-degree wedges made to his specifications – specs that have been largely unchanged for the last two decades.

He still prefers his custom sole grind that has leading-edge and trailing-edge relief, but he’s found the Milled Grind technology to be helpful since putting the wedges in play in 2018. As Woods recently told PGATOUR.COM regarding the Milled Grind wedges, the manufacturing process that the wedges undergo allows him to change wedges more often because each wedge is “identical,” according to Woods.

Although he continues to use a 60-degree Milled Grind wedge, Woods put a new 56-degree wedge in play at the 2019 Open Championship. The new sand wedge is a custom version of TaylorMade’s new Milled Grind 2 prototype wedges, which PGATOUR.COM spotted at the 3M Open.

The Milled Grind 2 wedges have yet to be officially launched to the public, but while we await word from TaylorMade regarding further information about the Milled Grind 2 wedges, let’s analyze the in-hand photos of Woods’ new wedge taken by PGATOUR.COM on the range at the 2019 NORTHERN TRUST on Tuesday.

Like Woods’ old 56-degree Milled Grind wedge, his new 56-degree Milled Grind 2 wedge has 12 degrees of bounce, and it has his familiar sole grind with leading edge and trailing edge relief. This design allows Woods to hit open-faced and closed-faced shots with greater ease.

As we can also see, the back of Woods’ Milled Grind 2 wedge has a chrome finish, while his face is showing rust; this means the face of his wedge is raw, or unfinished. For comparison, the entirety of Woods’ old Milled Grind wedge was raw, not just its face. It should be noted that the other Milled Grind 2 wedges we’ve spotted also have raw faces, but Woods’ wedge already has significant rusting.

Like Woods’ old Milled Grind wedge, his new Milled Grind 2 wedge is equipped with a True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft and a Golf Pride Tour Velvet grip.