It’s a testament to TaylorMade’s insane devotion to innovation that just about every TM-related equipment review starts like this: “Not long after the release of their last technology-packed golf club, TaylorMade is back with another highly-touted line.” This time it’s wedges.
After success for a few years marketing the groove design in their wedges (Y-cutter grooves, Z-grooves), TaylorMade came out with the world’s first wedge with a replaceable sole, the xFT. It was a solid wedge on a number of levels, but not exactly on the Cleveland or Vokey echelon. This year they’ve gone away from the replaceable route, instead opting for a radical sole design.
Bounce is the name of the game when it comes to wedges. It’s invaluable in sand shots, and the most consistent short game shots are those that utilize bounce. But instead of offering copious options (like Vokey), or an extensive fitting system (like Edel), TaylorMade has gone for a one-size-fits-all approach.
Does the uniform system benefit the most golfers, or is TaylorMade leaving something on the table when it comes to individuality? Read on to find out.
Technology and Design
Utilized correctly, bounce is your best friend when it comes to shots around the green. Simply put, the bounce of a club is the degree of the acute angle made between horizontal and the sole. The bounce prevents the club from digging into the sand or the turf, and using the bounce correctly exponentially increases the forgiveness of a pitch shot.
Despite its importance, you will not find the bounce angle anywhere on a TaylorMade ATV wedge. You also won’t find a designation like “digger-slider” to differentiate a high-bounce wedge from a low-bounce wedge. That’s because every single TaylorMade ATV wedge is the same exact shape.
TaylorMade’s rationale is simple. They believe that different shots around the green require different amounts of bounce, but that the way you hold the club is adjustment enough if the club is designed correctly.
Hence the name, which stands for “All-Terrain Versatility.”
The way that this club adjusts to different shots is three-fold. First, the sole is wider than on most wedges. While the actual bounce might not be all that high (TaylorMade has been extremely tight-lipped on the subject), the width of the sole means that it extends a bit farther into the turf than a normal wedge of the same bounce (much more on this later). Second, there is a convex section of the sole that hides the bounce when you don’t want to use it. And third, TaylorMade provides ample heel and toe relief to let you hit shots with the face open and closed.
After the sole design, TaylorMade’s next innovation is the face, specifically the grooves.
Though they haven’t quite returned to pre-2010 spin levels, TaylorMade says that these new grooves (which remain nameless so far) produce almost as much spin as their Z-grooves, which no longer conform. TaylorMade has also incorporated a micro-texture etching.
Esthetics
The first thing you notice about the ATV wedges is that they’re anything but traditional. In addition to the radical sole design, TaylorMade has decided to jazz up the wedges, to about the extent you can jazz up a blade golf club.
The head itself uses two tones of grey. A darker color is utilized on the hosel, the sole, and underneath the notch of the sole that hangs down, while a lighter grey is used everywhere else – the rear of the club and the face.
The hosel and face designs themselves are relatively muted, but the back of the club has seen some attention. TaylorMade’s logo adorns the toe of the back of the blade, and bisecting it are two racing stripes, one black and one red.
All of my wedges in the past have been pretty tame in appearance, as are most on the market, but I can’t fault TaylorMade for wanting these to stand out a bit. If I could take an eraser to the stripes and remove them cleanly I probably would, but they’re invisible at impact and at the very least make these wedges easier to see in your bag.
Unlike some wedges, TaylorMade has kept the sole of this club relatively clean. No “running bird” or “Cleveland” script to dig dirt out of for you OCD club cleaners, the only engraving on the sole at all is a simple degree value.
At address I did have one gripe. The leading edge on these clubs is rounded, much more like a Cleveland than the straighter look of, say, a Vokey. Just from a confidence standpoint I’ve never been a fan of the rounded look.
Performance
We come now to performance, the most important part of the review, and the aspect I’m going to tackle first is the main selling point of this club: the sole.
TaylorMade has been intentionally vague regarding the sole of this golf club. Not only do they not stamp the bounce number on the hosel, you won’t find it anywhere on the golf club, or on the bar code label, or even on TaylorMade’s website. They’re theory is that not only does one level of bounce fit everyone, this one sole can work for any shot you’re looking to hit.
I should start off by describing what they were going for here.
Bounce is your friend. Most people could do with more bounce on their wedges, especially high-lofted clubs. High bounce/low bounce is a virtual wash on bladed or thin shots, but on shots just even just a fraction heavy, the amount of bounce on your club could be the difference between hearing “you’re still away” and “why don’t you tap that one in.” Not only does bounce prevent the blade from digging in, it allows the club to glide along the ground, providing extra margin for error.
Alas, as TaylorMade has shown us, not all bounce is equal.
When you open up the face of any club, you effectively add more bounce, which is the primary reason you’re always told to open the face of your wedge on a greenside bunker shot. And while opening the blade of the TaylorMade ATV wedge the same amount as, say, my old Mizuno MP-R wedge exposes the same additional degrees of bounce, because the sole of the TaylorMade is so much thicker, it performs like the bounce is much higher.
Simply said, holding the loft, bounce, and amount the face is opened constant between these two clubs, there is much more mass below the leading edge of the TaylorMade because the sole is so much wider. To put it in even simpler terms, the wide-soled TaylorMade juts into the ground more.
I carry two wedges in my bag (aside from my pitching wedge), a sand wedge and a lob wedge. The sand wedge is either 54 or 56 degrees (the one TaylorMade sent me was 56, my old Vokey is 54), and its (ahem) sole purpose is to hit 100-yard shots. It’s simply another club to me, it fills a yardage gap.
The lob wedge, on the other hand, is my go-to club for every shot under about 85 yards. I hit full shots with it, pitches, chips, flop shots, sand shots, everything. I like the club to be versatile, but since I use it out of the sand (I like the extra height it gives me versus my sand wedge), I need something with enough bounce to prevent me from digging in. The relatively high amount of bounce allows me to do things I couldn’t otherwise do, and it doesn’t prevent me from doing things I want to do.
If you’re not utilizing the bounce on most of your short game shots, you’re probably not getting the most out of your abilities. Was there a break-in period with these wedge? Of course. I had to tell myself to intentionally aim slightly behind the golf ball, and I saw good results with a more shallow pitching motion. This, in addition to the bounce, allowed the club to glide along the ground, and I had much more room for error.
I hit shots using the sole of this TaylorMade I’ve never hit before.
I could swing just about as hard as I wanted while still getting the ball to just pop up in the air nicely, because I didn’t have to worry about chunking it. The ease of which I could slide the thick sole of the ATV wedges under the ball was pretty amazing.
There is a learning curve, that’s for certain. If you still believe Phil Mickelson hinges-and-holds (he doesn’t) and you’re determined to do that (good luck), well, these probably aren’t for you. But if you’re willing to make the short game less exacting, less demanding of perfect timing, the ATV wedges should perform admirably in pitch shots, flop shots, sand shots, and chips.
On full wedge shots they performed just like you would hope and expect them to. The ATV wedges have a nice weight to them, and sole performs admirably on full shots.
My biggest gripe is that they didn’t just add degrees of bounce rather than increasing the sole width. The ATV wedges provides a bit of chunk-resistance when the blade is square (slightly more than a normal wedge), but the extra help only really kicks in when you open the blade.
If they just added degrees of bounce you would get the benefit on all shots, truly reaching the versatility TaylorMade was going for.
There are other features of these wedges that aren’t so great. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t like the rounded look of the sole. For some reason it screams “skull this ball over the green and into the woods!” at my brain, and it remains a bit of a sticking point for me. I’m sure some people love the look, it’s just not for me.
OEMs have had several years now to adapt to the not-so-new-anymore groove rule, and though some of them are touting grooves that are nearing pre-2010 levels (including TaylorMade), I haven’t found a wedge yet that replicates that level of spin. The grooves on the TaylorMade ATV wedges seem about average compared to what’s on the market today. Maybe slightly above average, but certainly not the best.
The ATV wedges are cast out of 304 stainless steel, and feel just fine, but it’s not the softest club I’ve ever felt around the greens.
I wouldn’t call it “harsh” by any means, but it’s well short of “soft.”
Specifications
I generally get rid of the stock grips pretty fast (except for those on the Adams Fast 12 wood and CB3 irons I reviewed earlier this year, which had pretty great stock grips) when I buy a new club, but TaylorMade actually put some thought into the ones on these wedges, so I kept them on for the duration of this review. They’re pretty simple, basically the design from Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet, but they’re over an inch longer than most grips. If you need to get fancy with a shot around the greens, you have a bit more real estate before your hands are on the steel. They also have two circles down near the shaft, for consistent choking-up.
The steel in the ATV wedges is a KBS Wedge shaft, a derivative of one of my favorites on the market today, the KBS Tour. It’s an incredibly stable shaft, stiff but not boardy. It never surprises me, which is, in my opinion, the best thing you can say about a shaft.
It will flex just a bit when you really need to load it and squeeze out five extra yards, but at no point was it whippy. The weight is well balanced and fits nicely with the ATV’s headweight.
Loft Length Lie Swing Weight Head ---- ------ --- ------------ ----- 50 35.5" 64° D3 R 52 35.5" 64° D3 R,L 54 35.25" 64° D4 R 56 35.25" 64° D4 R,L 58 35" 64° D5 R 60 35" 64° D5 R,L 64 35" 64° D5 R
Conclusion
These wedges have met some backlash from the golfing community (as much as a TaylorMade wedge could get, really), but from where I stand, it’s somewhat undeserved. If you use a Vokey 60-degree with four degrees of bounce, and you continue to struggle with shots around the green, your wedges are not helping you. Four degrees on a wedge is practically suicidal, and only really aids you in hitting one sort of shot.
TaylorMade’s ATV wedges aren’t the perfect wedge, far from it. I wish they’d have gone about the bounce issue a bit differently, the grooves aren’t great, and I don’t like the shape of the leading edge. But they’ve earned a spot in my bag because they take the chunked shot almost completely out of play, and perform admirably from all sorts of spots around the greens.
If you’re in the market for new wedges, you owe it to yourself, for the simple sake of making this stupid game easier, to take a look at your short game, and to take a look at the ATV wedges.
2013 Wedges Test
Even with the wide sole you can still open it up because of the large amount of heel relief in the sole, making it both versatile and forgiving from tight lies. Some testers struggled to get high levels of spin while others felt the leading edge was too rounded. Everyone enjoyed the headshape, classic and the chrome finish is classy.
This scored the same overall mark as the bronze award winners when rounded, but the actual score meant it just missed out.
Ratings (out of 10):
Spin/Launch: 6983rpm/28º (Fairway) 2150rpm/36º (Rough) Looks: 8 Feel: 8 Versatility: 8 Control: 8
2012 Review
Tested by Jon Greathead, 9 hcp.
TaylorMade products tend to make headlines, whether it be their colour, their name or simply their performance. So it’s no surprise that there’s a story behind the ATV wedges. TM’s Carlsbad equipment gurus say that wedges have traditionally been designed to deliver certain types of shots, meaning there were always compromises.
But the firm claims the new ATV has a unique sole design that changes the
amount of bounce for different shots, meaning optimal performance from a variety of lies and surfaces.
I was intrigued to test the new product, especially as my trusty TaylorMade xFT wedges were looking slightly battered.
In terms of feel, I actually thought the old and new were quite similar, but the big difference did come with the different lies.
From the fairway on full shots, it sat nicely behind the ball and offered lots of stopping power on the green – but this also translated to tight lies around the green too. The grooves on my old wedges had worn, but I was still surprised by the lower ball flight off the face of the ATV.
It was also good from the rough – ultimately, weekend hackers such as myself can’t expect Luke Donald-esque control from the shaggy stuff, but the ATV certainly didn’t let itself down.
But perhaps the biggest feather in the cap comes in the confidence stakes – I’ve got a tendency to thin a wedge like no other man on the planet, but the overall appearance, shape and address position of the ATV made me feel far happier with my short game.
Given a bit more time, this wedge will become a mainstay in my bag and if you’re on the hunt for a new one, take a closer look at this because at £89 it offers excellent value for money.
The final thing to consider is that the face isn’t exchangeable, unlike the xFT. We liked the concept in the previous model, but there was always a nagging doubt that we hadn’t tightened the screw properly!
The TaylorMade ATV wedge has a unique sole design that changes the amount of bounce for different shots, meaning optimal performance from a variety of lies and surfaces.
Contact: www.taylotmadegolf.eu
Contents
Interested in an ATV plow? Thinking of tilling the soil yourself? Now we will consider the main components and device of the plow, as well as whether it is possible to make a plow for an ATV in the garage with your own hands.
Residents of various quad rides! A variety of trips on these cars, of course, bring a lot of joy and adrenaline, somehow diversify your life.
But you need to think about others. Let's take a little break from mental satisfaction and bring a little benefit to ourselves and help our families by using ATVs for agricultural purposes.
After all, a quadric is able to work miracles on any surface and even on soft ground. I suggest you that an ATV can easily handle the plowing of your garden in a small amount of time by putting an ATV plow on it .
Many dachas have areas where tractors, in principle, cannot pass, or it is simply inconvenient for them to turn around there, to make some maneuvers. So the ATV in such cases has a colossal superiority over the tractor, having the ability to maneuver in difficult situations.
Just think how much time and effort you spend in the spring in your gardens to cultivate the soil. Believe me, the ATV will cope with the task of plowing one hundred percent. Quadr in its concept is universal and has proven itself in the agricultural industry for many years on the good side, and is an indispensable assistant for farmers.
After all, he is able to replace a whole platoon of various agricultural equipment, with the use of the necessary accessories of course.
So, an ATV plow is a device that includes, first of all, a wedge that cuts the soil, a plowshare, a blade and a working surface. The design of the plow is a system of parts correctly matched to each other in order to perform all the functions of proper tillage. Let's analyze the purpose of each individual element, for the most complete representation of the entire process.
Wedge
Simple alpha wedge - under its action, the so-called deformation of the soil occurs, depending on the structure of the soil itself and the angle alpha α (located in Figure 1).
Dihedral wedge - gamma Fig.2 - together with the alpha angle, the wedge separates the captured layer from the bottom, lifting it, while compressing it in the vertical plane and splitting it into many separate parts.
Note that the larger the alpha angle, the more the formation crumbles. But look, do not go too far, if the angle is increased to 45 degrees, the earth will not slip and will gather in front of the wedge. So the gamma angle is located vertically and separates the wall of the furrow from the formation itself, while taking the earth aside.
Dihedral wedge - beta Fig.3 - deflects the formation in the desired direction and turns it over.
And so, as a result of connecting all three wedges, such a picture should be obtained (triangular wedge Fig. 4). All this is needed to turn the reservoir from the horizon to an inclined position by changing the angle from 25 to 130 degrees.
Small output : when the wedge moves along the X axis, the rib AB cuts the layer, separating it from the bottom, the rib BM from the wall, the ABM removes, crumbles and turns the layer.
Further, to ensure complete plowing, the wedge is, as it were, built up, and it is transformed into a so-called plowshare.
Share - in turn, is a moldboard, curved surface. The recently listed alpha, beta, and gamma angles are constantly changing in this surface.
Let's take into account that the plow's organs, namely the workers, are the ploughshare, as we have already dismantled, consisting of a wedge and a plate extending it; blade wrapping the layer; a support board that serves as a limiter for the depth of plowing, which rests against the bottom of the furrow freed from the ground. These three listed parts and plus a rack for attaching them together make up the plow body.
In conclusion, about the above, we can draw a definite conclusion : from the first drawing to the last, a certain process of earth movement occurs - this body cuts off the layer, lifts, wraps, crumbles the earth and throws it into the previously freed open furrow. Fig.6
There are quite a lot of people - farmers who prefer to design a plow for an ATV in the garage with their own hands.
Why not, because this is a serious money saving, in our time the price of a plow can be about thirty-five or even forty thousand. Well, of course, branded factory plows will differ from home-made plows, clearly everything in size can be done by yourself, but this design requires it. But for plowing your gardens, even such a plow is enough for your eyes.
And so let's consider a homemade plow for an ATV made by yourself.
Some plow developers, meaning at home, are trying to copy the design from a tractor plow or even from a horse plow. And you know, not everyone succeeds, not because laziness defeats their bonded mind, but only for a constructive reason, when developing, you need to clearly preserve the geometry of the hull.
Its formation comes from the considerations that when the earth is raised 20-25 centimeters high, the plow experiences quite large loads, and the surface, by the way, also feels significant friction, so we start from the thickness of the working parts of about 3-5 mm.
The share must be removable so that it can be removed for sharpening. It is made of 9XC alloy steel, a circular disc is suitable. You can also use steel 45 hardness HRC 50-55.
Consider the option of manufacturing a blade from sheet steel.
If you have bending rolls, we drive through them, cut out the workpiece, at an angle of 20 - 23 degrees, to give a cylindrical surface, then modify it with a hammer.
If rollers are not available, can be made from steel pipe with an approximate diameter of 550 - 600 mm. And the thickness is 4-5 mm .. Before that, we will make a template from cardboard, put it on the pipe and mark it with chalk on the pipe, cut it out with gas welding, grind the errors on a knife. If necessary, finish with a hammer.
Next, we will act according to the saying: "Measure seven times, cut one." First, we will make elements from cardboard, preferably dense, we will draw up a visual layout of the plow, maintaining all angles. If you are satisfied with the layout, let's get to work with the hardware. Let me remind you the angle of alpha and beta from 25 to 130 degrees, gamma from 42 to 50 degrees.
As soon as the finished plow elements are finished, we assemble them. It is advisable to work on a metal sheet so that a flat surface is maintained, also for the convenience of determining and deriving the desired angles.
Attach the blade to the share, a tight connection with the share must be achieved.
Any angle discrepancies are corrected with a hammer. Then the spacer bar is tacked to the base plate and the thrust corners of the plowshare. After we inspect again carefully and weld already in a good way. We tear off the entire structure from the sheet on which the assembly took place.
Assembled
Now it is necessary to achieve self-propelling and keeping the furrow by adapting the two-wheel block
to itDIY ATV plow video
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In addition, we complete the assigned tasks as quickly as possible. Our specialist announces the exact terms of repair immediately after the inspection of the generator.
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We work with many brands and models of this special equipment, providing quality results for our clients in the shortest possible time. No matter what brand of equipment you have, our specialists will skillfully repair the ATV, and carry out the necessary preventive measures.
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