Devil Ball Proving Ground: Miura wedges
Welcome to Devil Ball's Proving Ground, where we put the latest golf gear through its paces. Today we look at the Miura wedges.
Tester — Shane Bacon — Handicap: +1.0
Target Golf Audience — All golfers
Initial thoughts
Your first moment with a set of Miura golf clubs is much like a first experience with an iPhone. You've heard about them, you may have even seem them in another bag, but when you hold them in your hands for the first time, you know you are touching something revolutionary.
If you don't know about Miura, you don't really know about exceptionally made golf clubs. Katsuhiro Miura and his sons, Yoshitaka and Shinei, make these golf clubs out of a factory in Himeji, Japan, and the clubs are known around the world as some of the best golf clubs out there.
As for the Miura wedges, the first look is simply one of beauty. The golf clubs are beautiful, in every sense of the word. They're simple, clean, and the mild steel dulls the shine just enough to keep the glare out of your eyes when you're playing golf in the sunshine.
There are a lot of golf companies that make good, solid wedges, but as for sheer beauty, these wedges take the cake.
On-Course Thoughts
Of course, a golf club can be as beautiful as a swimsuit model and not perform, so taking the Miura wedges out on the course was my first step to falling in love.
Miura uses something they call "spin welding" to make sure that all the golf clubs are as consistent through the set as they can be, which definitely matters for someone buying two or three of these wedges to compliment their set of clubs.
While we spend plenty of time talking about new drivers and hot putters, wedges are as important to a golfer as anything else. So many times I'll see golfers with the newest driver and a shiny set of 2014 irons sitting in the same bag as a groove-less wedge they've had since high school.
How much technology goes in to the simple idea of a wedge when discussing Muira? Check out this paragraph from their website explaining the clubs:
"Miura's forging techniques rearrange the molecular structure of the mild steel in a pattern that is uniform throughout the hitting area of the club in a manner that is unique to his clubs. This tightness in the grain structure of the metal is what gives Miura made clubs the controlled, soft feel that other manufacturers cannot achieve."
Rearranging molecules?! Tightness in the grain?! This is seriously advanced stuff, and is the reason these wedges perform like nothing else on the market.
I love taking these out, and was really impressed with how soft they were around the greens, especially when I found myself in a sketchy lie. So many times golfers can slam down on a ball when it sits in the rough near the green, sending it shooting over the green for another chip and a pending double-bogey. The way these wedges cut through the rough made it easier to put the middle of the club on the back of the ball, and helped get the ball around the hole, meaning even a missed putt is still just a bogey.
Final Verdict
The Miura wedges aren't popular with tour pros for no reason. The clubs look great, which will draw you to them initially, but they perform as good as anything you'll find on the market.
I love them, and have recommended them to multiple people that have asked or picked them up out of my bag when out at the driving range. Chipping with them actually makes you excited to practice your short game (shocker!), which means you'll quickly drop a shot or two just by putting in a little bit more work.
