|
Share this article:
Digg |
StumbleUpon |
del.icio.us |
Reddit
A little allure and mystery can be a great thing. Sometimes, it creates a legend. So often when you hear the name Miura Golf, you get a lot of different questions about everything from which tour players Mr. Miura has “secretly” forged irons for, to what makes their production techniques unique to Miura golf, along with a handful of other very pertinent questions.
As a golf consumer, a product can be “talked up” a lot, but you really don’t know if the hype meets reality until the club is in your hands, and you can actually feel and hear the sensations that make the product what it is. Miura has always been a bit of a mystery to me as well. I had a set of MacGregor irons that were supposedly forged by Miura, and they felt fantastic. Ultimately, they didn’t fit the conditions I typically see and they had to go. So my first “confirmed” foray into the Miura brand was the recently released 1957 series forged wedge. Could Mr. Miura, the “Hands of God” create a wedge to help my short game?
I was put in contact with James Harrington at James Patrick Golf (http://www.jamespatrickgolf.com/). James is a certified Miura dealer and wedge guru extraordinaire. I had seen the insanely beautiful wedges he has hand ground and done custom work on, and was really excited about the process. Everything from new finishes, grooves, stamping, tungsten weights, custom grinds, James seems to be able to do it all, and in an artful and striking way.
Sadly, the product we had to work with was purely stock for this review, but I bounced my thoughts about what I needed from a wedge off of James. I explained that I can tend to have “hands of stone” around the green, and especially from sand. Specifically, I needed a wedge I could open up if I short-sided myself near the green, or for ample height for bunker shots. Up here in the Midwest, we tend to have softer turf conditions, so adequate bounce was needed to prevent digging, (the problem I had with those MacGregor irons and their sharp lead edge.) The club James ended up building for me was the 1957 Series C grind wedge with 59 degrees of loft. I play Project X 6.5 shafts in my irons, and we went with the 6.0 for a little softer feel, finished off with a red and black multicompound grip. It is beautifully assembled and I was really excited to get it into play.
I tend to gravitate toward darker finishes or oil quenched wedges to fight off glare. The 1957 series is a beautiful satin finish that does an excellent job of staving off reflection. The “C” grind is a very mild grind. The heel and toe are not relieved too terribly much. This is said to lend the grind to ample versatility while not being too punitive for a large segment of golfers. 59 degrees is just a tad more loft than I usually feel comfortable with (58 being my most lofted wedge usually.) I gave up on 60 degrees some time ago due to the “oops” factor and one too many skulled shots seeking ankles on the other side of the green. This made me a little nervous, but I had faith that the ample bounce (15 degrees) would prevent me from “fatting” too many from the fairway, be forgiving from the sand, and that the “C’ grind would lend the versatility to finally be able to pull off some decent flop shots.
I started out pre-round just getting used to the 1957 C grind around the practice green. I was really surprised how easily I could open it up and sweep it under the ball even on tighter lies. The “check” around the greens was noticeable, but not really overly aggressive. One shot I tend to struggle with is that 30 yard shot where you need some height. With the practice area to myself, I was able to practice that shot and started to feel comfortable with it. So far, so good.
My first few rounds with the Miura were during a light rain. Conditions were mushy as could be and there was enough water in the grass to lessen spin some. I noticed that the ball slid up the face pretty easily in these wet conditions. Shot heights were nice and high, which I wanted, and the approaches I hit from around 80 yards and in found the green each time and rolled out just a couple yards. The spin was adequate, and I could predict how much roll out I would see for the most part. The grooves have a fair amount of volume to them, and move a lot of cabbage without much visible scuffing to the ball’s cover.
My sand game had been horrible this year. A recent practice session finally straightened it out (thankfully.) Before that, I had not practiced my sand game much and sure enough I found myself in a greenside bunker on a long par 3 my first round out with the Miura. Well, it wasn’t the prettiest, highest shot, but I splashed it out and right into the cup for a birdie! Since getting some more time to practice my sand shots, the Miura has proven to be easy to elevate the ball out of the sand. It really makes that nice “thump” sound that you’re supposed to hear blasting out of sand. The higher bounce has also prevented me from digging into the sand too much and keeps my swing momentum going.
Another shot that comes to mind was when I over-shot a green on a links style course and ended up in some knee-high fescue with not much room between me and the elevated green surface. It was definitely a “hit and hope” moment. I opened the face, swung hard, and the ball came out nice and high, landed on the fringe, and sure enough, tracked about 8 feet right into the cup! My experiences with this wedge have been very good, and I dread having to take it out of the bag now when having to test other gear. It also makes me want to round out the Miura wedge experience with some complementary lofts, as I typically play a matched set and this club has left me wanting more.
Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the feel of a Miura club. The balance of the 1957 wedge in my hands is noticeable. It feels light, despite my D8 swingweight, and I feel I can make an aggressive move at the ball with it. The feel off the face is soft, never mushy, and almost feels as though the face “envelops” the ball. After playing cast wedges, the difference is quite noticeable. The sound is very crisp yet muted, and really adds to that “enveloping” perception. The finish seems to be holding up well, and I expect it will last several seasons.
My intent in reviewing the Miura Golf 1957 series wedge was to actually take away a little of the “mystery” surrounding the brand. What I found is a product that lives up to the hype with respect to the signature Miura “feel” their forging process is designed to create. The grind of the “C” grind was able to provide creativity and made the ample bounce not feel cumbersome at all and still provide that “safety net” I needed given my swing and turf conditions I typically play. The effective bounce, in other words, seems like it is much less. Now that I have straightened out my sand game, the Miura is providing nice high sand shots that check a bit and then release. Just what I was hoping for! The “hands of God,” which Mr. Miura has been dubbed, was able to create a wedge that could counteract my “hands of stone.” Miura is a little less of a mystery to me now, and thankfully, so are bunkers and extricating myself from them!
Michael White is an independent equipment reviewer for GolfDiscussions.com
|
.jpg)