If you ask golf pros what’s the ultimate secret in their short game, the answer will invariably be: spin baby, let’s get spinning. All jokes aside, the new T20 wedges from the Japanese manufacturer Mizuno are built to deliver ultimate spin and control, as they’re engineered using state of the art materials and the company’s decade’s old experience to help you achieve that last ounce of performance gain we all seek in our premium golf gear. Because, after all’s said and done, that’s why we buy new gear season after season, right?

Enter the new Mizuno T20 wedge, and, as they used to say back in the day, beautiful design is the logical consequence of good engineering; just take a look at this beautiful wedge and you’ll understand that Mizuno really hit the nail on its head with this baby, even if it took them a few years to create a new teardrop (T) wedge, but they have good reasons for making us wait for so long.

To give you a little bit of context, Mizuno stealthily realigned the product cycles of their iconic MP and JPX lines, just before they introduced the JPX9000 series. A few years ago, if memory serves, people started asking themselves if Mizuno will ever make MP irons again, as the company really messed up their MP line, but let that go.

The new T20 wedges come with Mizuno’s signature Grain Flow Forged HD technology, i.e. they’re built using the same manufacturing (forging) process proven in the company’s new irons, which is aimed at increasing the density of the metal in the club head, for an improved solid feel. The wedge is crafted from mild carbon steel (a 1025e variety) with added boron into the mix, 3 ppm respectively, or three parts per million, i.e. a trace amount of boron, but that minute addition of boron actually increases the strength of the steel by a whopping thirty percent, which results in improved groove life, yet the company claims it doesn’t affect the feel at all.

Just like the previous wedges (the T and S if you don’t remember), the T20 features Mizuno’s patented Variable Width & Depth Quad Cut Grooves, and to make a long and complex story short and sweet, that means the grooves vary in shape based on the loft of the club. To be more precise, higher lofted wedges are wider and shallower, whilst lower lofted wedges are more narrow and deeper, for improved spin consistency at lower speeds. And finally, the new T20 are crafted with the awesome Teardrop profile from address, which will definitely make the fans happy.

What’s new in the T20 wedges is an extreme center of gravity, courtesy of Mizuno’s R&D team, which increases the vertical moment of inertia by relocating the center of gravity; by doing so, the T20 benefits from more flow and a modified sweet spot height, with the end result being that you can modify the spin and launch very precisely for each loft. The new design is all about gear effect, i.e. the higher you hit above the center of gravity, the less spin you’ll get, and vice versa: the lower you hit the ball (or closer to the center of gravity), the more spin you’ll get. Another novelty in the T20 wedges is the Hydroflow Micro Grooves technology, which is aimed at making the wedges compliant with the rules of golf. The engineers at Mizuno used a technology borrowed from the tire industry, which is common in high performance tires, instead of going for laser etching, which is the industry standard in wedge-world. To make it real simple, the T20 wedges feature a directional thread that is perpendicular (instead of parallel) to the grooves and parallel to the direction the ball moves up the club’s face to take moisture away.

That was a smart move, as the new directional thread innovation is scientifically proven to provide you with increased spin especially in the wet, up to 1200 RPM actually, when speaking of 60-yard shots, and yes, that’s a very precise number, as expected from a Japanese company. But it’s not only increased spin, as you’ll also benefit from more friction, which translates into better control on launch angle. Finally, the new T20 wedges are available in a RAW finish, a nice design touch that will make many people happy, as well as Mizuno’s signature blue ion and the classic chrome. We have only one question for Mizuno’s R&D team: how can you claim that boron doesn’t affect feel?