With Roger Cleveland at the helm, Callaway wedges have steered a steady course to the top of the wedge market.
The last creation was the cast Callaway Mack Daddy 3 Milled wedge and whilst that would be good enough for most golfers, Callaway has gone one step further and create a forged version based on the same head and called it, unsurprisingly, the Mack Daddy Forged.
The shape is the same as before with a rounded look and a relatively high toe and an extra groove at the bottom, which Callaway says should help you line up the face on chips and pitches.
The sole features the same C grind with relief in the heel and toe areas to offer better players the change to open or closed the face and get creative with their shots into and around the greens.
The Mack Daddy Forged comes in a range of 6 lofts from 50° to 60° with only one bounce option per loft, which is unusual, but with the versatility of the C grind sole then skilled players should be able to get all the shots they want.
The bounce felt relatively middle of the range as these things go, as usually Callaway wedges feel like the bounce is greater than the number on the sole.
That could be due to the leading edge being less rounded and a little more square with slightly less offset, which makes it more of a precision tool with a touch less forgiveness.
Many of the top wedges are cast and they all feel pretty good, so that is why there are not so many forged wedges around. This is one of the reasons why I would say these are better player wedges as they will be more likely to notice the feel difference of being forged.
There is a choice of finishes with either the Nickel Chrome or the Brushed Slate below.
The four drill holes are also various depths depending on the loft to align the CG with the impact zone behind the face by taking varying amounts of weight out of the sole. This creates more consistent performance from centre strikes with better feel and results.
This is very in fashion at present and makes a lot of sense so it is good to see Callaway's take on this with the holes we first saw on the Mack Daddy PM Grind. With the blue inserts, they look the business.
Underneath the chrome of the face is a layer of copper, which is there to help feel and if you hit it enough in the same place it will reveal itself as a bronze wear mark, which would also look pretty cool. (If you aren't good enough to create that wear mark, then some steel wool should do the trick too.)
It comes as standard with a True Temper S200 Tour Issue II Dynamic Golf, which feels quite light, slightly hollow and almost has echoes of a KBS wedge shaft.
The feel and versatility of the Mack Daddy Forged in play was very good, but compared to the MD3 it is more of a fine tuned machine.
The feel was a little sharper and the sound a bit 'thinner' if you know what I mean. The straighter leading edge meant you had to be quite precise, but the performance from grass and sand was everything you would expect from a premium wedge.
You might notice some better feel, but really the design and set up mean that the choice to buy should be based more on whether you will benefit from the better player features that the Mack Daddy Forged wedge offers.