Mizuno Vs Cleveland: Which Wedges Reign Supreme in 2025

It’s easy to get focused on driving the golf ball well.

Hitting the ball long and straight is one of those kicks we get, which can give us bragging rights over our regular playing partners.

But does driving the ball well automatically lead to good scores? The answer is no.

You only have to look at a player like Rory McIlroy. Arguably, the best driver of a golf ball there has ever been. McIlroy’s distance sets up many wedge approach shots, yet his wedge play is considered the weakest part of his game, so he’s not taking full advantage of his prodigious length off the tee.

Dustin Johnson faced a similar problem. In an instructional piece he wrote for Golf Digest in 2020, Johnson admitted that he never really practised his wedge play and that, while playing, he assessed wedge shots based on feel.

Johnson started working with a launch monitor to help him dial in distance control more effectively for each wedge in his bag, including full, stock, three-quarter, and half wedge shots.

Johnson’s work paid off. He jumped from 108th to 9th in proximity to the pin from 100-125 yards, became the best player in the world, and won his second major, the U.S. Masters.

Golf wedges aren’t just about full shots. We rely on our wedges in and around the greens.

If we look at scrambling stats, the best on the PGA Tour in 2024 was Xander Schauffele, who made 70.73% of up-and-downs when he missed a green.

Statistical evidence suggests that a 13-handicap golfer makes less than 25% of up-and-downs. A scratch player still only makes just over 50% of their up-and-downs.

So, you can see that wedges are incredibly important in helping us score better on the golf course.

Like any other department of our golf bag, some golfers feel that purchasing a new wedge set will help them score better.

However, the answer isn’t straightforward; mistakes are easy to make, and you can be left frustrated that your new purchases aren’t improving your scores.

This article aims to clear the fog around choosing the correct wedges for your game.

To do this, we’ll compare the 2025 models from Cleveland, one of the most established names in the wedge industry, to those of Mizuno, a company renowned for its golf irons.

We’ll help your decision-making process by explaining:

• Key Features of Cleveland and Mizuno Wedges
• Understanding How Wedge Technology Helps You On The Course
• Understanding Bounce and Grind Options On Cleveland and Mizuno Wedges
• Creating Your Perfect Wedge Set Through Custom Fitting

Key Features of Cleveland and Mizuno Wedges

For 2025, Cleveland Golf has introduced the RTZ Wedges. The RTZ sits at the top of the Cleveland range, encapsulating the very best of what Cleveland’s engineers can produce to create premium performance.

The major story for the RTZ golf wedges is Cleveland’s new material, Z-Alloy.

Most wedges are made of 8620 steel. This steel provides a good combination of softness and strength to create feel and feedback, but it is also robust enough to withstand the everyday high use most wedges experience in their lifetime.

Cleveland wanted to shake things up a little and searched for something new. To do so, they enlisted a PhD-level metallurgist's help to develop a new steel that would perform better than 8620.

The result is Z-Alloy. Z-Alloy has given Cleveland’s engineers three distinct benefits over standard 8620 steel:

• Z-Alloy is less dense than 8620 steel; the saved weight can be engineered back into the wedge.
• Z-Alloy creates a softer feel than 8620, generating more feedback for finesse shots around the green.
• Z-Alloy has enhanced durability than 8620 steel.

Mizuno introduced the Pro T-1 and Pro T-3 golf wedges at the start of this year. Mizuno is world-renowned for creating some of the best-feeling forged irons in the market. The process for creating such a superior feel is through Grain Flow Forging.

Forged in Mizuno’s factory in Hiroshima, Japan, Grain Flow Forging starts with a single billet of 1025E carbon steel, which is worked to enhance the natural grain through the steel, producing enhanced integrity, consistency, and durability throughout the head and neck.

The new Mizuno Pro T-1 and Pro T-3 heads are forged using the same process. This helps produce the classic Mizuno feel admired so much, and it also helps create consistency in feedback and performance if you transition from Mizuno irons to the new golf wedges.

Understanding How Wedge Technology Helps You On The Course

Having the Cleveland or Mizuno wedges in your bag will give you kudos with your playing partners. But nice-looking wedges with a buttery-soft feel are one thing. You want to know if they will have the necessary stopping power.

Cleveland employs its UltiZip technique, which cuts a deeper groove line to help move grass, dirt, sand, and water more effectively from the hitting area, creating more consistent spin from the fairway, sand, or rough.

Spin numbers tend to drop drastically if you play in wet conditions. Water getting caught between the clubface and the ball also leads to inconsistent distances and trajectories, which can cost you shots.

Cleveland’s HydraZip is a process of laser-cutting lines across the face that work to remove water from the face and create spin rates comparable with dry conditions.

Think of UltiZip and HydraZip as treads on tyres that channel water and debris away to give the car better grip on the road.

Mizuno tackles the same problem through Quad Cut + and Hydroflow Micro Grooves. Quad Cut + technology involves adjustments made to the camber and shoulder of the groove, which has allowed Mizuno’s engineers to move the grooves closer together to improve spin performance.

The Hydroflow Micro Grooves channel water away from the face, creating consistent, predictable spin rates whether you play in rain or shine.

Trajectory Control

We can be misled into thinking that the pros send their wedges into orbit to create the stopping power we regularly see on their wedge shots.

The reality is very different. Pros look to flight their wedges with a lower penetrating trajectory, which helps with distance control. Cleveland’s new Z-Alloy material has a lower density than 8620 steel, allowing engineers to reposition the saved mass to create the perfect CG throughout each wedge to optimise launch and spin numbers.

Cleveland also employs its ZipCore technology, which replaces mass around the neck and heel area and repositions the mass around the hitting area.

Combining Z-Alloy and ZipCore makes the Cleveland RTZ wedge look fantastic externally while providing enhanced CG and a higher MOI through weight-saving gains.

Mizuno doesn’t offer a technology comparable to Z-Alloy or ZipCore, but it has added the Pro T-3 option. This option features a small cavity that helps redistribute weight for more forgiveness on off-centre hits.

Understanding Bounce and Grind Options On Cleveland and Mizuno Wedges

Becoming an effective wedge player requires some understanding of what bounce and grind options will work best for you.

Some guesswork can be taken out by going through a custom-fitting process, which we’ll cover shortly. You can carry out some analysis such as:

• What types of golf courses do you regularly play?
• Do you take big divots or hardly touch the ground at impact?
• Do you like to manipulate the clubface to create different types of shots around the greens?

All of this information ties into the types of bounce and grind that will be ideally suited to your game.

Cleveland’s solution is elegant and simple — four grinds to cover all options.

The Low Grind features the sharpest leading edge profile to optimise contact and turf interaction for golfers with shallower swings who don’t take much of a divot. Low Grind will also be a good option if you play links golf, where tight lies are commonplace during summer.

Mid Grind, as you would expect, covers all bases, while the Full Grind has the most rounded leading edge, ideal for golfers with a steep attack angle of attack, who fear getting the leading edge stuck in the turf or playing softer parkland-style golf courses.

Cleveland has also created an Adapt Grind for the higher-lofted full-face grooved RTZ wedges. The Adapt Grind cambers the leading edge and adds additional relief around the toe and heel area of the sole, allowing golfers to open the face more effectively.

Mizuno also takes complexity out of the equation by offering six sole options on the Mizuno Pro T-1 and three on the Pro T-3.

The X sole marks the most aggressive relief on the sole for low bounce, while at the other end of the spectrum, the V sole offers the highest bounce with the most relief.

For The Mizuno Pro T-3 model, three sole options are available, varying from low to high-bounce, with the M Sole option being the jack-of-all-trades out of the group.

Creating Your Perfect Wedge Set Through Custom Fitting

Remember when we talked about Dustin Johnson in our intro and how he worked with a launch monitor to improve his wedge game?

Understanding how far you hit your golf wedges is crucial to building a better wedge game. Working with an experienced fitter and a launch monitor, you’ll see clearly how far you hit your existing wedges.

The data is important. It can establish where there are significant distance gaps in your current setup. Golfers who use performance multi-material irons can struggle here because the loft of their pitching wedge can be really strong compared to their next wedge.

Uncovering distance gaps can lead to adding an additional wedge, such as a gap wedge, to mitigate the difference.

Golfers might also want to replace their iron set pitching wedge with a specialist wedge.

Cleveland and Mizuno offer 46-degree wedges in the RTZ, Pro T-1 and T-3 heads.

The Mizuno golf wedges are forged in the same way as its iron heads, which means that whether you choose the pitching wedge from your iron set or opt for a T-1 or T-3 head, you’ll have a consistent feel throughout.

Analysing spin and launch rates will also help create a consistent loft gapping in your wedges. In most circumstances, there is a four-degree loft difference between each wedge.

The fitter will also want to know if you prefer to use one golf club around the greens where you like manipulating the face open or closed to create different trajectories. This opens up the option for something like Cleveland’s Adapt Grind. The only thing to bear in mind is that the Adapt Grind is only available in the full-face groove heads, which aren’t always to everybody’s tastes.

The launch monitor will provide accurate data on your angle of attack (how steep or shallow you deliver the clubface to the ball at impact,) which will ascertain the correct sole configuration you need for each wedge.

To test Cleveland and Mizuno’s technology for managing water displacement effectively, you could ask the fitter to wet the clubface and or golf ball to see if there is any discernable difference in spin and launch rates.

If you’re in the market for a new wedge set, book yourself in for wedge fitting with one of our experienced fitters at Nine By Nine Golf.

Nine by Nine Golf will help you uncover the wedge setup that’s right for you, giving you increased confidence on the course.

Once we’ve established the correct loft gapping and grinds, you can choose which finish you want for your wedges, from low-key satin finishes to striking Blue Ion (Mizuno Pro T-1) or Tour Raw (Cleveland RTZ).

Custom fitting will also establish the correct shaft to match the wedge heads selected. Manufacturers such as KBS and True Temper have designed golf shafts specifically for golf wedges.

As part of the custom fitting process, you can opt for Onyx (blacked-out) finishes, which look even more striking with the Black Satin finish offered in the Cleveland RTZ.

If you have any questions about how being custom-fitted for your next wedge set or the Cleveland RTZ or Mizuno wedges, we’d be happy to help.