A great wedge should do more than look pretty sitting behind your ball. It should inspire confidence when you're 115 yards out, save your score when you short-side yourself, and somehow even turn sketchy lies in the rough into good shots that actually look intentional.
And the new Cleveland Golf RTZ 2 wedges are designed with exactly this kind of versatility in mind. RTZ 2 are more consistent from a wide variety of lies and impact conditions. And they give you more ways to get your ball closer to the hole no matter what kind of situation you're facing.
I hit full shots with Cleveland RTZ 2 from 75 to 115 yards, pitches from 50-60 yards out, and chips and flops around the green. I tested RTZ 2 from the fairway, the rough, and bunkers. I put them through the full short game circus by also playing in dry and wet conditions. And I can tell you in a nutshell RTZ 2 are all about giving you a chance even when the course has decided to make things difficult.
RTZ 2 make a strong case for being the most complete wedges in Cleveland history. And in my opinion they've gone after three things that matter enormously around the green and from 115 (or so) yards in: feel, consistency, and versatility.
Softer Feel without the Click
The first thing I noticed with the Cleveland RTZ 2 is the feel. And I'm calling it the Velvet Hammer feel. It's truly just sooo good. Cleveland uses its proprietary Z-Alloy material to create a softer, more responsive sensation at impact without the traditional (sometimes irritating) click you often get from harder feeling cast and even some forged wedges. RTZ2 isn't mushy, it's not dead. It's just solid.
RTZ 2 also gave me the kind of feedback that makes them feel precise without feeling harsh. You know where you make contact but mishits don’t sound or feel like you just struck your ball with a frying pan. And I believe wedge feel is crucial art of wedge confidence. When you're standing over a 75-yard shot and trying to land the ball next to a tucked pin you want to (maybe even need to) trust the feel of your wedge to execute the shot exactly as you've dreamed it up.
More Consistency when Contact isn't Perfect
Here's a dirty little secret about my wedge game: not every shot finds the center. But that's a good thing for the purpose of this review because I'm guessing you can say the same thing about your wedge game. And Cleveland addressed this reality with different weighting designs in the RTZ 2 wedges to create more forgiving impact areas.
And by that I mean I saw improved consistency in launch, spin, and distance control over a wider variety of strikes. This matters enormously as a few yards closer to your target can mean the difference between a makeable birdie putt and a frustrating chip. So instead of demanding center-face perfection (which is often the case with blade wedges), RTZ 2 gave me a little more room for error while helping my shots behave more predictably.
A wedge that spins 9,000+ RPM when you flush it and then turns into a completely different club when you catch it slightly toward the toe isn't going to do you much good when you're trying to control distance. RTZ 2 narrows that gap with a forgiveness that helps your numbers stay closer to where you expected them to be on these misses.
And what really made RTZ 2 fun to hit was I saw this same performance from everywhere on the course. The perfect lie, the tight lie, the fluffy lie, in a bunker, with a little moisture on the face, and even going after pins that caution says I should not be attack... RTZ 2 said go on, "I got your back."
Different Sole Personalities and Distinctive Versatility
On clean fairway lies the new Cleveland RTZ 2 slid through the turf quickly and easily without feeling cumbersome. From the rough RTZ 2 gave me more versatility to manage and work with the lie rather than accepting whatever shot the grass seemed to be dictating. In the bunkers I felt like RTZ 2 gave me more options on how I wanted to interact with the sand.
All of this is because the new RTZ 2 wedges aren't built around any one universal sole philosophy. Cleveland isn't simply offering cosmetic sole variations. Each sole (grind) is designed to solve different sets of problems.
Mid Sole Grind: The All Arounder
The Cleveland RTZ 2 Mid Sole (my 50 degree) has trailing-edge relief which makes it a particularly good choice for full swings while still giving me some room to manufacture shots.
It felt very stable on full swings but never bulky when I wanted to get creative and manipulate the face for shot-shaping options.
588 Sole Grind: The Friendly One
The RTZ 2 588 Sole (my 54 degree) is fuller than the Mid Sole but Cleveland kept the bounce relatively higher in the toe and lower in the heel for for a combination I think a lot of players will like a lot: forgiveness and versatility.
There's more sole underneath you when you need it in those less than perfect lies but the 588 bounce design still gives you plenty of options. Think of it as the friendly option with plenty of sole under the club to help you through different turf conditions without giving up the ability to play a variety of shots.
Adapt Sole Grind: The Shape Shifter
The RTZ 2 Adapt Sole (my 58 degree) has significantly more toe, heel, and trailing edge relief than the Mid and 588 Soles so you can pretty much manipulate the face to play any shot you want.
When I opened it up from tight lies the lead edge remained very low and didn't bounce. From the bunkers it felt like a plow sliding through the sand. And from fluffy and chunky lies the Full Face grooves allowed higher face contact to clear more debris and grab more of the ball. If you like to play different types of shots (ie, flop shots, tight lie chips, toe down finesse shots) rather than making the same swing with different amounts of force then Adapt Sole Grind will get your dopamine pumping for the hunt.
UltiZip Cheese Grater Grooves
Cleveland uses sharper and deeper UltiZip grooves on the RTZ 2 to create maximum friction, spin, and grab. And I'm not sure I could ask my wedges to control trajectory and spin much better. There's very aggressive interaction with the ball.
On full approaches stopping power was fantastic and probably as good as I can realistically ever expect. On partial shots results were consistent and repeatable. And around the greens my pitches hopped and checked far more often than they released across the green. RTZ 2 aren't designed to make the short game easier but there's no denying they delivered more usable shots for me during the rounds I tested them.
HydraZip Weatherproofing Spin
When you're playing in rain the moisture acts like a lubricant on the face of your wedges and prevents grooves from gripping the ball the same way they do in dry conditions. The goal for Cleveland with HydraZip was to make RTZ 2 wet condition shots perform more like dry condition shots. HydraZip is a special blasting process to create a rougher, more abrasive face surface in the RTZ 2. Laser lines are then etched into the face to create additional micro-roughness.
I can't say HydraZip made RTZ 2 spin performance exactly the same for me in wet conditions as RTZ 2 spin performance in dry conditions. I can say however that wet condition shots with RTZ 2 were more predictable and constant than with many other wedges I've played in the past. So for example my shots in the rain still released through the green mores than they did during my dry condition testing. But RTZ 2 shots in the rain didn't have the extreme variability of launch, spin, and distance control that other wedges I've used in the rain do.
HydraZip doesn't repeal the laws of physics. But it does help make wet performance more consistent. And I'll take every advantage I can get against Mother Nature.
Conclusion
The new RTZ 2 doesn't feel like Cleveland simply made another wedge and sprinkled a few new technologies on it. It feels notably more deliberate than that.
Z-Alloy construction delivers a softer, more responsive feel. Redesigned weighting creates more forgiving impact areas and greater consistency in launch, spin, and distance control. And multiple grind options, UltiZip grooves, and HydraZip face technology give you remarkable versatility and control.
Ultimately RTZ 2 make imperfect shots behave a little more like perfect ones. They give good players even more ways to be creative. And if there's a wedge shot you want or need to hit RTZ 2 will add it to your arsenal.
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