As its name suggests it has a high loft of around 60 to 64 degrees, allowing golfers to produce more height and spin with shots near the green. It tends to be used more to hit chips, flop shots and bunker shots than full shots. The loft of a wedge is simply the angle created between the face of the wedge and an imaginary vertical line.
The more loft on a wedge, the more elevation on your shot, resulting in a higher ball flight with less distance, as seen below:. Most professional carry three or four wedges, to offer variation and selection to their short games. The key in choosing a set of wedges is to make sure that there are no big gaps in loft between the lowest lofted iron in your set and the first wedge and then also between edge wedge.
Try to keep the lofts gaps to around 4 degrees between each club. Bounce is the group name for the elements involved in sole design: the bounce angle, sole width, leading edge, rocker and camber of a wedge. Most discussions on bounce refer more specifically to bounce angle. The bounce angle is the angle from the leading edge to the point where the sole actually meets the ground.
Whilst many people think wedges sit flat on the ground, this is not true. Bounce, and specifically the bounce angle, is added to prevent a wedge from digging into sand or turf, stopping the momentum of the club through the ball.
Wedges with a bounce angle of 4 to 6 degrees are considered low-bounce. Wedges with minimal bounce will be better suited to players who sweep the ball, taking a shallower divot, firmer turf conditions i. Any wedge with 7 to 10 degrees of bounce is considered to be a mid-bounce wedge. It will be the most versatile option, suited to a wider range of conditions and swing types. High bounce wedges have more than 10 degrees of bounce, meaning the leading edge sits higher when the sole is rested on the ground.
As you are busy grinding away on the course, trying to save par, manufacturers are busy grinding wedges in a way to help players hit better shots. So what is a sole grind? In basic terms, the sole grind refers to the additional shaping of the sole of the wedge usually around the heel or the toe. Being fitted for wedges is a critical step in optimizing performance on the golf course.
A certified fitter can explain how these and other factors impact your game. They can help match you with the wedges that can help lower your score. While loft and bounce are important, how you feel with a wedge is the most valuable quality of the club. The right wedges can help you get out of sand traps and hit the perfect chip shot during your next round of Skip to content. The Pitching Wedge degrees is the least lofted of all the wedges.
You can used it for full swings toward greens or for long chip shots. With a full swing, players can average between and yards of distance. The Gap Wedge 51 degrees — also known as the approach wedge — is a vital club to have. This lets you take a full swing rather than softening up your approach with a pitching wedge or aggressively hacking with a sand wedge.
An average player can expect their gap wedge shots to travel between 90 and yards. The Sand Wedge 54 degrees is the go-to club for navigating out of sand traps and roughs. Due to its high loft angle, the sand wedge can pop the ball up and limit spin. Typical players can feel safe using a sand wedge 80 to yards from the pin.
They can be used in almost all conditions by almost any type of golfer. High-bounce wedges have a leading edge that sits higher above the surface than either medium or low-bounce wedges, which can be helpful when playing on softer surfaces or shooting out of bunkers with soft sand.
The higher bounce angle prevents digging and helps create smoother shots. If you struggle with divots, you probably want to look at medium and high-bounce wedges. Many wedge manufacturers grind the soles of their wedges to tailor each club to specific playing styles or surfaces.
A heel grind, for example, removes material from the wedge's heel, allowing you to open the face for extra high flop shots. Tiger Woods uses a lob wedge with a heel grind for exactly this reason. Unlike loft or bounce angle, which are concrete measurements and consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer, sole grinds can be brand-specific.
While all heel grinds provide the same general type of shot-making flexibility, you may prefer one manufacturer's heel grind over another. You know your wedge's face has grooves, but do you know why? Those grooves serve two important purposes. First, they wick away moisture, dirt and debris in the same way your car's tires do. This ensures clean, consistent contact, shot after shot.
Over time, your club's grooves dull and you lose these benefits, so make sure to get your groove's inspected and sharpened at least every 75 rounds. We've spent a long time talking about the clubhead, but what about the shaft? Let's change gears and talk about flex. Flex describes how much give or bend your club's shaft experiences while swinging. Many wedge shafts have a lighter, more flexible tip section near the clubhead that subtly flicks the clubhead at the ball for improved trajectory and backspin.
A major consideration when evaluating flex for your wedges is how you use them. If so, you probably want your pitching wedge to have less flex more stiffness than your lob wedge, which you'll rarely or never swing at full power. In this instance, you might want both your irons and pitching wedge to have similar shaft flex.
If you're shopping for wedges, you may encounter six flex strengths, which we've listed below from least flex most stiff to most flex least stiff :. Those guidelines should help narrow down the flex that's right for you, but ultimately it's a personal decision based on both your playing style and comfort.
You can't talk about a shaft's flex without talking about its construction and weight. Let's look at two different shaft materials: graphite vs steel. Graphite shafts are lighter and have more flex than steel shafts, which makes them ideal for golfers with lower swing velocities who can't bomb the ball yards or more. A graphite shaft's lighter weight makes it easier to handle, similar to bowling with a lighter bowling ball or swinging a lighter baseball bat, and the extra flex helps provide extra power to your shot but sacrifices control.
Steel shafts are heavier and stiffer than graphite shafts, which makes them ideal for golfers with higher swing velocities.
Most low-handicap golfers use steel shafts, generally because they tend to have higher swing velocities but also because the stiffer shaft allows for better clubhead control and shot precision.
Once again, the choice between graphite and steel is a personal decision based on both your playing style and comfort. We talked about loft gapping above and the importance of spacing your wedge loft angles to cover every possible shot.
Let's revisit that for a second and get a little more specific by talking about distance gapping. A club's loft is a key factor in determining how far that club strikes the ball, but it isn't the only factor.
Everything we just covered above plays a part too, plus the strength and skill of the golfer. As you mix and match different irons and wedges from different manufacturers, you're changing up all sorts of variables that affect shot distances. And even if you use a single set but swing your wedges differently, you may have gaps between club distances that leave you deficient on the course. Swing velocity, specifically, is a major factor affecting how far a club hits a ball, and it's something completely outside the scope of what club manufacturers can control.
Think about two players with different swing velocities using the same wedge setup with 4-degree loft gaps. The stronger golfer with higher swing velocities will have larger distance gaps between each club than a weaker golfer with slower swing velocities who groups their shots within a tighter range.
The weaker golfer might not need such small distance gaps between each wedge and can afford to increase their loft gaps to 6 degrees. Let's wrap this up with a few questions we're frequently asked about the various wedges in golf. A degree wedge is also called a pitching wedge. Pitching wedges have loft angles ranging from degrees.
A degree wedge is also called a gap wedge. Gap wedges have loft angles ranging from degrees. A wedge is another name for a gap wedge, which has a loft angle ranging from degrees. It's called an A wedge because of the types of shots a gap wedge is used for: approach shots or attack shots. That means "A wedge" is short for "approach wedge" or "attack wedge.
The Four Types of Wedges in Golf. Are you ready for two mind-blowing stats that will send you running to fix your short game? Are you using the right wedge? This guide has everything you need to answer that question. First, we'll introduce the four different types of wedges: Pitching wedge Gap wedge Sand wedge Lob wedge Then, we'll explore the technical stuff and explain how each factor impacts your shot: Loft Bounce Leading edge Sole grind Grooves Flex Shaft construction We'll also zoom out and take a big-picture look at distance gapping and club selection before finishing with some golf wedge FAQ.
0コメント