Wedges

[HomerJSimpson]

A 60 degree is a fickle beast. I've taken mine out of my bag as it is costing me more shots (fats and thins) than it is saving. I've got a 56 and by opening the face up a bit I can get most of the shots I need around the greens with more certainty that they will come off

 

[theeaglehunter]

For my money I would buy the Vokey. As for actually using a lob wedge I get on fine with mine apart from occasionally misjudging distances with it as the height it generates from the power put in makes it very difficult to predict where it will land. However for actually right close by the green when distance is not hard to judge (you can pace it if necessary) and for lobbing over bunkers etc and getting the ball up and out of thick rough whilst still getting some stop I love my lob wedge and certainly wouldn't take it out of the bag. But that may be because the sand wedge that came with my G10s (Absolutely superb out of the bunker!!!) is too chunky to open up successfully meaning results are very temperamental. If you can open your sand wedge successfully- Homer and Andy are right its not worth getting a lob wedge.

 

[vig]

I absolutely love my lob wedge.
I use it most rounds around the green. Got to keep soft hands. this club has got me out of trouble countless times. I use the leading edge out of fluffy lies and I seem to judge the distance with this shot better with lob wedge than any other club

 

[stevelockie]

I currently use Cleveland CG10's. 52, 56 and 60.
Been using my PW more than the 52 for bump and run shots, and only use the 60 for greenside bunkers.

Decided to purchase 2 TM Smoke Wedges, as featured in this months mag. 54 and 58 degrees, should be here before the weekend, can't wait!

 

[andiritchie]

the new taylormades look super sexy,i do carry a 52 56 and 60 but all have differnt bounces so if the lie is tight or compact sand i will use the 60 with 4 degrees of bounce but not much else,nmartyn if your current sandwedge is the dunlop max i would suggest swapping that with a vokey56 or whatever as it will be good for loads of shots per round not just for 30 yards and in

 

[RGuk]

As a side note, I tried a Cleveland 52* today in the hope that it would be better than my rather upright Callaway Tour Model 52* "A" from 10 years ago.
There was no difference in results whatsoever.....so much for presuming that a flatter lie would improve the pulls I get now and again with this club.
Rather oddly, the Cleveland was well used and the grooves pretty warn away.....that and it needed a new grip.

How much was it on the 2nd hand bargain shelf for...

£40?

Otherwise, nice looking and well balanced club....

 

[stevelockie]

Played 9 holes with the new ZGroove wedges tonight. Hit them well, feel was good, weight was excellent. Felt like the clubhead was under your control at all times. Very nice.

Was 2 under par on the par 3 9th tee. Needed to land it on the green to make 9/9 greens in regulation. Bloody missed it righ and ran up a four!

 

[RGuk]

Hmm, I looked up z groove and discovered it was a Taylor Made club. I made a few 'phone calls and found a 2nd hand RAC TP satin 52* for sale, so I went a tried it out and bought it there and then.

Pity my hand hurts too much to go and play.....but I will be grinning and bearing a quick range trip later.

The whole wedge issue has been caused by buying a set of low-lofted Macgregors. I love these irons but the 35-40 yard gap between my old trusty SW and the PW has been stressing me out. Hopefully this new wedge will be good for 95-ish yards and will be more useful around the greens. Never having used a modern wedge with a milled face what can I expect on the short shots? I'm expecting the full wedge into the green to be much more active.

Anyone else using TM RAC satin? Seems a good spec for me 64* lie and stiff steel shaft (to match my stiff SW).

 

[brendy]

Dave, that 40 yard gap is purely a mental thing, hit the wedge easier! Its not something ive exactly mastered but its certainly something I practice each visit to the practice grounds.

 

[RGuk]

Dave, that 40 yard gap is purely a mental thing, hit the wedge easier!

No chance......a few yards off the regular distance, maybe, but cooking up a 95 yarder with a 46* club, no way.

I'd have tinkered all day with my old irons PW, but this is a different beast.

No wishing to sound a bit defeatist....but a wedge is a wedge, a good player can learn to take a bit off, hit it high, fade it in, all this stuff, but that's with plenty of loft......my new PW is equivalent to an old 9 iron....

You've got a 50* haven't you? .... surely it's easier to fill the gap, THEN work on distance control.

 

[brendy]

Yea matey, I have the 50 believe it or not is only used for half shots where the titleist pw wont spin enough to stop quickly. Two years ago I was playing of 6 and hitting the ball well, something happened and I ended up at 10, this year the improvements through practice are starting to pay off, partly I think, is due to being able to control my short game distances a little better. I spent 4 hours two weeks ago purely on half and 3/4 pitching wedges as I have a habit of being out a little with my timing getting ahead and behind the clubhead, my percentage shot with the wedge is definately not straight but Im working on it and am leaving ym mind totally open to new shots. One shot is the long fade I have now gotten comfortablwe with, in fact its every bit as predictable as my inherant draw only my draw sometimes doesnt come and I end up with a pushed drive onto the next fairway to the right.

 

[GB72]

As a higher handicapper, I have a couple of queries on wedges that i could do with any comments on:

Do these new grooves make much of a diffference. I have a Nike Tour SV wedge that is OK but I cannot seem to get it to really bite on the green. Would any of the other wedges with different grooves etc help me get that bite that I am looking for or is it simply a technique that I need to learn.

How do you test wedges? What I mean is that the grooves are integral to how effective a wedge is but surely that is taken out of the equation if you have to try one with tape on.

 

[brendy]

Pretty much all sandwedges will spin a ball in the right hands, the spin mill and other milled face wedges do make a difference though. Technique has a lot to do with it though. If you try to throw the bal lin the air it wont spin, you need to really hit into the back of the ball so it squeezes out of the lie and checks on the first and second bounces to come to an abrubt stop.
Testing a wedge, im not so sure about as any club ive ever tested barring a driver, has been with no sort of protection on the face, maybe the sole is taped to prevent any scoring as they are the first thing you see when irons are sat in a bag and could be a deal loser if the prospective buyer is more interested in cosmetics over function.

 

[RGuk]

Yea matey, I have the 50 believe it or not is only used for half shots where the titleist pw wont spin enough to stop quickly.

Interesting....

2 comments.....firstly, you are playing with a proper players set of irons. I expect your PW is a fairly classic thing, whereas my PW is a bit bulky and hardly a general purpose type of wedge i.m.o. I wanted a new gap wedge to use around the green also, that's why I was so keen to get something that sits tight and has a classic appearance to compliment my "proper" tour model Mizuno SW. On today's practice, I'd say I'm going to do much better with this new one. We (incl. Homer) have had a discussion on here about the growing trend to extend all the improvement attributes right down to SW......personally, I think if I'm going to get clever with a wedge, I'd rather do it with a more classic type of shape/design.

secondly......do you know how far your 50* goes? if there's a set distance for a normal swing, are you still tempted by the 3/4 PW......does this apply to your SW as well? If I have 80-85 yds exactly to the flag, I'll hit a full SW....is this a bit amateur?? I don't know, my feeling is that special wedges are OK for full shots but only for exact distances, I'm hoping to widen my repertoire of shots around 100 yards with this new wedge. Flat out, I reckon it's a 95 yard club.....so if I have 100 to go, I'll still be conjuring up something with the PW.

 

[brendy]

The 50 is a bit of a strange animal Dave, the low bounce on the club means it cuts through turf like a knife,in calm conditions my sw is 100 bang on, my pw is around 130 +- a yard or two, the 50 really doesnt go much beyond the sandwedge, maybe 10 yards.
It may just be me, I dont like hitting the 50 degree fully as its my get out of jail club from under a hundred yards (generally 50 yards etc) I believe it doesnt travel as far as it should because its spinning faster, it hangs in the air for a long time and I put that down to the very effective milling on its face.
Dont get me wrong, my irons go and stop very well but I still believe in specialised clubs for short approach shots, there is no regular ap2 sandwedge so rather than buy a runof the mill vokey wedge, ive opted to keep my spin mill 56 and get the 50 degree, im sorely tempted to buy a spin mill/md players 58 degree as Ive found myself stymied behind bunkers and small bushes recently, the mizuno 60 which I previously had just didnt seem reliable enough when it came to stopping timely, having the two milled face wedges already I think it may be the boyo to have.
Would it be worth your while chucking the standard pw and use something more classical, maybe even having a nice spread between your existing 9 and putter that you can use for virtually any shots, 48/50 degree wedge and your existing 56. I am possibly contradicting myself a little in mentioning getting hold of a spinning 58 but after my last few rounds something more than 56 but less than a 60 would have saved me more than a handful of shots.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Very intersting new tangent. The PW on my R7's is 45 degree and with my new swing it goes 100 yards (maybe 105 downwind). I had a 56 degree SW (courtesy of GM) which I hit pretty high and so it only goes 55 yards on a smooth 3/4 swing. As a result I needed to bridge the gap and my CLeveland CG12 52 degree does that. A solid 3/4 goes 80 yards (as measured by my SC5).

If I have a 90 yarder I'll just grip down on the PW and anything from 60 up I'll do the same with the 52. I'm trying to use the Dave Pelz three swings per club philosophy at the moment to get more variety and have to say if you ignore the technical stuff in his book and use the theory matched to your own swing path etc it is amazing how it really does open up an armoury of different shots.

Also, as Dave (realgolfer) mentioned I prefer to look at a more traditional clubface on my short irons. The SW on the R7 set is ugly pure and simple and doesn't inspire confidence. My 52 has standard bounce (according to the blurb which I guess is 10 degree) and so is ideal for most surfaces. My 56 has 12 degree bounce and is a beautiful shape and so if I want to open it up for a Mickleson style flop or out of powdery sand I can stand there confident the club will do the job.

I have to say the look of a wedge is probably as imprtant to me as the loft/bounce and the type of groove. Is it just me (and dave) that think that way or does the look of your wedges play any part in your purchase/shot selection

 

[brendy]

I agree, I have to like the feel of the club in my hand, the club might cost 10,000 pounds but If I have no confidence in it then its worth nothing, the 50 degree I have was suitability tested in the proshop, 3 balls on the carpet slid the club behind the ball and was able to chip each of them with a decent flight into a little target at the other end of the shop, the shape and way it went under the ball sold it to me, no need to take it onto the range.
My old 60 degree was bought on numbers alone, 60 degrees with very little bounce, I found was impossible to judge how hard to strike the ball for it to land and trickle out the distance I needed.

 

[RGuk]

Oohh, it gets more intriguing by the minute.

My 60 Callaway is in the spare bag, as will be the old 52 (same design) as of tomorrow. I quite like the 60, but would never ever use it for a full shot, and t.b.h. it's only a once every two rounds club around the green.

Rather than go to the range, I went to the pitching area at the club with the new 52 Gap and my old SW, just to see what's what. I guess it's a whatever suits type of decision. Certainly the 52 is a beauty off the short grass up to 35 yards (not getting into big pitch distance). It's going to become the club of choice around the green; if it checks up a tad more than non-milled wedges, I can see me going for more flags as t.b.h. even with my old PW, I was always factoring in quite a bit off roll (probably more than most players, as I never hit it that crisp). But crisp isn't a problem with the RAC Satin, the leading edge inspires confidence and the feel superb, as with any Cleveland/Mizuno no doubt.

If anyone wants a pair of Callaway Tour Model wedges, (old but cheap!) let me know.

 

[RGuk]

I have to say the look of a wedge is probably as imprtant to me as the loft/bounce and the type of groove. Is it just me (and dave) that think that way or does the look of your wedges play any part in your purchase/shot selection

I think this is important.....because my standard PW looks big and bulky and doesn't sit that flush, I have stressed a bit around the greens.....not on full shots (no, that's what the set's designed for!) but certainly for tight lies a few yards off the dance floor.

PS, the club maker who didn't want to risk bending my old CAST Callaway has offered to spend some time with me on my forged Macgregors if I want. I could conceivably get the PW lofted a degree or two more.

At the moment, I'm gussing I have about this;

9 iron 42 130
PW 45 or 46? 120
Gap RAC 52 95?
SW 56 80-ish

If the PW was 47, it might fit in a bit better. But I'll only see him if I'm passing.....it's hardly worth losing sleep over!!!

 

[brendy]

Thats not a bad cover matey, if you are worried about the pw then change it, new club - new confidence.
Dont forget that loft is only needed to clear obstructions, your 6,7,8 and 9 can also be used for fiddly approach shots where loft isnt needed and distance control is key.
Ive learned that for each situation there are buckets of options, do you need to run it, can you putt it, do you need to give it some air, do you even have to go for the flag when there is a healthy big fat bit of green to the left/right saving you from having to go over the obstruction, I think the key to being a good golfer requires you to be able to ask yourself those and more questions in one collective decision, I certainly dont have all of the answers, far from it. One fella in my fourball lofts everything and is nearly always guaranteed to be short, is it my or any of my partners place to suggest a lower shot that will at worst run to the green or past the flag and give him the chance of a putter?
Feckin golf, it plays with your head even when you arnt on the course!!