My Six Wedge Setup

Hi all, I'm a new poster to the Sand Trap.  I read the equipment forums here a lot, so I thought I would join the forum and share my thoughts on my recent evolution to a six wedge system. Six wedges you say? That sounds crazy. Well, maybe not when you consider that I use wedges for two very different purposes.  One purpose is taking a full swing; the other is for chipping around the greens and hitting blast shots out of the sand.  So, if I'm 75 yards out, that's a full wing with my sand wedge (I hit a seven iron about 140 yds).  With a curent handicap index of 15.3 I find hitting a full swing shot with a Cleveland or Titlest forged (i.e., non cavity-backed) wedge, with no offset and very little in the way of forgiveness, to be be quite daunting compared to the relative ease with which I can hit such shots with the wedges that came with my Callaway Razr X irons set.  These irons and wedges are extremely forgiving and solid.  On the other hand, I do not like chipping around the greens with these clubs.  The spring-like effect of the face and the blocky nature of a cavity-backed club just doesn't give me the feel, and with it the confidence, I need to make short pitches, flops and chips from around the green with precision.

So what to do?  Am I supposed to carry two sets of wedges--one for full shots and other for short pitches, flops and delicate chipping around the greens?  In a word, yes.  So now I carry a Callaway Razr X cavity-backed pitching, approach, sand and 60 degree lob wedges for full swings and some slightly less than full pitch shots.  These set wedges also perform consistently and undrammitacally out of the sand.   I also carry a Titleist Spin Milled Vokey 56 degree wedge with 11 degrees of bounce and a M grind along with a similar 64 degree Vokey.  The Vokeys do all the chipping, flopping and short pitches from around the green.  They also work well in thinner sand, although, as I said, the Razr X wedges do just fine from most sand.

For me, chipping and short pitches are totally different than a full swing shot.  The former require a lot of feel and manipulation of the club face, use a completely different stance, and relish in a dead feel at impact.  So now, whatever shot I'm faced with in the short game, I'm covered.  If I'm 100 out, that's a full swing with my extremely solid and forgiving Razr X 52 degree approach wedge.  Same with full shots with my Razr X sand and lob from 80 and 60 yards out, respectively.  If I'm chipping or making a short pitch from around the green, I have the Vokey 56 degree sand wedge.  If I'm 5 feet off the green with a close pin or I need to get over a bunker and stop it on the green fast, the 64 degree Vokey is magic.  I have found that with the versatile Vokey 56 degree SW along with the 64 extreme lob, I don't need a forged 60 degree lob for shots made close to the greens.

The point is I don't have to learn how to hit full shots with  "forged" player's club, and I  don't have to hit delicate chips with an oversized, cavity-backed, spring-faced, game improvement club.  Withing 110 yards, I feel as though I've got it all.

Ah, but where to find room in the bag. Here's my setup

Driver (Ping K-15) 190 to 230

3 Hybrid (Callaway Razr X) 180

4 Hybrid  (Callaway Razr X) 170

5 Hybrid   (Callaway Razr X) 160

6 Hybrid   (Callaway Razr X) 150

8 Iron (Callaway Razr X) 130

9 Iron  (Callaway Razr X) 120

PW (Callaway Razr X) 110

AW (Callaway Razr X) 100 (good from sand)

SW (Callaway Razr X) 70-90 (great from sand)

LW (Callaway Razr X) 60 (great from sand)

SW (Titelist Vokey SMP4 56 degrees, 11 degrees of bonce) (chipping, short pitches, and works good in sand)

XLW (Titleist Vokey SMP4 64 degrees, 7 degrees of bounce) (chipping, short pitches and good from hard packed sand)

Putter (Oddysey White Ice)

Believe it or not, the only gap I have in this setup is where my 7 iron used to be.  I hit my 6 hybrid (or as I call it, my 6-Brid,150-160 yrads.   I hit my 7 iron around 140 and my 8 iron 130.  So now I simply back off of or choke up on the 6 hybrid to achieve the 140 yard distance.  And believe me, the choked hybrid is more consistent and lands just as soft as the 7 iron.

Well, there it is.  Any thoughts as to my sanity?

I belive it was lost along the way. ;-) Whatever works I guess, though I'd say it is a bit excessive, especially for a mid handicapper. Of course, since you don't hit the ball very far, there are going to be less yards to cover with the 13 clubs. As long as you don't have any big gaps in the long clubs, you can put some extra wedges in there, but I don't see why you need two of each.

I suspect the biggest gap will be between his ball and the green after his second shot.

Unless you play really short courses, you'll be wearing out your 3 hybrid.

I keep recounting but there is still only 14. Do whatever you like as long as you keep it under 14 but I would say too many wedges haha.

A skill that is common among many strong players is the ability to hit a variety of shots with a single club... most particularly the short irons and wedges.  While your approach is certainly unique, you're likely reinforcing the belief that you need a particular club to hit a certain kind of shot.  On the contrary, many teaching professionals advocate the use of fewer wedges (let alone a 64 degree wedge) to develop feel and shot making for finesse shots.

To each his own, but this seems like a bit of a crutch to me.

Not sure why you need two sand wedges... or a 64. But if it works for you go with it I guess. If it was me, I'd drop one of the sand wedges and the XLW and put a 7 iron and a 3 or 4 wood in the bag.

Six wedges may seem like overkill, but I don't consider my pithing (48) and approach (52) clubs to even be wedges.  I use them for full shots only,  just like I would an 8 or 9 iron, and not at all for the short game.  So really, if we are talking about the short game, I only carry four wedges.

As for the lack of a 3 wood, it is true that I do not have a club I can hit more than 180 from the fairway.  So I end up using the 3 hybrid on any hole over 380 yards, and it is definately getting worn out.  I would love to add a 3 wood, but frankly I have a lot of trouble hitting it from the fairway.  My over-the-top move plays havoc with longer fairway woods, as it does my driver.  I'm trying to do something about that, but in the mean time on any hole over 380, I'm really not looking to get on in reg.  Although a decent drive, say 200 yards, and a good 3-brid can get me their, its usually driver then 3-brid then short pitch or chip.  And on longer holes and par fives its driver, 3-brid and then some kind of full shot.  Its these full shots that led me to duplicate my sand and lob wedges.

The reason I don't want to hit an 80-90 yard shot with Vokey sand wedge is the same reason my irons aren't blades.  I can't hit them well consistently.   For a golfer like me, the game improvement (GI) benefits of a club like the Callaway Razr X is huge.  I want that GI benefit whenever I am taking a full swing at the ball.  So if I'm 80 yards out, I want to hit a GI sand wedge, not a player's blade.  The GI clubs have perimiter weighting and plenty of offset to make the shot feel very solid.  I have never hit a forged club over 60 yards that felt really solid to me; wheras the Razr X's feel like butter.  However, when I'm 15 yards out, I don't want to chip with a GI club, I want a sleek sexy Vokey or Cleveland wedge doing my bidding.  So that's why I duplicated the Razr X sand wedge with a forged Vokey (i know their not really "forged" but I use the term to distinguish from gane improvement clubs.)  The same is true for the 60 degree Razr X.  Its forgiving as heck on a full sixty yard shot or a 40 yard pitch, but chipping around the greens with it is very akward and inconsistent.  So in addition to the GI lob wedge, I also have a 64 degree forged Vokey for any short chips and high lobs around the green.  I know people say the 64 is hard to hit, but the people who say that are often rolling their short pitches well past the hole.  My brother-in-law is a master of chipping and pittching with a 9 iron or PW, but he simploy cannot stop the ball on the green when he's short sided.

Like many golfers, I cannot hit full shots like a pro, and thus I prefer a game improvement iron for those shots and not a forged club.   But  around the green, I can at least aspire to pro performance.  The short game doesn't take great strength or coordination, and it can be improved greatly with practice.

When I start hitting my long clubs better, I will put a 3 wood in the bag and live with only 5 wedges. But as it is, I've purchased two 3 woods  this year already, and I returned them both.   But for now, from 110yards in, I am enjoying the benefits of great game improvement tecnology for full shots and the incredible feel and versatailyof my two forged wedges.

I am very attracted to the one wedge theory myself.  It certainly makes life simpler, and with only one wedge avaliable for use, one could expect to become expert with it over time out of of sheer necessity.  In a way, my current six-wedge setup has brought me closer to that ideal.

Where my last setup was a forged 56 SW, 60 LW and 64 LW, I now rely on only two wedges for all chipping and short pitches--the 56 and 64.  I found that the 56 with the M grind was much more playable (to me, and for now) than my previous Cleveland CG15 56 with14 degrees of bounce, and could easily replace my 60 LW by opening up the face a little.  And for the very short pitches, flops, short chips, and very high shots that travel about 15 yards, I have the 64 LW.  So really I only have two wedges now, when that term is understood as a forged club designed to hit short shots around the green.

I would say I have actaully substracted "wedges" so that I could fit more game improvement full swing clubs in my bag.  I was suffering on 60 to 90 yards shots after I replaced my Razr X SW and LW with the Vokey wedges.  I was deadly with the Razr X wedges on full swings from those distances, but on full swing shots, the forged clubs are shorter in distance and harder to hit with a solid feeling.  I have never shanked a Razr X SW or LW wedge, but I have shanked a few full swing shots with the Vokeys. For me, the "short game: is not shots from 130 or 100 yards in, as I've heard it often described, but rather those shots that require less than a full swing, and often a very little swing close to the gren.  It is for these shots that the Cleveland and Vokey, etc., style "forged" wedges make sense.

So, really, all I've done is take the forged 60 degree LW out of the bag, along with my 7 iron, and replaced them with the cavity-backed Razr X 56 and 60.  I still have the 56 and 64 degree Vokeys, and I am happy to have my GI iron set back intact--at least 8-LW.  It is alaso nice to hit all my full swing iron shots with the same type of club and shaft.  As for the loss of the 7 iron, yes, that does hurt, but it is used not nearly as often as the Razr X SW and LW on full shots, and it is remarkably replaceable by choking down on my 6 hybrid.

The sand is the one exception to the scheme.  Although I am trying use the two forged wedges, and primaliy the 56 degree Vokey with 11 degrees of bounce, for all shots close to the green, I find that the cavity backed and Razr X SW and LW are very good from the sand, and use them as supplements to my forged wedges in the short game.  The type of sand found on Chicago area courses comes in a wide variety of conditions.  Its pretty much the same sand from the glacial drift underlying the whole area, but it varies greatly by moisture content and maintenance level.  We're talking hard wet, often rocky sand, that laughs at 14 degrees of bounce and sends the leading edge of your 56 degree wedge skipping into the equator of the ball.  When it rains a lot, few greenskeepers can keep the bunkers in decent shape.  Chicago said is more dense and rocky than, sand of the far South.  I don't know what that fluffy white powder the pros on tour hit out of, but it is unknown to the Chicago area.

One last thought while I have the box.  I recently golfed 36 a day for 4 days just north of Houston, Texas.  I have also golfed many times in Florida.  I've discovered that we Northern Illinoisans have something that makes wedge play very enjoyable for golfers that golfers in Texas and Florida do not have.  Dirt.  Rich, black dirt.  An entirely differnt experience from the far south and southwest.  I don't see how coventional wedges can be used when the ground your hitting down to is little more than a sand trap with a lightly attached grass toupee--if you can call it grass. I left the wedges in the bag and resorted to hybrids and the putter.  Here in the Chicago area, I can take a nice dollar bill divot and watch it as it flips end over end, sometimes with a night crawler attached, slowly into the air.  But, alas, November comes.

You talk about feel, but then you talk about specific distances with specific wedges.

That is the opposite of feel.

You should be able to hit any shot from inside 100 metres with perhaps a PW, GW and SW. Add a LW if you must.

Rather than coming across as a verstaile and creative short game player, it is reading to me like the total opposite.

And all of those hybrids...erghhh.

I love hybrids, but would never carry more than 2.

You are going to have serious trajectory limitations, and God help you on a windy day.

i agree with shorty. This setup you have is so limited on possibilities. And just to say in a round of golf i chip and pitch with at least 4 different clubs.

from lob/sand wedge to 7 iron and sometimes i use my 2 hybrid. But that is because i'm more of a bump and run player, it learned me that this way is much more consistent. What i should do is get a good iron set and learn to hit them. Wedge play should improve also. Maybe the new Taylormade ATV wedges are a solution also. Hear good things about them.

Yeah, I guess use whatever works for you, but don't ever expect to get much better. You're carrying 10 golf clubs and 4 crutches. If I was your caddie I'd throw about 5 of your clubs in a lake and make you play without them. There are a lot of things you're saying that seem innocent enough, but scream "I have poor technique". Like your 3h and driver going the same distance much of the time, every mention of poor technique where you just ignore it rather than working on it, and the fact you seem so concerned about gapping on full shots but have no irons above the 8. You don't have such low swing speed that you can't hit irons down to 5, or else you wouldn't hit your driver over 200. Using GI equipment will always mask your errors, but you're using so much you may make your technique worse in the long run. Don't suit your game around your flaws until you feel you're done improving. You're basically settling for your current game and honestly you should be able to get better.

Using wedges matched to your set due to their full shot performance is perfectly fine, but believe me you don't need a second set for "feel". If your short game is actually good enough to utilize blade wedges, I doubt it would cost you strokes either way. You'd benefit from the forgiveness of matching wedges but there really aren't a lot of shots where you need a blade. I'd say get matching wedges up to the AW, then use a blade SW and you get ONE LW. Either one is fine but you don't need both. Even Phil doesn't really need both. He's a known idiot when it comes to club selection and he'd still be carrying a 6˚ driver if they didn't pry it out of his hands.

Find something to hit off the tee too. It doesn't have to be a driver since you seem to struggle with it, but something you can hit 200 off a tee will enable you to score within reason. But you should work on removing useless parts, not adding new ones.

Also, not to insult you or anything, but even 8 year old girls use a 7 iron. The 6h is pushing it, maybe you hit it well and all, but put the 7 iron in; even 70 year old women at least have that many irons in their bags. Razr x irons are easy enough to hit that you shouldn't need many hybrids. Too many headcovers to manage, too expensive, and usually they make you buy the full set of irons and add the hybrids in.

You have about the same distances as me (except I hit my 7 iron haha) but I think having a lot of wedges is good. I just think I would stop at the 60* and not have the 64*, though I have never used a 64*. I'm not really sure where I would use it. Right now, I either need to get a gap wedge (52*) or a lob wedge (60*) because right now I am using just my PW and SW (56*)

13 wedges, that ain't nothing - throw out the club limit and here is a 21 wedge setup!!!

I am a little curious how often you use clubs. If you played 20 rounds, I have to imagine that some of those wedges get about zero use.  Don't let the hybrid haters get you down but I have to image that dropping 1 wedge and adding in a 4 wood (probably about 200 yards for you) would give you a lot more flexibility on the course.

Massive. Wall. Of. Text.

Also, dude...you have 3 irons in your bag (including PW, which is basically a 10 iron IMO). Try the following setup for a round or two and see what you think:

• Driver
• 3/4 Hybrid
• 5 Hybrid
• 4-PW irons
• Putter
• 51/52* Wedge (gap)
• 54* Wedge (sand/short)

• 60* Wedge (lob)

You all make really good points, and I'm sure your holding back more trenchant criticism.   As for carring a 4 and 5 iron, they simply are not as effective as the hybrids.  I am trying to improve my long game and may prefer to hit long irons when and if that happens.    For now, I see no reason to carry a 4 or 5 iron, or a 6 iron for that matter.  The brids just work better.  The Razr X brids are phenominal in my opinion.

As for losing my feel, if not my mind, in a sea of wedges, I say again that I'm only using two wedges for short shots around the green (i.e., shots that require feel): the Vokey 56 and 64.  Surely that is not too many wedges.  The rest of the "wedges" in my bag are used for full swing shots.  They match my set of irons and are cleary superior to (i.e., more forgiving than) forged clubs on full swing shots--no feel--shots.

I would have to agree, though, that adding a 4 wood sounds like a good idea for me.  I can take out the Raxr X 56 SW and learn to hit a full swing with the Vokey 56.  Back to Golfsmith!