How Many Wedges Do You Carry?

[heiss30]

I carry 4 if you include the PW, 52* gap, 56* sw, and 64* lob wedge.

[cnewey]

I carry 3 wedges. My PW, 50* GW and 56* SW. I just open up my 56* if I feel the need to hit a flop or high shot. For full disclosure though I have never used a 60* on the course. My experience with lob wedges has been limited to the range.

[golfbarefoot]

I carry four wedges:

PW: Titleist 690.MB Forged Blade 47* (120 yards down to 105)
GW: Titleist Vokey Oil Can SM 52* (95 yards)
SW: Titleist Vokey Oil Can SM 56* (75 yards)
LW: Titleist Vokey Oil Can SM 60* (55 yards & in)

It's where you score, so I like the versatility. Distance control from inside 120yds including proper spin are premium to get close for birdie or par save. They truly help not keeping too much pressure on my Scotty from approaches, greenside etc.

Wedges and putter is most feel for me.

[David in FL]

On the other hand, I can just grab a different club and make the same swing (to the extent it is repeatable, based on practice) with a different (smaller for some) margin of error.

Don't forget the variability between the clubs themselves. The shaft of a 60* wedge is usually going to be 3/4" shorter than the PW and the club will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 full swing-weights heavier. The increased loft requires a steeper angle of attack in order to hit properly and consistently. In short, each requires a somewhat different swing from the others. Those differences are subtle and that very subtlety is often the challenge for less experienced golfers. The other issue then becomes chipping around the green. While a golfer may only face a few full wedge shots during the course of a round, they'll likely face a lot of chipping opportunities. Even relatively good recreational golfers hit less than 50% or their greens, newer golfers may be lucky to hit more than one or two with approach shots. With additional wedges to "choose" from, the variety of shots that can be played increases and absent significant experience and practice, consistent execution tends to decrease. Of course that can be avoided by limiting your chipping to one or two of the multiple wedges, but that seldom happens. After all, why have 'em if you don't use 'em? Plus, we all watch Phil and just know that we can hit that full swing flopadopolis too, right? If your set up is working for you, that's great. But my advice to the OP and to other newer golfers who ask, will remain the same......at least early on, most will find that fewer wedges will lead to more consistency and better scoring. BTW......I grew up in Racine. Brown Deer Park is one of my very favorite courses of all time. I've got to get back and play it again one of these days!

[RandomRaiderTTU]

I voted 2 a little too quick.

If I count pitching wedge, I've got three.

45* PW
50* Gap
54* Sand

[msd3075]

I have 4 wedges:

47˚ - Mizuno MP57 PW
50˚ - Cleveland CG12
54˚ - Cleveland CG12
59˚ - Vokey TVD58 bent to 59˚

[FloridaGolfer]

currently have 4 but I'm getting rid of 1 GW and I bent my SW. So, 2

[TheWarHound]

I use three, and have spent the last lesson and last few range sessions on wedges.

Ping i/3 47* PW - 100 yards
Vokey 52* GW - 80 yards
Vokey 56* SW - 65 yards

I have been practicing and practicing wedge shots inside 100 yards, and using my SW for shots within 65 yards. Last fall I bought a 60* Vokey, and couldn't hit shite with it. Maybe next year, if my game has improved enough, I will try the 60* again.

[Eeryck]

Don't forget the variability between the clubs themselves. The shaft of a 60* wedge is usually going to be 3/4" shorter than the PW and the club will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 full swing-weights heavier. The increased loft requires a steeper angle of attack in order to hit properly and consistently. In short, each requires a somewhat different swing from the others. Those differences are subtle and that very subtlety is often the challenge for less experienced golfers.

Again speaking only from my own perspective, though I feel it does add to the OP topic about how many wedges to carry and why, the changes you are bringing up here are primaraly accomplished at address, though I can see where someone without experience would have problems here. A few lessons and a lot of questions has mitigated this issue for me.

The other issue then becomes chipping around the green. While a golfer may only face a few full wedge shots during the course of a round, they'll likely face a

I agree here, for chipping, I use a single club approach (9I) and I am not even tempted to use all the other clubs. The long term plan though is to add the 52* for shorter chips and the 7I for longer run outs depending on the ammount of carry needed to just be on the green and get it rolling.

This may seem contrary to my pitching philosophy, all I can say is that chipping and putting is where my creative side takes over my game and a single club seems to do the trick 95* of the time.

If your set up is working for you, that's great. But my advice to the OP and to other newer golfers who ask, will remain the same......at least early on, most will find that fewer wedges will lead to more consistency and better scoring.

Every "Bomb" needs a "Gouge"!

BTW......I grew up in Racine. Brown Deer Park is one of my very favorite courses of all time. I've

So many great courses in the Milwaukee area for having ~4.5 months of snow cover. For Milwaukee county residents Brown Deer is a great value ($43.50). If I were out of county though the $88.50 greens fee would be a bit steep. Especially with Fireridge, the Bull and the Bog all in the area or Geneva National or Grand Geneva in that same price range.

Fun to play before or after the US Bank Championship though.

[Cowhunter7]

Most people carry 4 wedges but there's a wide variety of bounce. I've got

Ping S58 PW 47/10
Vokey spin milled GW 50/8
Callaway x forged SW 56/13
Sand & Fairway LB 60/unk (I'd guess it's a 10* bounce)

I hit the 10* bounce and under with confidence from almost any lie. I've never liked the 56/13 off the fairway and I use it strictly for soft sand shots

I'm replacing the 60* and contemplating a low bounce for tight lies to give me more options. I figure I can use the 56/13 for soft shots and say a 60/4 for the hard pan lies. I just bought a used 60/4 on ebay to experiment with and I wanted to get people's thoughts on varying the bounce as well as the loft.

[Eveleth]

Carry TM OS2 PW and Miura 54 (9 bounce) and 60 (7 bounce) both with Rifle Spinner Shafts. I had both my 54 & 60 built with the same shaft length, I find I'm more consistant with them setup that way.

[whip_it_out]

3,
PW, 52, and 60.

My SW is next to useless.

[MikeR]

I like many only carry 2 wedges a 56/60....was going to get a gap wedge but i feel its not needed. a 56 can go almost any distance needed near the green just have to get you backswing established to hit each distance

[Wazzu8]

Three. PW 47*
Vokey 54*
CG11 60*

[tricky]

I think I'm going to show myself to be an idiot here, but I'd like to share with the group. I've been carefully putting together my dream set, predominantly with the assistance of ebay. I'm very close to getting my selection of wedges to where I want it.

I've bought myself (ping tour-w) 50, 52, 54, 56, and 58 lofts. I'm looking around for a deal on the 60. Clearly this is deranged. My rational is: My short game has always been garbage. I'm particularly poor at hitting constructed less than full shots based on look and feel. So, dependent on circumstances (condition, course) I will carry different selections of clubs. my pitching wedge (s58) is a 47 loft. So if I'm carrying two extra wedges I might carry a 50, 52 or 54 and a 54,56, 58 or 60. I might carry a 50, 54, and a 58 (or 52, 56, 60) if I want three. All of these ranges allow my distances to be progressive and gives me cover out of bunkers and around the green. In addition, given that I love a flop shot (and I'm able to take my driver out of my bag on occasion) I'd like to experiment with a lower bounce (8) 60 degree wedge around the greens.

So for me the answer might be 3, 4, or 5 (assuming we count the pw in my set of S58's). While this is all a bit mental - I have seen significant improvements in my short game (in seven and a half holes of practice yesterday I hit one pin, stuffed another 2 inside ten foot, and made three up and downs from around the green - including one miraculous one from tight under the lip of the side of a bunker). As much as anything I want options, that's part of what makes it my dream set of clubs.

[Zeph]

Whatever works I guess, but you don't need that big variety of clubs. One can easily do most of the shots.

For chipping, the bounce doesn't matter. You hit the ball first and take the bounce out of play. It does come into play on pitching and sand shots. Depending on the type of swing, you could make do with only one club.

Practicing the short game and buying an instructional book would probably do some good.

[mruseless]

I know for me personally, my short game started improving when I changed from trying to use a bunch of different clubs to just one or two. I believe that with limited practice time, I gain more benefit from focusing on the use of one or two wedges from a variety of lies, distances, and conditions. Just my opinion for what its worth.

[tricky]

.....you could make do with only one club.....

Tried that for fifteen years. Never really worked for me. I like to hit a high flop, laying back a 'general purpose' wedge always left me inconsistent on height and tended to throw the ball sideways also with additional sidespin. This made for extra things that I needed to take into account and massively upped the variability of the shot. I wasn't very good at that. I'm not doubting that it can be done with one club, and indeed for many people my approach (I recognise) might be entirely stupid. Nevertheless, I can afford the bag space, and feel with my particular bunch of weaknesses it massively helps me to use loft to adjust distance (both with full, and chip shots), rather than by feel (my feel sucks, really it does). Since taking this approach and buying a decent putter I'm about eight shots better in practice than I was before. That's massive for me. Instead of struggling to play to my handicap I'm looking at sixteen or better being a realistic goal before the Autumn.