New Wedges

[JCPeterson13]

Hi everybody...New to the golf forums so looking forward to it. Looking for some advice when buying new wedges. Since there are so many kinds out there, hard to know what is best for my game.

Currently have a 56 degree sand wedge that is really worn down and I am looking to split up into two new clubs. Thinking of going with a 60 lob wedge and another 56-58 degree gap wedge. Currently about a 20-handicap and don't spin the ball a bunch.

Any brand/grind types you would recommend?

[Bonvivant]

9 hours ago, JCPeterson13 said:

Hi everybody...New to the golf forums so looking forward to it. Looking for some advice when buying new wedges. Since there are so many kinds out there, hard to know what is best for my game.

Currently have a 56 degree sand wedge that is really worn down and I am looking to split up into two new clubs. Thinking of going with a 60 lob wedge and another 56-58 degree gap wedge. Currently about a 20-handicap and don't spin the ball a bunch.

Any brand/grind types you would recommend?

What is the next highest loft club you have in your bag? If you have newer irons and they only go down to pitching wedge, you are likely leaving a 10 degree or more gap if you only have a 56. What do the yardages look like at the short end of your bag? Typically gap wedges are 50-54. 56 is definitely sand wedge range and 58 is already in lob wedge territory. 

Personally I have traditional loft irons so my pw is 49 degrees (3-6 degrees weaker than modern standard). To keep with similar gapping I filled out with a 53 and 58 degree. If your set's weakest club is 46 degrees or stronger, I would reccomend trying to find a 50-52 and then 56-58 to keep your gapping at least a little consistent. 

I don't have a preference on brand, bounce or grind. I am sure others could help more with this

Edited November 27, 2019 by Bonvivant

[David in FL]

Welcome to the site!  
 

The classic gap would be either 54° and 58°, or 56° and 60°.

Although you didn’t ask, I’d recommend avoiding either lob wedge.  Although you’ll find them in a lot of high handicapper bags, they’re very tough to hit well and will not likely improve your scores.  
 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by David in FL

[ncates00]

9 hours ago, JCPeterson13 said:

Hi everybody...New to the golf forums so looking forward to it. Looking for some advice when buying new wedges. Since there are so many kinds out there, hard to know what is best for my game.

Currently have a 56 degree sand wedge that is really worn down and I am looking to split up into two new clubs. Thinking of going with a 60 lob wedge and another 56-58 degree gap wedge. Currently about a 20-handicap and don't spin the ball a bunch.

Any brand/grind types you would recommend?

Others have made good suggestions here, but I would add:

- Go through a good gap test.  Don't just pick wedges based off the lofts.  For wedges, I would get gapping for both full shots and partial wedge shots.  For example, in my bag, I have a PW at 47*, AW at 51*, SW at 56* and a LW at 64*.  I hit both full shots and partial shots with each of them.  I have a 60*, but I found that the 60 bumped too much into my 56; and, the 64 for some reason allowed me to hit the low launch/high spinning 50 yard checker better than the 60.

- Apropos of my mentioning me going to the 64 v. the 60, I recommend a bigger gap between wedges than just the traditional 4 degree gapping.  Some have said as much as 6* of separation is good between wedges.  You just don't want to have clubs going the same distance; otherwise, what's the point in having the extra club?   

- I don't know much about grinds, but I do like having a good amount of bounce.  I use Cleveland wedges and they're all 2 dot or 3 dot.  Even my 64 is a 2 dot.

 

In sum, get on a good launch monitor and test different wedges.  Gap test for both your full shots and partial wedges.  Err on the side of more bounce.  Good luck!

[criley4way]

A few things to throw out there. 
 

Unless your course has a lot of deep bunkers or raised greens, do you really need and can you use effectively a lob wedge?

Get your bag gapped.

first make sure you don’t have. Big gap between your highest iron and strongest wedge distances.

Next see if there is a space at the top of your bag to fill. 

also look Honestly at your game and see where you lose shots and address that. 
 

finally get fit

[colin007]

Get rid of the lob. Mine's been sitting in the garage for 4 years now and I don't miss it

[jmanbooyaa]

The lob wedge is useless to weekend warriors like myself. You end up throwing away more shots due to poor contact. 

[JCPeterson13]

Thanks everybody. Basically I am just trying to get some more diversification in my bag and have the right kind of club for all shots. Right now I have a really old (and beat up) 56 degree sand wedge that I pretty much use for everything around the green...thus why I would be looking at other intermediate clubs. 

I currently have Taylormade M4 irons that go 4-iron - AW. The AW is 49 degrees loft. So would that suggest I should have a 54 and 58?

[WUTiger]

On 11/27/2019 at 8:58 AM, David in FL said:

The classic gap would be either 54° and 58°, or 56° and 60°.

Although you didn’t ask, I’d recommend avoiding either lob wedge.  Although you’ll find them in a lot of high handicapper bags, they’re very tough to hit well and will not likely improve your scores.

With a 43.5* PW and a 49* AW, next could be a 54* or a 56*.

You would need to see what the yardage gap is between PW and AW, for both full and partial shots. Then a 54* or a 56* might fill the gap. Will you hit full shots with your SW? Some golfers do, others don't. Make sure first of all that the SW gets you out of the sand.

As David noted, LWs can be rather difficult to hit for many golfers. Unless you have the lob gift and can do wonderful things with it, you might wait a season to put it into your bag. LW is rather odd club, and takes a lot of work to master it.

Any chance you can hit some wedges off real turf at early demo days?

JC, you mentioned you had trouble getting spin on the ball. This could result from the type of ball you have (distance balls harder to spin), or how you hit the ball. You might get a short-game lesson if you haven't had one. I played golf for 20 years before I got my first short-game lesson, and learned a lot.

[onthehunt526]

On 11/28/2019 at 11:59 PM, WUTiger said:

With a 43.5* PW and a 49* AW, next could be a 54* or a 56*.

You would need to see what the yardage gap is between PW and AW, for both full and partial shots. Then a 54* or a 56* might fill the gap. Will you hit full shots with your SW? Some golfers do, others don't. Make sure first of all that the SW gets you out of the sand.

As David noted, LWs can be rather difficult to hit for many golfers. Unless you have the lob gift and can do wonderful things with it, you might wait a season to put it into your bag. LW is rather odd club, and takes a lot of work to master it.

Any chance you can hit some wedges off real turf at early demo days?

JC, you mentioned you had trouble getting spin on the ball. This could result from the type of ball you have (distance balls harder to spin), or how you hit the ball. You might get a short-game lesson if you haven't had one. I played golf for 20 years before I got my first short-game lesson, and learned a lot.

I think as you said @WUTiger some of the consideration is whether you will be hitting full shots with your sand wedge. Some can and do, so just won't. 

I'm going to make a strange suggestion, get a 56° or 58° wedge with the most bounce you can find. That will help you get out of bunkers and trouble. The bounce is what keeps the wedge from digging in the sand. 

As far as the difficulty with spin. As @WUTiger had stated a short game lesson may be in order. (Note: that is how I learned to shorten my full swing, which was why I hit fat wedge shots before, my swing was too long and I was getting stuck on my right side, now I turn through, but that's a different thread entirely)

[WUTiger]

On 12/2/2019 at 1:33 AM, onthehunt526 said:

I'm going to make a strange suggestion, get a 56° or 58° wedge with the most bounce you can find. That will help you get out of bunkers and trouble. The bounce is what keeps the wedge from digging in the sand. 

Ralph Maltby recommends that golfers have variety in their wedge bounce. If most wedges are medium bounce, have a high bouncer to increase shot options.