Wedges: Bounce, Grooves, and Brand

[RobertJason]

I’m new to this, still playing about 110 (not great). I have recently learned that wedges can be complicated. I play on mostly hard soil (central Cali) so I was thinking I need a gap and lob with low bounce and sand wedge with medium bounce. How do I evaluate a wege? Is Cleveland (CG12, CG10) necessarily better than Adams Tom Watson wedges? As a high handicapper would I even notice? 
 

attached are photos of a 60-4 Cleveland CG12 and a 58-11 Adams. In these photos I don’t really see where the 4-degree and 11-degree bounce are... the angles look similar to my eyes. I do see that the Cleveland seeks to have deeper grooves, but not necessarily wider.

Id love to know from those more experienced than me what to expect from the profiles of these two lobs. I’m assuming for approach shots (not bunker) the 4-degree is the way to go?

 

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully, this thread can help others down the line.

[xrayvizhen]

When I was learning to play (a long time ago) there was no such thing as bounce and degrees on wedges. Well, there was, but no one knew what they were. All it said on the club was "PW" and "SW" and that was it. For the first few years I played, starting when I was 14, I used a half set - 3, 5, 7, 9,Driver, 3W, putter. The 9 iron served as my PW & SW and that was enough to get me shooting into the mid 80's. I learned to manipulate the 9 iron by opening/closing the face to get different lofts and yes, I could get out of the sand with it without a problem. Eventually I added a PW and a SW and it wasn't until I got to high school and made it onto the golf team that my Dad bought me a full set. But still, that set only went up to PW. The sand wedge I bought separately. Again no bounce/loft. It just had "SW" on it.

I'm firmly convinced the club manufacturers want everyone to have a collection of many different wedges with different lofts and bounces so that on any given day and depending on the conditions you will be playing in you can grab the two out of your collection you would think you might need. After all, why sell a person one club when you can sell him 5 or 6?

The point I'm trying to make is if you're shooting in the 110's you have a long way to go before you would need to get into the intricacies of all the wedges. Learn to play first. Worry about the wedges later.

Edited June 13, 2020 by xrayvizhen

[boogielicious]

19 hours ago, RobertJason said:

I’m new to this, still playing about 110 (not great). I have recently learned that wedges can be complicated. I play on mostly hard soil (central Cali) so I was thinking I need a gap and lob with low bounce and sand wedge with medium bounce. How do I evaluate a wege? Is Cleveland (CG12, CG10) necessarily better than Adams Tom Watson wedges? As a high handicapper would I even notice? 
 

attached are photos of a 60-4 Cleveland CG12 and a 58-11 Adams. In these photos I don’t really see where the 4-degree and 11-degree bounce are... the angles look similar to my eyes. I do see that the Cleveland seeks to have deeper grooves, but not necessarily wider.

Id love to know from those more experienced than me what to expect from the profiles of these two lobs. I’m assuming for approach shots (not bunker) the 4-degree is the way to go?

 

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully, this thread can help others down the line.

Bounce can be complicated, but it is your friend because it gives you margin of error. It is the initial angle from the leading edge on the wedge sole. What you are showing there also includes the whole sole width. This width can be relieved with grinding away the back part of the sole. So you can have a high bounce leading edge and lower the leading edge toward the ground. The two sites below discuss this.

Basically, you need to figure out if you have a steep angle of attack and make big divotS or just brush the ground. I have the Edel driver grind on my wedges. With Vokey, I had the highest bounce I could get with the S or D grinds.
 

Wedges – Edel Golf

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Edel Wedges are designed & manufactured from the ground up. Proper bounce & sole design make our hand-ground wedges perform where it matters most; at impact.

Wedge Bounce Explained | Wedge Buying Guide by Vokey - Vokey.com

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What is wedge bounce? As Bob Vokey says, "bounce is your friend." Learn the difference between low bounce wedges and high bounce wedges in this guide.

Maltby also describes it.

Learn - Ralph Maltby

 

[iacas]

[RobertJason]

I’m definitely a sweeper style. I rarely divot. I use wedge more 20-50 yds from the green in fairway or rough than in sand. I have found bounce to sometimes throw me off when it hits the ground (Got rid of a 52-11 for this reason). I think I’m still treating wedges like high loft irons, not like wedges. Gotta figure out how to “use” the bounce instead of “avoid” it getting in the way. I think I’ll stick to this setup: 52-7, 56-12, 60-4 ... and save the 56 mostly for sand. Maybe sweeper swing style needs low bounce. 
 

Any grind shape recommendations for sweepers chipping out of rough more than sand? 

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, RobertJason said:

I’m definitely a sweeper style. I rarely divot. I use wedge more 20-50 yds from the green in fairway or rough than in sand. I have found bounce to sometimes throw me off when it hits the ground (Got rid of a 52-11 for this reason). I think I’m still treating wedges like high loft irons, not like wedges. Gotta figure out how to “use” the bounce instead of “avoid” it getting in the way. I think I’ll stick to this setup: 52-7, 56-12, 60-4 ... and save the 56 mostly for sand. Maybe sweeper swing style needs low bounce. 
 

Any grind shape recommendations for sweepers chipping out of rough more than sand? 

I don’t take much of a divot even with partial wedge shots. But I still use a driver grind, high bounce Edel wedge.