Yuka Saso's 5 Wedge Setup, What Long Club Would You Remove With This Setup?

[onthehunt526]

I watched the U.S. Women’s Open today, as I was interested on how Megha Ganne was going to play today. During the telecast, Jerry Foltz said on one of Yuka Saso’s approach shots, that she had 5 wedges in the bag, with 2 “gap” wedges in the bag. I had me thinking, what long club would you have to remove to make the set-up work?

I don’t want to personally do it, I’m just curious... to see what the fellow Sand Trappers thoughts were.

[Shorty]

One of her gap wedges is most likely a weak 9 iron. Alternatively, her 9 iron might be a strong gap wedge.

[onthehunt526]

1 minute ago, Shorty said:

One of her gap wedges is most likely a weak 9 iron. Alternatively, her 9 iron might be a strong gap wedge.

I don’t know about that, there’s at least 3 Vokeys in the bag and there may be four..

I’m pretty sure she has a 7-iron she hit that at least 3 times, She has an 8-iron she hit that to the 2nd hole. She hit 5-iron to the 13th. She had a 6-iron on 3.

It could be 9-iron. And they just tweaked the PW and 8-iron. But I’d do believe I only saw 3 headcovers today... So my educated guess is she took the 5-wood out of the bag to add the 52° wedge.

So her bag looks something like Driver, 3w, 20° hybrid, 24° 5I-44° PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, 60° Vokeys.

My question wasn’t what she had done, it’s more of what other club would you remove for a fifth wedge? It’s just a hypothetical get you thinking question.

[Shorty]

It depends on whether you think that your strongest hybrid is close enough to your 5 wood.

For me to do do it it would be:

Driver

4 wood

4 hybrid (no 3 hybrid)

5,6,7,8,9 irons

48, 52, 54, 56, 60  wedges

Putter

Edited June 6, 2021 by Shorty

[onthehunt526]

Just now, Shorty said:

It depends on whether you think that your strongest hybrid is close enough to your 5 wood.

For me to do do it it would be:

Driver

3 wood

5 wood

4 hybrid (no 3 hybrid)

5,6,7,8,9 irons

48, 52, 56, 60 wedges

Putter

Can’t you make the 3 and 5 wood a single fairway wood? And that’s only 4 wedges shorty. Unless 9-iron is ~43-44° I don’t know if your setup would work. 
 

I’ll save mine for when there are more replies. 
 

I think Yuka wishes she had her 5-wood on 17 though.

[Shorty]

11 minutes ago, onthehunt526 said:

Can’t you make the 3 and 5 wood a single fairway wood? And that’s only 4 wedges shorty. Unless 9-iron is ~43-44° I don’t know if your setup would work. 
 

I’ll save mine for when there are more replies. 
 

I think Yuka wishes she had her 5-wood on 17 though.

I added an wedge while you were replying it seems.

Maybe change the 5 wood to a 4 wood. In fact, I've done that.

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Shorty

[Missouri Swede]

Driver, fairway wood, hybrid, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, putter.

That’s nine, then there’s room for five wedges.

[iacas]

I only use three wedges.

So I don’t even care to think about playing with five wedges. 🙂

[boogielicious]

22 minutes ago, iacas said:

I only use three wedges.

So I don’t even care to think about playing with five wedges. 🙂

PW, 54 and 60? I play 4 right now, but maybe that will change after my Edel fitting. 😀

[Chris Brooks]

Funny you brought this up because today I’m planning to test and calibrate my PW, 9 iron, and 50 deg Vokey on my SkyTrak. For some reason my gapping has disappeared between my P and 50 deg. The P is a 44 degree loft so I’m very confused. I can’t imagine club quality would account for that much of a difference.

I’m seeing more consistent longer yardages with my irons after lots of work with @iacason Evolvr, so maybe I just don’t yet have a good enough sample with the P.

[colin007]

I'm currently using 3 wedges and wondering if I should drop one.

[ChetlovesMer]

8 hours ago, Shorty said:

One of her gap wedges is most likely a weak 9 iron. Alternatively, her 9 iron might be a strong gap wedge.

This is a good point.

Back when I started playing golf (1992), my first "real set" of golf clubs had the following at the bottom of the bag:

• 8-iron = 40 degrees
• 9-iron = 45 degrees
• PW = 50 degrees
• SW = 57 degrees
• LW = 61 degrees

Today my set up is slightly different:

• 9-iron = 40 degrees
• PW = 45 degrees
• GW = 50 degrees
• SW = 54 degrees
• LW = 60 degrees

So, I've tweaked the wedges just a bit and renamed a couple of them. But I pretty much only do "wedge stuff" with the SW and LW. I use the PW and GW more like they were 10 and 11 irons. 

[ncates00]

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Today my set up is slightly different:

• 9-iron = 40 degrees
• PW = 45 degrees
• GW = 50 degrees
• SW = 54 degrees
• LW = 60 degrees

I would bend the pw to 47 or 48, drop the gap wedge, and add another long club, e.g., another hybrid, driving iron, or fairway wood. I find that it is far easier to do finesse shots with wedges, while still retaining enough spin to hold the green, than it is to manipulate long clubs while retaining enough descent angle and spin to hold the green from long distance. I find this to be true even if you’re playing mostly driver-wedge courses. Dropping that gap wedge could let you put in a driving iron for some low bullet, tee balls or a hybrid/fairway wood to go for long par 4’s and par 5’s. 

[iacas]

6 hours ago, boogielicious said:

PW, 54 and 60? I play 4 right now, but maybe that will change after my Edel fitting. 😀

48, 54, 60.

[ShawnSum]

I wouldn't know what to do with 5 wedges. I've never had a full bag but I'm working on that this year. For a really long time I did everything with a stock set PW but I've had a 52° for a little while now and it's been my work horse for everything inside 115 yards. I've got a 56° on order that I've been waiting on since early April.

So when I'm done I'll have a 52°, 56°, 60° for wedges not including stock PW. 

[ChetlovesMer]

5 hours ago, ncates00 said:

I would bend the pw to 47 or 48, drop the gap wedge, and add another long club, e.g., another hybrid, driving iron, or fairway wood. I find that it is far easier to do finesse shots with wedges, while still retaining enough spin to hold the green, than it is to manipulate long clubs while retaining enough descent angle and spin to hold the green from long distance. I find this to be true even if you’re playing mostly driver-wedge courses. Dropping that gap wedge could let you put in a driving iron for some low bullet, tee balls or a hybrid/fairway wood to go for long par 4’s and par 5’s. 

Why? 

Firstly, I'm not bending my PW 3 degrees. I use my PW for 110 to 130 depending on conditions. I like it for that. 
Secondly, I only use 2 clubs as wedges.
Thirdly, I currently carry 4 hybrids. Do you really want me to add another? 

I'm happy with my set up. 
 

The point of my post was that the lofts on my clubs haven't changed much in almost 30 years. But the names have. Today it appears as though I carry 4 wedges, where as I used to carry 3 (in name anyway). But in reality I only use 2 clubs as "Wedges". The rest are for full shots. 

[ncates00]

4 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Why? 

I gave my reasons above. I’d rather have an extra long club than an extra wedge. Wedges are easier to hit, including partial shots. I’d rather have more options at the long end of the bag because, with long clubs, it’s harder to “take something off” and still hold the green (the ball tends to come in lower and with less spin). My PW plays similar to yours—I fly it about 125y at 48*, but I also use it for partial shots down to where my 54* flies. 

 

6 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The point of my post was that the lofts on my clubs haven't changed much in almost 30 years. But the names have.

Yeah, I know; I gotcha brother. 

 

9 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I currently carry 4 hybrids.

Nice. I go: driver, 3w, 5w or my u510 driving iron, 7w, 4h, 5i through 48*, 54, and 60. No gap wedge even though my only hole-in-one was with my 52* on a downhill par 3 when the tees were moved up! It hangs up proudly on my wall with the ball 😀

[MGN]

20 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

I watched the U.S. Women’s Open today, as I was interested on how Megha Ganne was going to play today. During the telecast, Jerry Foltz said on one of Yuka Saso’s approach shots, that she had 5 wedges in the bag, with 2 “gap” wedges in the bag. I had me thinking, what long club would you have to remove to make the set-up work?

I don’t want to personally do it, I’m just curious... to see what the fellow Sand Trappers thoughts were.

Yes, I heard about Yuka's 5 wedges too.  And yes, I was also interested in the Ganne kid playing today; her attitude is so good and she will be good for LPGA golf in the long run.  

To your question, I would drop my 5i since with my slower swing speed, I don't get effective difference between my 6i and my 5i.  I still don't know what my 5th wedge would be.   I have a 46 deg PW, a 50 deg gap, a 54 and a 58.  Would possibly add a 56 with larger bounce than my 54 possibly.