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

[Shindig]

I think I'm pushing it with 4 wedges at the moment.  The only reason I even have that is because I don't have another long club I want, but also not one I want to remove.

Okay, if I had to go PW + 4, and I had an equipment van, I'd either look into a lower-lofted hybrid to replace my 22 (4h) or a slightly stronger 5-iron to replace my 5-iron;  that is, I'd take my hybrid and 5-iron and replace them with something between the two.

Seeing the Edel Fitting comments upthread makes me wonder if it's time for new wedges for me anyway and maybe I should get around to getting that fitting (my wedges that aren't from my iron set are first-generation Ping Glide, which are still awesome but maybe it's time to consider another).

[onthehunt526]

All the WITB online only have Yuka winning with only 13 clubs. I’m pretty sure she had 14. Jerry Foltz isn’t full of it. She dropped her 5-wood for her 5 wedge set-up.

Driver, 3-wood, 20° hybrid, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, 60°, putter

Erik won’t do it, because his 9-iron has 44° and he still carries a 3-iron.

Ok, I said, I would reveal my theoretical set-up with 5 wedges once there was more replies.

Here it is:

D, 3w, 7w, 5i, 6i, 7i, 8i, 9i, PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, Cleveland Smart Sole 58°, putter

[ChetlovesMer]

5 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

All the WITB online only have Yuka winning with only 13 clubs. I’m pretty sure she had 14. Jerry Foltz isn’t full of it. She dropped her 5-wood for her 5 wedge set-up.

Driver, 3-wood, 20° hybrid, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, 60°, putter

Erik won’t do it, because his 9-iron has 44° and he still carries a 3-iron.

Ok, I said, I would reveal my theoretical set-up with 5 wedges once there was more replies.

Here it is:

D, 3w, 7w, 5i, 6i, 7i, 8i, 9i, PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, Cleveland Smart Sole 58°, putter

In the interest of keeping this conversation going. Why not go 60 degree instead of 58?

 

[boogielicious]

10 hours 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.

So you no longer call your LW Betty?

Agree with your point. My PW is 47 degrees. I think more in distance and not the number on the club. I thinks Saso’s set up is specific to the types of shots she likes to execute. And she just won a major.😀

[ChetlovesMer]

4 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

So you no longer call your LW Betty?

The LW and I get along pretty well these days. Not long ago I had a number of names for it.... none of them were very pleasant. 

5 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Agree with your point. My PW is 47 degrees. I think more in distance and not the number on the club. 

I kind of wish everyone thought that way. I have a good friend who nearly always asks me what club I hit. Which is fine with me, by the way. When I tell him I hit my 150 club, he always responds with "Which one is that?" It's now become a running joke between us. 

8 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

And she just won a major.

How cool would that be? 

[onthehunt526]

10 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

In the interest of keeping this conversation going. Why not go 60 degree instead of 58?

 

The smart sole is a different sole wedge than the Zipcore wedge. I don’t hate my 60° I’ve learned to use it in different varieties of ways.

[Missouri Swede]

17 hours ago, boogielicious said:

So you no longer call your LW Betty?

Let’s not go there again.  I’m still paying royalties to Paul Simon for the last time. 

 

[tomvk77]

I think it depends on your game basically and for the pro’s what kind off course they are playing. My setup will basically stay the same always.

dr,3wood,3hybrid 4-pw 50,55,60 putter

However i saw the setup from collin for scotish open, he carries 2 60deg wedges. One is the high toe version.

[pganapathy]

Personally, I wouldn't have that many wedges to begin with.  My current bag is Driver, 4h, 5-9 iron, PW (45*), SW (55*) and LW (60*).  And both the SW and LW are specialty clubs.  Either out of the bunker or for flop type shots.  Anything else I tend to prefer the PW.  More than anything else the LW is there in case I need it since it has far less bounce than the SW. I suppose if I practiced enough and needed 5 wedges like the OP asks, I would sacrifice a 3 wood and 5 wood and replace them with a 4 wood.

[Shindig]

22 hours ago, pganapathy said:

Personally, I wouldn't have that many wedges to begin with.  My current bag is Driver, 4h, 5-9 iron, PW (45*), SW (55*) and LW (60*).  And both the SW and LW are specialty clubs.  Either out of the bunker or for flop type shots.  Anything else I tend to prefer the PW.  More than anything else the LW is there in case I need it since it has far less bounce than the SW. I suppose if I practiced enough and needed 5 wedges like the OP asks, I would sacrifice a 3 wood and 5 wood and replace them with a 4 wood.

You don't carry a UW (or approach wedge, or gap wedge, whatever you want to call it)?   There's an AW that matches the set of irons you use.

[pganapathy]

4 minutes ago, Shindig said:

You don't carry a UW (or approach wedge, or gap wedge, whatever you want to call it)?   There's an AW that matches the set of irons you use.

I probably should.  When I was playing golf three times a week about 10 years ago, I could hit my SW off the fairway like all my other irons.  Today, I struggle to hit it, except from a bunker or a flop shot.  My shortest club for a full swing is the PW, which I hit upto about 120 yards or so.  Lack of practice is one of the issues.  I should really look for a 50* GW/AW that goes with my RAC set but wonder if lack of practice is the bigger issue.  It doesn't help that finding a used club in India is a lot harder and more expensive than in the US.  Also, the PW is probably my favourite club from about 100 yards in and especially in nGIR situations

[ncates00]

On 6/7/2021 at 12:57 AM, onthehunt526 said:

D, 3w, 7w, 5i, 6i, 7i, 8i, 9i, PW, 48°, 52°, 56°, Cleveland Smart Sole 58°, putter

In my opinion, that's way too many high lofted clubs, dude. Depending on the loft of your 3w and 7w, you're going to have a huge gap between 3w and 7w or 7w and 5i.

On the flip side, if you're playing a relatively short course (or a further forward tee box) where you're hitting mostly driver-wedge all day, then I suppose this setup makes sense.

I suppose your reasoning is you want to avoid partial wedge shots. For me, I'd rather have more options at the long end of the bag than more wedges. It's far easier to finesse wedges to hit those partial distances while keeping spin on the ball to hold a green. I have yet to find a shot that I cannot do with my pw (48*), sw (54*), or lw (60*) to make me want to get another wedge. I simply do not see any upside to having more wedges than this. It's much harder to finesse long clubs to hit partial distances because if you finesse them, they tend to come out lower and with less spin--good luck holding the green. That's exactly why I have more longer clubs; I want more full shots in so as to keep my height and spin up on those long approaches. Or alternatively, if I'm playing a course with a lot of trouble, a new course I'm not familiar with, or if I just want to hit it "where I can see it" and keep the ball low off the tee, I'll put in my driving iron (Titleist u510 16*) instead of my 5w. But again, as I stated above, if you're on a driver-wedge course, then this may not matter to you.

Edited July 7, 2021 by ncates00

[onthehunt526]

33 minutes ago, ncates00 said:

In my opinion, that's way too many high lofted clubs, dude. Depending on the loft of your 3w and 7w, you're going to have a huge gap between 3w and 7w or 7w and 5i.

On the flip side, if you're playing a relatively short course (or a further forward tee box) where you're hitting mostly driver-wedge all day, then I suppose this setup makes sense.

I suppose your reasoning is you want to avoid partial wedge shots. For me, I'd rather have more options at the long end of the bag than more wedges. It's far easier to finesse wedges to hit those partial distances while keeping spin on the ball to hold a green. I have yet to find a shot that I cannot do with my pw (48*), sw (54*), or lw (60*) to make me want to get another wedge. I simply do not see any upside to having more wedges than this. It's much harder to finesse long clubs to hit partial distances because if you finesse them, they tend to come out lower and with less spin--good luck holding the green. That's exactly why I have more longer clubs; I want more full shots in so as to keep my height and spin up on those long approaches. Or alternatively, if I'm playing a course with a lot of trouble, a new course I'm not familiar with, or if I just want to hit it "where I can see it" and keep the ball low off the tee, I'll put in my driving iron (Titleist u510 16*) instead of my 5w. But again, as I stated above, if you're on a driver-wedge course, then this may not matter to you.

Nah, It’d work out, especially if you consider the Srixon 7w is 21° and my 5i is 24°-25°.

I wouldn’t do it personally, I am just learning how to “gap” wedges better myself. I just put my feet closer together.

[ncates00]

25 minutes ago, onthehunt526 said:

Srixon 7w is 21° and my 5i is 24°-25°.

Sounds like a big gap between 7w and 3w though. Personally, I've got a gap of nearly 40 yards between my 3w and 7w.

Edited July 7, 2021 by ncates00

[onthehunt526]

2 hours ago, ncates00 said:

Sounds like a big gap between 7w and 3w though. Personally, I've got a gap of nearly 40 yards between my 3w and 7w.

No not really, I tested 5w and it ran to close to my 3w with the ZX line. It’s 15-21-24-27-31-35-39-44-48-52-56-Smart sole. A 7w will go a little farther than a hybrid the same loft and definitely farther than an iron of the same loft… I carried Driver, 3w or 4w, 2i-PW, 52°, 58°, Putter for years. Before I switched to hybrids and driving irons, I carried a 7w in place of the 2-iron for the longest time. It was a Tommy Armour evo, I hit the shit out of that thing.

[azgreg]

Everywhere I've looked shows she uses 4 wedges not 5.

 

[onthehunt526]

6 hours ago, azgreg said:

Everywhere I've looked shows she uses 4 wedges not 5.

 

She had 5 in the bag for the U.S. Open.

[azgreg]

24 minutes ago, onthehunt526 said:

She had 5 in the bag for the U.S. Open.

 

What's in Yuka Saso's bag?

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A new LPGA Tour superstar was born at the US Women's Open. Here's what's in Yuka Saso's major-winning bag

 

Yuka Saso WITB: What's in the US Women's Open champ's bag? - DailyGolfJournal.com

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A new LPGA Tour superstar was born at the US Women’s Open. Here’s what’s in Yuka Saso’s major-winning bag When Yuka Saso double-bogeyed both the second and third holes to find herself five back of Lexi Thompson at the...

What’s in Yuka Saso’s US Women’s Open-winning bag? | Pro Golf Network

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A new LPGA Tour superstar was born at the US Women's Open. Here's what's in Yuka Saso's major-winning bag

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by azgreg