Wedges, Irons, and Newbness

[Travtex]

I absolutely love my wedges. (Pitching excluded.)

My best friend in the bag is a 58* custom gigagolf SGS, and I don't know exactly why (Hence the post), but I'm developing a surprising amount of feel and control with the club. A month ago, I couldn't hit a single club in the bag... at all, much less straight. Today at the range, I planted a handful of 25' flop shots within ten feet of one another with the 58*, then pitched another batch about 50 yards around my target, then another batch of 25' flops.

I'm getting a similar feel for my other custom wedge, a 52*.

Then I get to my pitching wedge, and from there up I have no idea what the club is doing or how I'm hitting it when I swing. I'm getting better with them to a certain degree, but even when I'm hitting them solid, it feels like CLANK.

* Could it be the customization of the wedges? The ONLY modification is that my wedges have a 1* flat lie. Can 1* make that big of a difference?

* Is it the cavity-back 'forgiveness' taking away the feel? My starter set Slazengers resemble most closely the Slingshot 4Ds -- I haven't found any 4Ds in Lefty to compare the feel, but that's what they resemble visually and weight and balance-wise. As a beginner, I hardly think I just like the feel of blades better and that could overcome an inconsistent swing.

* Is it just a self-perpetuating thing? I like the wedges, I use them more, more practice means I get more confident, more confident means I like them more, liking them means more practice?

* Is it just shorter club == Easier? That doesn't SEEM to be the case, as I hit my 5i about as consistently as I hit my PW... Not Very.

--------------------------------------

Aside/Swing Pondering: Started getting a feel for what my body is doing when I manage to really grove a swing. I've hit some pure before, but it's been accidental. Today I keyed in on a couple things and had one of those quantum leaps in progress.

BUT, it ran a bit counterintuitive to what I've been taking from tips and one lesson. Basically, I worried less about my hands/arms on the backswing and just rotated my shoulders. At times, it felt like my hands were along for the ride and trying to catch up, but when I took the club back that way and shot my hip rotation when I felt the club flex... the results were a shocking improvement in distance and accuracy.

Did I just develop a bad habit, or was I misunderstanding what the instruction seemed to be telling me?