What is your "magic" distance or club for approach shots?

[TDK24]

When I  step on my gap wedge, it comes out low (for a wedge), goes around 145, and sits down fast. It's my absolute favorite shot to hit. Now, I have a ridiculously low ball flight (to the point that I ordered my new irons 2* weak), so that may give it some extra distance. But yes, it's my 145 club.

I've hit my PW 145 before. It was super thin though...

[TXRains]

For me it's about 100-110. That leaves me a real comfortable PW into the green. But i don't really mind anything short of about 140ish or so, which is 8i and lower. With those in hand i can get nice heighth and stick the green, plus they're my most consistent clubs.

[Nutter]

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

A 145 yard pitching wedge?  Right.

The 145 gap wedge sounds unreasonable unless you're a low handicap, but cranking a PW out there that far isn't ridiculous at all..

[Jimdangles]

The 145 gap wedge sounds unreasonable unless you're a low handicap, but cranking a PW out there that far isn't ridiculous at all..

Iif you guys are takin into account the strong lofts now a days. When I had some r7 xds 145 was my pitch but only because it was basically my nine

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Nutter

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

A 145 yard pitching wedge?  Right.

The 145 gap wedge sounds unreasonable unless you're a low handicap, but cranking a PW out there that far isn't ridiculous at all..

My 49 degree PW is my 140-145 club. I wish it was my 130 club. I could leave a wedge out.

[JaxBomber17]

Originally Posted by Nutter

The 145 gap wedge sounds unreasonable unless you're a low handicap, but cranking a PW out there that far isn't ridiculous at all..

I don't know why it's unreasonable...I'm a big guy (6'7" with long arms; not that that guarantees length, but it seems to help) with a lot of power. Trust me, I'd trade ten yards off every club for a higher ball flight and more accuracy any day. I'd probably shave five strokes off my handicap if I could do that. If a 145 pitching wedge isn't ridiculous, why is 145 with basically a 4* weaker loft ridiculous? My 52 is a true 52, for what it's worth.

[JaxBomber17]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

My 49 degree PW is my 140-145 club. I wish it was my 130 club. I could leave a wedge out.

Amen. I'd love to throw out my 60* and add a 3 iron.

[Nutter]

Originally Posted by JaxBomber17

I don't know why it's unreasonable...I'm a big guy (6'7" with long arms; not that that guarantees length, but it seems to help) with a lot of power. Trust me, I'd trade ten yards off every club for a higher ball flight and more accuracy any day. I'd probably shave five strokes off my handicap if I could do that. If a 145 pitching wedge isn't ridiculous, why is 145 with basically a 4* weaker loft ridiculous? My 52 is a true 52, for what it's worth.

Haha my bad man, I didn't realize you were a monster.  I can definitely believe that now, and yea I'm 6'2" with pretty long arms and I know it helps me.  I hit it pretty far but I just hit my gap/sand wedge extremely high so I'm thinking about how high my gap would have to go to hit it 145, unless I closed the face down and really went at it.

[Nutter]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

My 49 degree PW is my 140-145 club. I wish it was my 130 club. I could leave a wedge out.

Second that, 3 wedges feels like a waste of space most of the time,

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by JaxBomber17

I don't know why it's unreasonable...I'm a big guy (6'7" with long arms; not that that guarantees length, but it seems to help) with a lot of power. Trust me, I'd trade ten yards off every club for a higher ball flight and more accuracy any day. I'd probably shave five strokes off my handicap if I could do that. If a 145 pitching wedge isn't ridiculous, why is 145 with basically a 4* weaker loft ridiculous? My 52 is a true 52, for what it's worth.

I believe you can hit it that far, but I'm curious, how do you get on with long irons? Usually that kind of distance that high in the set comes from delofting the club and often the players who do so struggle with lower lofted clubs as a result, especially since you mention your flight is a bit low. Also, do you take the club back to about 45˚ or do you bring it to parallel with your short irons? Especially with such a big frame and in all likelihood +1" shaft length, that big of an arc plus a full swing can make for some wild club speed. I personally hit a standard 43˚ 9 iron about 150 on a 3/4 backswing and I got a ton more accurate since I stopped bringing all my clubs past parallel. If you look at most of the best iron players like Rory for example, you can see he never takes the club back much past 45˚ unless he's hitting a wood. I shortened my swing and it improved my game immensely within 200 yards, especially my short irons.

[newtogolf]

100 yards - full gap wedge is the magic distance for me.  I practice those the most given the range I go to only has flags at 50, 100, 150, and 175.

[JaxBomber17]

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

I believe you can hit it that far, but I'm curious, how do you get on with long irons? Usually that kind of distance that high in the set comes from delofting the club and often the players who do so struggle with lower lofted clubs as a result, especially since you mention your flight is a bit low. Also, do you take the club back to about 45˚ or do you bring it to parallel with your short irons? Especially with such a big frame and in all likelihood +1" shaft length, that big of an arc plus a full swing can make for some wild club speed. I personally hit a standard 43˚ 9 iron about 150 on a 3/4 backswing and I got a ton more accurate since I stopped bringing all my clubs past parallel. If you look at most of the best iron players like Rory for example, you can see he never takes the club back much past 45˚ unless he's hitting a wood. I shortened my swing and it improved my game immensely within 200 yards, especially my short irons.

Up until recently, I was a parallel swinger. I was a college pitcher, and was seriously into yoga for a few years, which combine to give me good flexibility and balance, but I'm starting to see that using all my flexibility isn't necessarily a good thing in this game.

That is exactly what the pro who did my fitting told me. My long irons do not hold greens right now. I was carrying the demo six for the MP-53s 230 with my typical swing, and some of them were rolling out to 240-245. When he told me to keep my back knee bent and take it to about 3/4 of parallel, it started carrying about 225 and actually checking up a little, which I was ecstatic about. I ordered them an inch and a half long, same as my old ones, but also 1* upright to eliminate my constant toe digs and 2* weak on the lofts. When I took my short irons (still from the old set; apparently my new Mizunos are on back order) out to the range last night, I tried the same thing. After I got the chunks out of the way, I noticed a much higher ball flight, but surprisingly I didn't seem to lose any distance, and picked up a little accuracy right away. I'm about to head back to the range as soon as the girlfriend gets here. She just bought a new set and wants me to teach her how to play. I don't see a possible win in this situation. But that is another thread...