ideal wedge bounce out of the sand

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, Gerwally said:

So if I were to get one "all purpose" wedge for hitting out of green side bunkers, what degree and bounce  (and even manufacturer) would anyone recommend.  Thanks.

Check out this thread:

And then realize that sand is the place where bounce comes in MOST handy.

There's more to bounce than a number, too… the grind and camber matter a bit as well. My Edel wedges have a LOT of bounce, but it has toe relief, heel relief, and a relatively steep camber.

[Lagavulin62]

58 minutes ago, Gerwally said:

So if I were to get one "all purpose" wedge for hitting out of green side bunkers, what degree and bounce  (and even manufacturer) would anyone recommend.  Thanks.

Don't even go there.  Lol.   Fwiw I have a hogan high bounce but I will also use a standard wedge depending. 

[easyjay39402]

On 8/19/2012 at 4:47 AM, iacas said:

 

Thin shots can actually have more spin.

 

You goofed up and now you're trying to cover it up by saying someone can "visualize" a flier better than "thin"? Thin and fat are common terms. I greatly prefer everyone on the site simply use the terms properly .

 

And I disagree that a lot of bounce is going to lead to hitting the ball thin. The opposite is more often true because of how it'll change the person's technique. With more bounce, a player doesn't need to try to force a really shallow divot - it happens for them. So they can swing aggressively and take nice shallow divots out of the sand. With too little bounce players will have to hit too close to the ball.

 

Almost nobody thins the ball by taking a divot behind it and having the club come up and out of the sand. Most thins from greenside bunkers take place because the guy doesn't get into the sand early enough (or never touches the sand at all - i.e. same way they don't take divots from the fairway).

We have been experiencing drought where I live, and the bounce on my wedges is a big problem ... I do often hit the ball thin because my wedge bounces off the hard pan into the underside of my ball. Inside of 100 yards I'm trying to just run the ball onto the green where possible, although I don't actually have that shot. Waiting for the rains and soft turf to return ...

On 8/22/2012 at 6:24 AM, Willie Malay said:

Thin and or wet sand: low bounce

Thick and or fluffy sand: high bounce

 

Just think about it for a while and you will figure it out. Bounce is confusing to some because they don't stop to figure out what is happening.

Exactly.  It's best to have two sand wedges in the garage with high and low bounce. Match the club to the conditions. But I personally don't follow this approach as I am a dullard.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, easyjay39402 said:

We have been experiencing drought where I live, and the bounce on my wedges is a big problem ... I do often hit the ball thin because my wedge bounces off the hard pan into the underside of my ball.

Then, quite honestly, it's more an issue of bad technique than anything else.

That wedge has 22° bounce. It's not a super wide sole, but it has a lot of bounce.

It's more about your technique. Go with a lower bounce wedge and you'll struggle and lack forgiveness on many, many other types of shots.

I can hit my 22° bounce 60° wedge off concrete. Yes, it does require some skill, but going lower bounce is not what I advise as the solution.

3 hours ago, easyjay39402 said:

Exactly.  It's best to have two sand wedges in the garage with high and low bounce. Match the club to the conditions. But I personally don't follow this approach as I am a dullard.

You can match the same club to the shot called for. I can take off or add bounce to any club in my bag just by varying a few things. I'm not a big fan, if you couldn't tell already, of changing the clubs, because the day you have a hardpan lie you might also have a fluffy lie in the rough or fairway, or in the sand, and so on.

Bounce = glide = forgiveness. So long as there's a lot of bounce but the sole isn't super wide… you can play every shot you need to play.

[easyjay39402]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

You can match the same club to the shot called for. I can take off or add bounce to any club in my bag just by varying a few things. I'm not a big fan, if you couldn't tell already, of changing the clubs, because the day you have a hardpan lie you might also have a fluffy lie in the rough or fairway, or in the sand, and so on.

Bounce = glide = forgiveness. So long as there's a lot of bounce but the sole isn't super wide… you can play every shot you need to play.

I'm more of the school that matches the club to the conditions, but, true enough, my technique in the short game is problematic these days. 

I like the simplicity of settling in with just one go-to wedge. Maybe my Cleveland 56.12.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, easyjay39402 said:

I'm more of the school that matches the club to the conditions, but, true enough, my technique in the short game is problematic these days. 

There's no one set of conditions, though. Versatility trumps "the conditions." Even the fact that the word "conditions" is plural speaks to that.  Nobody says they want to match the bounce to the condition".

[roamin]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

There's no one set of conditions, though. Versatility trumps "the conditions."

Exactly. The pitching thread covers this from every angle. Best for me was @iacas's second post...

Even though that thread is about pitching, it's clear we're still talking ball-first contact. If you're hitting the ground first, you're doing something wrong. I believe the point is that bounce is *more* likely to help when you do do something wrong.

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, roamin said:

Even though that thread is about pitching, it's clear we're still talking ball-first contact. If you're hitting the ground first, you're doing something wrong. I believe the point is that bounce is *more* likely to help when you do do something wrong.

That's not entirely true… With a shallow AoA, a proper amount of "glide" lets you hit two, three, even five inches behind the ball and hit a good shot.

I don't aim for perfect contact on many of my pitch shots. Just "good enough" contact.

[Ernest Jones]

7 hours ago, iacas said:

That's not entirely true… With a shallow AoA, a proper amount of "glide" lets you hit two, three, even five inches behind the ball and hit a good shot.

I don't aim for perfect contact on many of my pitch shots. Just "good enough" contact.

Erik is bang on. I'm a pretty mediocre golfer at best (not enough practice), but even I can hit pitches off of hard pan or even carpet on concrete. Never tried directly off of concrete, but if you lend me your wedge, I'm sure I could.  I can also hit up to 4-5 balls at the same time with one pitchy-floppy type swing. They'll all have different trajectories but none of them will be thin. We actually have a thread somewhere on here where a bunch of us tried this to varying degrees of success. It's all about shallow AoA and using the bounce properly. I intentionally hit a little bit behind the ball in these shots because I know the bounce and AoA will allow the club to slide through impact on a relatively flat plane, allowing the club to "collect" all the balls.  

Pitching and especially flopping becomes a helluva lot easier once you understand bounce.