Anyone still playing just three wedges? I'm seriously considering it.

[onthehunt526]

After struggling all year with more lofted wedges, I am seriously considering going to a three wedge system.

Does anyone still play this system?

Here's my problem, my PW is 44°, I'm not going to go directly to some sort of SW (56°). My thought was 44-48-54 (the wedges that match my iron set AW and SW). Currently I play EXi PW (44°) and AW (48°), and the CB Pro S 52°/12°, 56°/14° wedges. 

Note: I don't need to go out and buy any wedges to replace anything, unless you guys think I need a 50° second wedge in which case, I'd have to buy that.

[arturo28mx]

For me, pitching wedge that came with the set (45 degrees), gap wedge that came with the set (50 degrees) and Vokey 58 degree sand/lob wedge. Yes, it would seem there's a big gap between a 50 and a 58, but I can play the 50 with a shorter swing and cover all the distances, so I'm good.

[klineka]

I currently have only PW, 56 and 60. I also have a pretty big distance gap, 135-140 or so with PW and 100-110 with 56. I usually knock down a PW for 125 or so and jump on a 56 for 115, varies depending on the elevation changes and wind. I have been looking for a 50 or 52, and will get one eventually, but I still can score pretty decent with just the 3 wedges. 

[Lihu]

PW (46 degree) and UW (50 degree) from my Ping i20 set and a 56 and 60 seem to be gapped pretty well for full shots.

3 wedges would probably take out my 60 if anything, but I use that so much around the greens I can't see eliminating it.

[Ernest Jones]

Assuming we are calling a PW an 'iron", yes. I carry a 60*, 56* and 52*. The 52* gets the least action. 56* is my go-to and my 60* is what I pull when I want as little roll as possible, it also handle 80 yards and in unless I think I can finess it with the 56*.

[onthehunt526]

4 minutes ago, Ernest Jones said:

Assuming we are calling a PW an 'iron", yes. I carry a 60*, 56* and 52*. The 52* gets the least action. 56* is my go-to and my 60* is what I pull when I want as little roll as possible, it also handle 80 yards and in unless I think I can finess it with the 56*.

No I'm not calling a PW an "iron" even though "wedges" are considered "irons" by the USGA.

Aside from playing my 44° iron that reads "P" on the bottom... And my 48° iron that reads "A" on the bottom...

If I were just to play a third wedge from here what loft should I play? Or should I go a different route say 44°/50°/56°, until I get my wedge thing situated?

[mvmac]

I go 45, 50, 55 and 60. The 60 is very useful from 40 yards and in. I wouldn't want to play bunker shots, most pitches around a green with a 54. Having your most lofted club be 54 degrees seems very limiting IMO. Yes you can open it up and add more loft but it's just easier to hit those shots around the green with a square faced 58 or 60.

[onthehunt526]

43 minutes ago, mvmac said:

I go 45, 50, 55 and 60. The 60 is very useful from 40 yards and in. I wouldn't want to play bunker shots, most pitches around a green with a 54. Having your most lofted club be 54 degrees seems very limiting IMO. Yes you can open it up and add more loft but it's just easier to hit those shots around the green with a square faced 58 or 60.

I know that it seems limiting @mvmac.

Right now my 56° is the most loft I have in the bag. I own a 58° and a 60° (I actually have 3 different 54° wedges, 2 different 58° wedges in addition to the 52° and 56° I usually play.)

Here's what some information that will assist the TST members in assisting me...

These are the current average carry yardages for the bottom half of my bag. Lofts in parentheses.

7i (32°)        155-160

8i (36°)         145-150

9i (40°)         133-140

PW (44°)        60-95-110-125

AW (48°)        55-85-100-110

GW (52°)        50-70-?-?

SW (56°)         40-60-?-?

I hit most of my chip shots with my 48° wedge, (some PW-9i occasionally), pitch shots usually a 56° though occasionally I'll use a 52°. I can't hit a bunker shot to save my life, so usually I just try to "chip" it out with a 56°... (Only three bunkers are deep enough to be a problem with this) I'm scared to death of anything between say 60-90 yards. I'd rather be 100 yards than there. 

I actually do fine on less than full shots with my wedges. If I remember to stay relaxed. From say 90 yards, I actually just "cheat" my weight over to my left side, and keep it there and hit a 9:30 ish 48° wedge usually I can get the distance pretty close. But inside of that down to 60 yards I'm in trouble serious trouble... I don't know if it's mental or what not. My thought is until I sort out what the hell is going on with the wedges 52° and up on "fuller shots". To just play one until I get them sorted out... Maybe if I can sort it out with one "sand wedge" I can sort get it sorted out with all "sand wedges".

But which one?

Edited September 15, 2017 by onthehunt526

[Aussie Abroad]

I would bend them. Bend the PW to 46, then play a 52 and a 58. I have similar carry yardages to you but I am playing a PW 125 AP2, GW 112 AP2, 52 Vokey 100, 58 85 Vokey. I need the 58 for flops and use it in the sand. My gaps in degrees are fairly consistent except between the AP2 GW and the 52. They are closer together but I find the AP2´s go further so the 15 yards gap is perfect.

 

[Aussie Abroad]

Use the rotation of the chest more than swinging with just arms to control distance on the partial shots. Practicing the distances with good tempo and using the chest you'll get control pretty quickly.

 

[onthehunt526]

9 minutes ago, Aussie Abroad said:

I would bend them. Bend the PW to 46, then play a 52 and a 58. I have similar carry yardages to you but I am playing a PW 125 AP2, GW 112 AP2, 52 Vokey 100, 58 85 Vokey. I need the 58 for flops and use it in the sand. My gaps in degrees are fairly consistent except between the AP2 GW and the 52. They are closer together but I find the AP2´s go further so the 15 yards gap is perfect.

 

When I purchased this set, I actually already had the lofts bent on some of the clubs so I have 4° gaps from 6-iron down... Maybe I should of just bent the 7 and 8 so the lofts were 4° to the 9-iron and left the wedges alone... That one jumped up and slapped me right in the face. 

I'll give the rotation of the chest thing a try in the practice area... I can do it till I get about perpendicular with the ground... Maybe I should give it a whirl. I'm probably very "handsy" with a wedge in my hand. Could help me a bit... 

[Lihu]

Typically anything inside 110 yards, I use 56 and inside 90 yards the 60. It depends upon the type of shot as well.

I used to be afraid of shots between 60 and 90 yards, but am using a standard pitch shot now and practice those distances quite a bit in the short game area. The same pitch shot swing using bounce goes pretty much 5 to 80 yards and 90 yards would be a full swing with my 60. Everything is with my 60. I'd only switch to a lower lofted club if I needed to get under tree branches or whatever.

If I had to hit a tight lie over a bunker, I feel way more confident opening the face of my 60 with that pitch shot and getting as much spin and bounce as possible from that club.

So the 60 stays.

If I had to get rid of any other wedges it would leave a big gap up through 130 to 140 yards or so.

It just doesn't seem practical to eliminate any of these approach clubs. Especially on short par 4.

If I were you, I'd just practice a ton pitch shots from 5 to 80 yards.

[iacas]

Again… just because it's 44° doesn't mean it's going to match up with a 44° traditionally designed club, with a higher CG.

Get clubs that fit your gaps. Your PW may launch high. That's probably why it's got a stronger loft. Loft but also CG (and shaft flex) affect launch angle quite a bit.

I use three wedges.

48°, 54°, 60°.

Pretty much always have.

[Tim Williamson]

My pitching wedge is a 46 so instead of buying a 52 Gap Wedge I bought a 51. My other two wedges are a 56 and 60. The 51 GW is 5 degrees between the 46 PW and the 56.

[Shindig]

As it currently stands:  47 degree, 50 degree, 56 degree.  

Quarter swings get me 35, 25, and 15 yards.

Half swings get me 55, 45, and 35 yards (from a clean lie in the fairway).

Of course, I see Erik's numbers for similar swings and it tells me there's a lot I can do to improve my contact.

A full swing with my 47 gets me ~100 yards when/if I hit it that full.  A flight on the 50 gets me about 80.

As it might stand in a week:  I'm getting my new irons whenever they come in (the shafts I wanted are backordered). The PW in that set is 44.5 degrees, and on the launch monitor at least, I hit the 7-iron in the set 148, leading me to infer that I might have a sizable gap between "flight PW" (estimating now at 105, we'll see once I've played a few times) and "flight 50" (since I try to not hit a full wedge wedge pretty much ever).  So I'd contemplate adding a fourth wedge, including but not limited to keeping my existing set PW in the bag if needed (I also contemplated an older 47 degree wedge I like, but it doesn't have conforming grooves).  It depends also on distance gaps from 3-wood to top of the bag too.

[NM Golf]

That's such a personal preference. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it. My thought has always been you have to choose between that 4th wedge and a long iron/hybrid/fairway wood. Which will you use the most? Some people are better at manufacturing their wedge distances using different swings than others. If you have three wedges then you are going to have bigger gaps between them so you better become proficient at hitting them different distances. 

Personally, I hit the ball a long way so I have little to no need for another fairway wood or hybrid. I have a ton of shots each round from inside 130 yards so it makes way more sense for me to carry 4 wedges. 47°, 52°, 56°, and 60°.

[onthehunt526]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

Again… just because it's 44° doesn't mean it's going to match up with a 44° traditionally designed club, with a higher CG.

Get clubs that fit your gaps. Your PW may launch high. That's probably why it's got a stronger loft. Loft but also CG (and shaft flex) affect launch angle quite a bit.

I use three wedges.

48°, 54°, 60°.

Pretty much always have.

It launches high, very high, but then again, hit it very high with any type of iron (even my "ancient" V-Blades).

My pitching wedge has a standard loft of 45°, I had it bent to 44° to give myself "better" gapping. Same with the AW that has a standard loft of 50° I had it bent to 48° for "better" gapping. The PW and AW are not the issue.

It's the speciality wedges... The wedges with 52° or more. I am working on it.... Just can't get much past 10:00 without issues happening... Inside of 60 yards is "ok"... But the glaring weakness is from 60-90 yards. Since at that point approaches are an SV4 skill... I consider it a glaring weakness that is costing me strokes...

It's the reason I'm not getting any better.  Am I being realistic about it? Yes. I miss a lot of greens from 60-90 yards... I would like to hit more, so I can make that next step. 

The only reason I'm considering going temporary to 3 wedges instead of 4, is to simplify the 60-90 yard issue, eventually I'll go back to four wedges... 

[Lihu]

14 minutes ago, onthehunt526 said:

It launches high, very high, but then again, hit it very high with any type of iron (even my "ancient" V-Blades).

How high is "too high"? 50 yards is high but 30 to 40 seems reasonable.

 

Quote

It's the speciality wedges... The wedges with 52° or more. I am working on it.... Just can't get much past 10:00 without issues happening... Inside of 60 yards is "ok"... But the glaring weakness is from 60-90 yards. Since at that point approaches are an SV4 skill... I consider it a glaring weakness that is costing me strokes...

10:00 seems pretty reasonable for a wedge shot?

 

Quote

It's the reason I'm not getting any better.  Am I being realistic about it? Yes. I miss a lot of greens from 60-90 yards... I would like to hit more, so I can make that next step. 

Are you sure about this? I'll wait for someone who knows better to comment.

In my experience, the thing that dictates my game is driver. If I drive like crap the hole is bad. If my approaches are bad as well, that's a double, or worse. . .

There's no way I'm going to be landing within 1 putt from 60 to 90 yards out, seems pretty unrealistic at least for a 10HC.

 

Quote

The only reason I'm considering going temporary to 3 wedges instead of 4, is to simplify the 60-90 yard issue, eventually I'll go back to four wedges... 

Are you sure about this as well? I don't see how using less wedges in the "sweet spot" distance for wedges will help? Unless you mean to learn to use one wedge really well for all distances? I have no idea how this would work in your favor?

Edited September 15, 2017 by Lihu