Next to the putter, the wedge is the club that most amateur golfers will use the most in a round of golf. Since most amateurs hit precious few greens in regulation, they will wind up using a wedge of some sort or other each time they miss a green. With room for just fourteen clubs in the bag, it can be tough deciding which ones to put in, and which ones to leave out.
This will probably come down to a choice between losing a wedge and adding a fairway wood to improve your chances of hitting more long par 4s and par 5s, or losing a fairway wood and adding a wedge, so you don’t have to hit as many awkward half and three-quarter shots from inside 120 yards.
Your iron set already comes with a pitching wedge with a loft of 44 to 47 degrees. The most common method to determine which wedges you should be carrying is to figure out the loft of your pitching wedge and choose wedges with gaps of 4-5 degrees in between to fill out your bag.
But there is another factor that you need to consider and that is the design and shape of the sole of your wedges. This is vital because the sole design determines how the wedge interacts with the turf. Using the wrong wedge from a tight lie will often result on the ball being bladed across the green just as the wrong wedge played from a wet, spongy lie will result in chunking the ball.
Yet another consideration is bounce. Bounce is defined as the angle created by the ground and the sole of the bottom of the club from the trailing edge to the leading edge. You’ll notice that if you place a wedge down in the playing position on top of a table that the leading edge is often a small distance above the table top. The higher it is off the surface, the more bounce the wedge has and the closer it is to the table then the wedge has a low amount of bounce.
On tight lies, you need a wedge with less bounce; typically, 10-degrees or less. On soft surfaces, you need something on the order of 12-14 degrees to be effective. If you come into the ball at a steep angle and take deep divots, then you need wedges with more bounce. Conversely, if you have a shallow angle of attack and like to just brush the grass with the sole of the wedge, you can do with less bounce.
If you like to play short game shots with the clubface open, you’ll need a wedge with some material ground out of the heel of the clubhead. This will allow you to open the clubface without raising the leading edge of the clubface too much.
If you have difficulty hitting shots with anything less than a full swing, it will be advantageous to carry an extra wedge you can hit the required distance. If this describes your wedge play, the best way to achieve your ideal gaps between clubs is to get even loft gaps. In this four-wedge system, starting with your 46-degree pitching wedge, you can then add a gap wedge at 50-degrees, a sand wedge at 54-degrees and a lob wedge at 58-degrees, which should equate to 8-12 yard gaps for the average golfer.
Arguably the most common choice for club golfers, three wedges leaves you with room for two fairway woods, which is often more important for players who lack the distance tour professionals can muster.
If you do choose a three-wedge system, we recommend something along the lines of a pitching wedge at 46-degrees, a gap wedge at 52-degrees, and a lob wedge at 58-degrees, which gives you even 6-degree gaps between clubs, which should give you all the options you need.
It might sound complicated but understanding what your preferences and tendencies are and what kind of surfaces you play on determines the number and types of wedges you need to have in your bag. Get this right and you’re going to save a lot of strokes during your round.