Your Golf Wedge Set: What do You Need?

Due to great changes in the design of golf clubs since the seventies, some clubs dropped out of the standard set along the way, and the changes in loft angles left a few distance gaps. The modern day (golf) wedge set fills these gaps, ensuring a wedge for every situation you may come across.

The modern day (golf) wedge set is made up of four basic wedges:

1. The lob wedge, around sixty degrees, is designed for shorter shots requiring a decent amount of lift, like approaching against a short steep hill, or having to cross an obstacle when playing out of the rough.

2. The sand wedge, around fifty six to fifty eight degrees, was designed to play your way out of sand traps, but can also be applied to shots of about sixty yards or so. However, you have to take the “bounce” into account. If your sand wedge was designed for “glass sand”, or very soft sand, you may have a problem with too much bounce when not in the sand.

3. The gap wedge is used for playing shots from about eighty yards or so, with a lift of about fifty two degrees.

4. The pitching wedge, at around forty seven degrees, was made for shots of about a hundred yards or more. This is probably the most common wedge of all.

Every wedge, depending on its application, has a certain amount of “bounce” built into it. The bounce is literally a bouncing effect, brought about by the shape (underneath) of the club, preventing it from digging into the surface, playing more turf (or sand) than ball.

Ideally, you would like to carry all four of these in your golf wedge set, but due to the maximum number of clubs being limited to fourteen, it will mean having to sacrifice other clubs you may need. In most cases, though, taking the pitching wedge and the sand wedge should get you out of most situations. There will, however, be some courses that will require you to make some tough choices, and decide on a different composition of your golf (wedge) set.