wedge combinations

what does everyone carry?
i currently carry PW, 52, 56, 60, though am considering switching to PW, 52, 58 and adding a 3wood at the other end of the bag.

Currently I've got a standard Callaway X14 Pro series PW and then Cleveland 588's 53 and 60 which are 10 years old. Ive bought a pair of Ping Tour S wedges 54 and 60 to replace them but waiting until I get my confidence back in my short game before switching over.

I carry PW(Titleist AP1), 52, 56 (Vokeys) & 60 (Mizuno). Keep chopping and changing my 60. Have a Vokey & a different model Mizuno in the garage.

Nike forged blade PW at 49 degrees
Vokey Spin Milled at 54 degrees
Miura 1957 C-Grind 57 degrees

The Vokey is being sacked after having used the Miura for a few weeks. I;m replacing it with a proper club now.

I find I can get away with a KZG CBIII sand wedge, KZG Sniper 52 gap wedge and KZG CBIII 46 pitching wedge. Fairly accurate with all 3 and generate back spin, so from 110 out have all bases covered. Love my 52 gap even though it's the odd club out in my bag, as it's covered in rust

i did think about the PW, 54, 60 route, but my 52 gap is becoming a consistent scoring club around 100yards. i like using the 56 too, but usually for a little 60yard flick, which i reckon the 58 would do just as well.

bb

my 60 degree goes a maximum of about 65-70 yards, maybe a tad more downwind so your 58 should be pretty much spot on

Currently

PW (Taylormade 300 Forged)
52 deg Vokey - which is a scoring machine for me!
56 Vokey
Ping Eye 2 copper lob wedge - amazing out of sand!

i've never really used the 60 for full shots. normally just for the odd flop, out of a steep faced bunker, or for little chip shots that require a wee bit more get up. my 'comfort' range with the 52 is between 75-110 yards so i'd ideally be looking to get the 58 going at least 65 yards with a 3/4 swing. i carry the 56 up to about 90ish, though i tend not to use it for anything more than 80ish carry, with a 3/4 swing, unless absolutely necessary] so 58 should be about right.

48 deg PW
52 deg Cleveland CG12
58 deg Cleveland CG12 (bunkers and flop shots mainly, full shots are difficult with such a loft)

S-R us the first person to state what his PW loft is, and his other wedge lofts follow suit. I wonder how many people, on here or otherwise, know what loft their pitching wedge is, and accordingly what gap they need?

I know for a fact that a mate of mine has a 47deg PW and a 48 gap, then a 56. Oh dear.

err... TEB I quoted my PW wedge loft a bit earlier in the thread....

Noted with my apologies LJ!

I think the standard PW is 49 deg?

Depends on the set. The average these days tends to be closer to 45-47 degrees.

super_realist wrote:48 deg PW
52 deg Cleveland CG12
58 deg Cleveland CG12 (bunkers and flop shots mainly, full shots are difficult with such a loft)

Same

theeldestboy wrote:S-R us the first person to state what his PW loft is, and his other wedge lofts follow suit. I wonder how many people, on here or otherwise, know what loft their pitching wedge is, and accordingly what gap they need?

I know for a fact that a mate of mine has a 47deg PW and a 48 gap, then a 56. Oh dear.

I got all my irons' loft and lies changed by a club fitter when I got them in order that the loft was an equal spread throughout the set, hence I get a more regimented and predictable spread of distances.
Obviously there is 6 deg between 52 and 58 but it's never used for full shots anyway.

Nike Pro Combo PW 47º
Vokey Spin Milled 52º, 56º, 60º

Tend to get 120 from the PW, 105, 95, and 80ish, though I'll rarely try to hit a full lob wedge.

Mine is 46 degree

There is no standard loft for any club. My PW for example is 46 dgrees.

It's worth getting your wedge lofts checked every 12 months or so. When i had my wedges regripped recently, the club-fitter said that all 3 wedges had changed loft over time, one by more than 2 degrees.

PW Cobra Pro MB 48 degree
Adams Puglielli black 52 degree
Adams Puglielli black 56 degree

Never seen point in am's carrying a 60 degree. Open the face on a 56/58 and get the same results.

It's not so much the loft, but the inappropriate use of wedges which is funny. Seeing someone try and flop a 60 deg off a bare lie six feet off the green and then skulling it is hilarious. You can see it coming a mile off but they still go through with it.

Interesting analysis from mizuno here

http://golf.mizunoeurope.com/irons/irons-timeline.php

You can click on the blue highlighted models to get the lofts and lies. Blades have weaker lofts obviously but the modern blades seem to have their wedge set at 47 or 48 degrees. The cavities are stronger obviously.

strewth, i'm so old school...

47 deg Wilson Staff FG59 PW
54 deg MD Golf Superstrong 10dg bounce "SW"

really could do with a gap wedge but i've got quite handy with varying the length of swing with the PW. and way back in the day, we just opened the face of a SW and lo and behold - a lob wedge. guess i should also consider something with less bounce too. hmmm, yeh, yeh, perhaps i could go and check some out soon...

How does the bounce thing work. Do I assume that a higher degree of bounce means its easier to hit from tight lies? My 52 degree has 8 and my 46 PW also has 8

Doc wrote:How does the bounce thing work. Do I assume that a higher degree of bounce means its easier to hit from tight lies? My 52 degree has 8 and my 46 PW also has 8

Doc

other way round, less bounce is easier to hit from tight lies. You need a reasonable amount of bounce on your sandwedge to prevent it digging too far into sand

Bounce is a much misunderstood thing Doc.

Depending on the sort of player you are, plus the type of course you play, more or less bounce is required.

I play at a course which is very very firm with incredibly tight lies on most of the track. Which would tend to indicate that I need something with very low bounce. And that's what I used until recently. But my angle of attack into the ball and the type of shots I hit suggest that a higher bounce angle is required.

As a compromise what I have now is a very high degree of bounce on my new wedge with a goodly amount of sole relief making it easy to get the club grounded in firm conditions but also to open the face whilst letting it remain close to the ground.

It's a complex relationship... And it's best left to the clubfitter to sort you out.

theeldestboy wrote:S-R us the first person to state what his PW loft is, and his other wedge lofts follow suit. I wonder how many people, on here or otherwise, know what loft their pitching wedge is, and accordingly what gap they need?

I know for a fact that a mate of mine has a 47deg PW and a 48 gap, then a 56. Oh dear.

The lofts don't matter at all if you hit them the right distance. Specialist wedges like Vokeys don't go as far pro rata as regular clubs, so maybe a 48 degree wedge is just right for your pal? My TM Burner irons are set up so there's an 11 yard distance gap between them. The wedge is 47 degrees I think, it goes about 115, up to the 3 iron which goes 192 yards. There's a 4 degree difference between each club, so the 3 iron is 19 degrees. Now when I try specialist wedge clubs, I find that the 4 degree loft difference doesn't work the same. So, for example, if I got a Vokey with 51 degrees (ie 4 degrees more than the Burner wedge), it should go 104 yards. It doesn't though, it only goes about 90. So I also have an unequal loft gap between wedge and specialist wedges, but the 11 yard gap is maintained. With three specialist wedges, I can hit 104, 93 and 82 yards. I don't necessarily carry all three, but depending on the course set up, I carry at least two of them. With 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 swings, and those clubs, I can hit every distance from 100 to 30 yards.

Srixon i701 pw 47dgs
Vokey 54dgs
Vokey 60 dgs
There are days when I love 'em all, and days when I feel they are just not faithful or at best capricious!

thanks all. probably just going to give th 58 a miss and take the 60 out of the bag on the odd day the 3 wood has a cameo. 56 gets more use as the bounce is great out of the rough, fairway and bunkers.
my fault for not starting off not noting my pw loft - apologies! - its 48 with 7 deg bounce. the 52 has 8. the 56 has 11 - did have a 56.14 but it got nicked recently. had a couple of big comps looming so decided to pick up the 56.11 rather than wait for the special order. the 60 has 7.

PW, 52 Mizuno with 7 deg bounce and 56 Mizuno with 8 deg bounce. All 2 deg upright and half inch longer than standard.

With my old set of irons I only had PW and SW - no idea what the lofts were but they were quite old and so the PW was more lofted than is standard these days. When I got this set, I noticed a big gap in distance between the PW and 56 so I invested in a gap wedge (52). Well worth it.

I was interested to hear LJ's comment about bounce. I have quite a flat swing so that it would seem accentuates the effect of the bounce?

Not every time GM. You could be flat but still attack the ball on a steep angle of attack due to various reasons.

Ping G15 PW (46deg)
Ping G15 GW (50deg)
Ping G15 SI (54deg)
Ping TourW LW (58deg)
Gapping works well for me here, although have to compromise elsewhere due to excessive hybrid ownership - no 9-iron, 4-iron or 3-irons in my bag

48 pw titleist 755
52 deg md golf norman drew
56 deg md golf norman drew

mickmie wrote:48 pw titleist 755
52 deg md golf norman drew
56 deg md golf norman drew

how are those norman drews, mickmie? i've got a previous generation superstrong but have been pondering the norman drews for their reduced bounce on crail's tight fairways.

48° MacGregor Tourney 1025M PW
52° Vokey (8° bounce)
56° Vokey (10° bounce)

Tend to lay the face open on my SW for flop shots but toying, finally, with the idea of a 60° and dropping a long iron. Need a bit more convincing I think but I'm wavering a bit.

graeme wrote:

mickmie wrote:48 pw titleist 755
52 deg md golf norman drew
56 deg md golf norman drew

how are those norman drews, mickmie? i've got a previous generation superstrong but have been pondering the norman drews for their reduced bounce on crail's tight fairways.

Quite good i was previously using snakes wedges and prefer the md ones very nice to use and not overly expensive

navyblueshorts wrote:48° MacGregor Tourney 1025M PW
52° Vokey (8° bounce)
56° Vokey (10° bounce)

Tend to lay the face open on my SW for flop shots but toying, finally, with the idea of a 60° and dropping a long iron. Need a bit more convincing I think but I'm wavering a bit.

Navy

why not go to something like 48/54/60 or 48/53/58 and keep the long iron?

48, 54, 60 - all vokeys

It's all very well having a smorgasbord of wedges but how many people actually practice with them, there's a lot of Gary Gear's around and having too many wedges can make yo ulook very silly indeed if you don't know what to do with them.

damn is that why im not at scratch yet and still only 2 hdc? practice...what a brilliant idea!

One to another, no need for flippancy, just look in the bag of any golfer and a lot of people have many wedges simply because the pro's do, but I bet a lot of them stink the place out with them.

yeah sorry i was being a bit flipant - just thought your post deserved it really. If folk want to carry wedges its up to them isnt it? Always hear this constant drone from golfers (members) putting others down...all the gear no idea, Gary Gear etc etc. Well its a game of choice and fun - if they want to buy loads of great clubs then well done them! If they are happy not to practice and yet carry 14 clubs and use only 5 of them most rounds...then thats fine as well. Doesnt make them "stink the place out" to quote you.

Jeez, who doused your chips?
Depends why they play golf doesn't it? Golfers are a very gullible lot and like being sucked in by the latest driver propaganda of being longer and straighter when in fact the only difference is that it's white and not black is a perfect example of this, similarly just because a golfer carries four wedges because their favourite pro does isn't going to make them play any better.

Surely you've had a sly chuckle when you've seen a mid handicapper try and play a 50 foot high flop from a bare lie only to skull it across the green when a simple putt or chip and run would have sufficed yet they seem surprised and genuinely annoyed that surely the shot should have come off?

mmm no ive not.

Onetoanother wrote:mmm no ive not.

I bet you have!

drive4show wrote:

navyblueshorts wrote:48° MacGregor Tourney 1025M PW
52° Vokey (8° bounce)
56° Vokey (10° bounce)

Tend to lay the face open on my SW for flop shots but toying, finally, with the idea of a 60° and dropping a long iron. Need a bit more convincing I think but I'm wavering a bit.

Navy

why not go to something like 48/54/60 or 48/53/58 and keep the long iron?

Not a bad idea that. Food for thought.

drive4show wrote:

Onetoanother wrote:mmm no ive not.

I bet you have!

Have to say, I've had a jolly good chuckle on a number of occasions when I've seen this happen .

is thinning a flop any worse than topping a 3w out of the rough when something like a 7iron would have been more appropriate. all just poor course management at the end of the day.

i had one last weekend when chipping over a deep bunker i skulled it through the back into bundai and took a triple. in hindsight a chip with a 9iron sideways leaving a 50 ft putt would have got me a better score, but i'm not sure i selected the wrong shot, just extremely poor execution thats all! 10 out of 10 times if i'd put a reasonable swing on the chip i'd have had a reasonable chance at holing the follow up.

also, is mr average poser not more interested in the headcovers on his driver and wacky shape of putter than how good his wedges are?!