00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly, and welcome to the London Club.
00:03In this video, looking at how many wedges different types of golfer should carry.
00:09It's all part of the big kind of puzzle that every golfer needs to work out.
00:13So how many fairway woods, hybrids, utility irons do you carry at the top end of the bag?
00:18And then how many wedges should you have at the bottom end of the bag?
00:21And in this video, we're going to take a look at some of the factors you should consider.
00:25Right, let's get started.
00:26Okay, so the first thing to say is if you really want to find out exactly
00:30the best wedge lineup for your game, then I would recommend going through
00:33a wedge fitting with somebody who really knows what they're doing.
00:36It's something that I did probably three years ago now,
00:39and I found that it benefited me really a lot in two different ways.
00:43One, working out my pitching distances.
00:45And then two, providing me with a chipping club.
00:49So my most lofted wedge had a loft bound sole configuration that helped me hit those
00:55bunker shots and lofted chip shots around the green that little bit better.
00:58So there we go. I've said it.
01:00I know that a lot of people watching this won't want to go through a wedge fitting.
01:03And if you don't, then we're going to talk through
01:05some of the kind of basic principles to think about.
01:08The first is, and it's probably a bit of a generalization,
01:10but there's some truth behind it, is that longer hitters will probably
01:14require more wedges than short hitters.
01:16It stands to reason that if you're hitting your driver consistently 300 yards,
01:21then you're probably able to hit your wedge, let's say 140 yards.
01:25And if you've got 140 yards into the green with your pitching wedge,
01:29then you've got a lot of ground to cover with your other wedges.
01:31So you're likely to need more wedges than a shorter hitter who,
01:34let's say, only hits their pitching wedge 90 yards.
01:37They've got less ground to cover.
01:39Now, the other thing to consider is to make sure that you have even
01:42loft gaps between your wedges.
01:44This will mean that you have even distance gaps.
01:47Now, the thing that you absolutely have to avoid anywhere in your golf club set
01:52is to have two clubs that go the same distance.
01:54That's such a waste, and it does happen.
01:56So just be mindful of that.
01:58If your lofts are too close to each other, you might end up hitting two wedges,
02:01I don't know, only five yards apart from each other, as I say, which is a waste.
02:06So I think the first thing that I would do would be probably to figure out
02:09how far I hit my set pitching wedge.
02:11I think a lot of golf club sets, they're getting stronger in lofts.
02:15I looked at one yesterday, I think it was the Callaway ST Rogue Max,
02:18which has a pitching wedge of 41 degrees, which is quite strong, really.
02:22Mine's 46 degrees.
02:24So that's something to bear in mind.
02:25But I would figure out how far you carry your set pitching wedge
02:29as a kind of good starting point, which is something I'm going to do here.
02:32So I've got the Garmin Approach R10 launch monitor on the ground.
02:36I've got the app running opposite me.
02:37I've got a green that's about 40 yards in length from front to back.
02:42So it's a good green to give me a gauge on how far I'm hitting it.
02:45I'm going to hit one with my 46 degree pitching wedge to start with.
02:52OK, I've hit that up in the air a bit, so it's maybe not gone as...
02:57OK, that's right at the back of the green.
02:59Good, so that gives us an idea.
03:00The launch monitor is telling me that's carried 132.
03:03So from there, I think my next thing would be to think about
03:07the most lofted wedge I'd want in my bag.
03:09So let's say there's a few different things here.
03:11You're going to need a lofted wedge to help you hit bunker shots
03:14and lofted chip shots around the green.
03:15So how much is the most amount of loft that you want in your hands
03:19at the bottom end of the bag?
03:20So for a lot of golfers, I think a lob wedge is quite intimidating.
03:23Looking down on that much loft leads to kind of thin shots
03:27and chunked chip shots a lot.
03:29If you fall into that category, then maybe a Sam wedge,
03:31a sort of 56 degree wedge, is your most lofted wedge in your bag.
03:35So once you've worked out kind of how much loft you want to carry,
03:38hitting a pitch shot with that club, for me, it's 58 degree.
03:40And I don't tend to hit this flat out.
03:43So I think on the golf course,
03:45I'd only ever probably hit this at sort of 80% max,
03:49because otherwise it just sort of spirals up into the air a bit.
03:56OK, so I've hit that fairly well, and that has carried 84 yards.
04:01And therefore, I would have a decision to make
04:03as to whether I'd want to hit my pitching wedge
04:06and hit half shots with my pitching wedge to fill that gap,
04:10or whether I'd want to fill that with other wedges, one or two other wedges.
04:13Now, it's important point to make here would be
04:16part of this depends on where your strengths and weaknesses lie.
04:19If you're really good at those half pitch shots,
04:21then maybe you don't need to carry an awful lot of wedges.
04:23Maybe you can carry more fairway woods or hybrids at the top end of the bag.
04:26For me, I'm not great at half pitch shots sort of naturally,
04:30and I don't really get the time to practice them as much as I'd like.
04:34So I would rather fill that gap with wedges.
04:36I've got two, and they're all in an even loft gap, so they go four degrees.
04:41So I go 46, 50, 54, 58.
04:46So I'm going to hit one with my 50 and see how far that carries.
04:50And if we've got this right, there should be a fairly even
04:53kind of spread of distance gaps between the different wedges in my bag.
04:57So I'm going to hit my 50.
05:02I've hit that really well, and that has gone.
05:06117.
05:08That's gone 117.
05:10And then my 54, 54 degree wedge, which is here.
05:16I'll hit with this.
05:22It's gone up quite high in the air.
05:24That's gone up 99 yards.
05:26Hopefully that gives you an idea of the sort of thing that you're looking for.
05:29For me, being a longer hitter, I get a lot of shots in this kind of area.
05:33A lot of shots from the kind of 100 yards, 140 yard mark.
05:37So having clubs that I don't have to manipulate too much,
05:39that I can make a nice normal swing and hit those yardages is really important.
05:43So there you have it.
05:44That's our look at how many wedges you should think about carrying.
05:47I think for most people, it's a choice between two, three and four wedges.
05:51And I think the most popular, I think the most popular setup is three wedges.
05:56But there's so many individual factors here that you'll need to consider for yourself.
06:00Things like how far you hit the ball and your strengths and weaknesses as well.
06:03I hope you found that helpful.
06:05But that's it for now from the London Club.
06:06Thanks for watching.
06:07We'll see you next time.
Comments