What Is The Ideal Wedge Distance Setup?

In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane explains the keys to wedge distances and how to find the right set up for you.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Nick Drane. I'm a PGA Professional and the Master Fitting Specialist here at the

00:09Titleist Performance Centre. In this video, we're going to talk about the ideal wedge setup for

00:13your bag. These four have been properly fitted for myself, however, you can see there are numerous

00:19options available and you need to go and get fitted properly by a PGA Professional to ensure

00:23you have the right bag setup. The ideal wedge setup from your pitching wedge will increase by

00:28four to six degrees to give you a difference of about 15 yards to get the appropriate distance

00:33gapping for your short game. For example, my wedge setup, I have a 44 degree pitching wedge,

00:40I then go up to a 48 degree gap wedge followed by 54 degrees and then my lob wedge at 58. In my bag,

00:47I have four wedges which have been properly fitted for myself, however, it's important that you get

00:52fitted because three or even five wedges is sometimes best suited to some golfers. I'm now

00:57going to talk to you about the technique that I use to manipulate distances.

01:04With my four wedges in my bag, I have a full swing that I use for each wedge that gives me one

01:09distance. I then use a grip down slightly narrower stance that gives me a secondary shorter distance.

01:15For my full swing with my wedge, I set up like so, grip it at the end of the club, ball position in the

01:22middle of my stance, make my normal full swing and a full finish.

01:32For my secondary distance, I hold the club in the middle of the grip, I narrow my stance

01:40and that's going to give me a shorter swing

01:42and more of a three-quarter follow-through.

01:50The reason why these two techniques give me different distances is because when I grip the

01:53club at the end of the grip, I get a wider arc that's going to give me more speed. When I grip

01:59the club further down, I actually get a narrower arc which produces less speed.

02:05These four golf clubs with these two techniques give me eight distances that allow me to hit more

02:10shots, closer to the flag and score better.