Wedges, manufacturers, bounce and bending.

[Mjr. D]

Some people say they like to have 6 or 8 wedges. 3 or 4 for hard/firm conditions and 3 or 4 for softer conditions. I personally like this approach for two reasons. For starters, it just seems to make perfect sense, and two (and far more importantly) it gives us the "ho's" reason to consume more beautiful wedges. My question is, which lofts would you typically want more bounce in and why? I'm noticing a pretty consistent pattern with a lot of the manufacturers. It seems most make their 50* through 54* wedges with moderate bounce, their 56* and 58* with a lot of bounce and then their 60* with less again. Why is that? I'd like to have most of my wedges with less bounce simply because i attack the ball pretty sharply, but i'd like to have a few wedges with higher bounce just for the times i play in softer conditions. I'm just not sure which ones i should choose for that. Is there anything wrong having a 52* or 54* with a lot of bounce or a 56* or 58* wedge with little bounce........say 4 or 6 degrees? If you haven't noticed yet, i'm more than a little confused over all of this. Thanks fellas.

P.S. What are your opinions on having clubs bent to adjust loft/bounce?

[corky3]

the < 56 are assumed that you will be using them primarily from the fairway for full shots, therefore less bounce is desirable.

The 56/58 have more bounce as most mfgs assume these will be used more often for sand shots where they assume you want most bounce.

The 59 and above assumes that you will use this wedge for v.short shots from fairway/grass, therefore need (much) leass bounce.

Obviously these are gross generalisations but you have to believe they've done their homework.

If your requirements are different you can of course get them modified, or via the likes of Scratch etc. get them made to your specs.

[Faldo Fan]

Corky is spot on!......you have to do a little guess work as to what type of wedge situation you will find yourself in most often?

It would be impossible to cover every eventuality, so on top of a pitching wedge some carry a gap wedge and a lob wedge (personally i use both from bunkers depending on height of lip and amount of green between me and flag).

As for bending i have had my 54 degree wedge turned back to 53 and this has reduced the bounce by 1 degree just right for me.

[Blader-X]

Also don't forget about the width of the sole and its camber as this can affect the way the wedge performs as well. I was reading the other day about "effective bounce" and how even though two clubs may have the same amount of bounce they play differently because of the other factors of sole width, etc.

Corky and FaldoFan nailed it. You start with those generalizations. After that its a matter of trial and error to really dial it in to what works for you. I know you've asked about Carlton's grind with what looks like a ridge taken out of the sole. What this effectively does (and correct me Carlton if I'm wrong here) is to allow the club to set tighter under the ball at a regular (square) address position. You want that on chips and standard pitches. But, when you open it up in the sand, now you bring in the rear bounce of the club to allow it to glide through the sand promoting a better shot out of the bunker. Bounce is necessary out of the sand and even in the rough where you're playing the shot like a bunker shot. The more you open up a wedge, the more bounce you bring to the shot. That's why you'll see some wedges ground with a lot of "heel relief". What this does is take out some of that bounce in the heel area. This allows one to open the clubface on tight lies and still get under the ball effectively.

Lastly anytime you bend a wedge 1 degree, that correlates to one degree of bounce. So if you bend 1 degree closed (to a stronger loft) you lessen the bounce by 1 degree. If you bend it 1 degree open (weaker loft) you increase the bounce by 1 degree.

Its just another factor of why this game is such a "lifetime" thing. There's all these little nuances in the game that keeps it exciting and keeps our interest. As well as emptying our bank account!!

[Mjr. D]

HA HA........well put. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell put my man. Thanks.

[Faldo Fan]

Also don't forget about the width of the sole and its camber as this can affect the way the wedge performs as well. I was reading the other day about "effective bounce" and how even though two clubs may have the same amount of bounce they play differently because of the other factors of sole width, etc.

Corky and FaldoFan nailed it. You start with those generalizations. After that its a matter of trial and error to really dial it in to what works for you. I know you've asked about Carlton's grind with what looks like a ridge taken out of the sole. What this effectively does (and correct me Carlton if I'm wrong here) is to allow the club to set tighter under the ball at a regular (square) address position. You want that on chips and standard pitches. But, when you open it up in the sand, now you bring in the rear bounce of the club to allow it to glide through the sand promoting a better shot out of the bunker. Bounce is necessary out of the sand and even in the rough where you're playing the shot like a bunker shot. The more you open up a wedge, the more bounce you bring to the shot. That's why you'll see some wedges ground with a lot of "heel relief". What this does is take out some of that bounce in the heel area. This allows one to open the clubface on tight lies and still get under the ball effectively.

Lastly anytime you bend a wedge 1 degree, that correlates to one degree of bounce. So if you bend 1 degree closed (to a stronger loft) you lessen the bounce by 1 degree. If you bend it 1 degree open (weaker loft) you increase the bounce by 1 degree.

Its just another factor of why this game is such a "lifetime" thing. There's all these little nuances in the game that keeps it exciting and keeps our interest. As well as emptying our bank account!!

Amen Blader X.......i couldn't agree more!!!......you forgot to mention....annoys our Missus too!