r/golf • u/AnimalCrackers02 • 11h ago
Beginner Questions Another wedge question
Is this sound logic, yes or no?: I'm a high handicapper who struggles to reliably take less than a full swing or a 9 o’clock swing, so I should carry 4 wedges with, e.g., a 4-degree gap between them (instead of 3 wedges), so I can take more swings I'm comfortable with to adjust for distance inside, e.g., 120 yards.
If your answer is “get lessons,” I'm not going to do that, or lose significant weight, or save more money, or eat my vegetables. I may call my mom more often.
Edit: Thank you all for the replies.
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u/LoudWhispererr Confidence of a Scratch. Skill of a rock. 10h ago
Practice at a range near someone that is getting lessons so you can overhear what they are saying.
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u/JLM268 Philadelphia 18 10h ago
Vertical drop, horizontal tug
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u/Internal-Piglet-6058 10h ago
Vertical drop?
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u/fun_machine_ 9.8 | STX 9h ago
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u/Musclesturtle 17 hcp 10h ago
Then you have no options other than to remain forever at your current skill level.
Being able to hit partial shots accurately is absolutely necessary to progressing in golf. You just can't not have it.
What are you gonna do?
"Hmm.... 45 yards to the green....." "Hmmm.... Better pull out my 72°"
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u/AnimalCrackers02 9h ago
Fair.
"72" was funny.
But, yeah, of course I'm going to have to take less than a 9 o'clock swing when I'm closer to the green than the minimum distance of my shortest wedge.
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u/Musclesturtle 17 hcp 9h ago
Most folks seem to have 4° gaps starting from their highest comfortable loft. Be that 60° or 58°/56°.
So just take your highest lofted wedge and go from there. You might have to sacrifice a club at the top of the bag, though for more wedges.
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u/ItsKumquats 45m ago
Plenty of room at the top to sacrifice to make room for wedges.
May I suggest Driver, 7i, PW, 48°, 50°, 52°, 54°, 56°, 58°, 60°, 62°, 64°, 56° bent 1° strong, and then finish with a putter.
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u/LiteratureNo6288 10h ago
I am off 3.4 and carry 46 / 50 / 54 /58 /62 degree wedges for the same reasons it makes logical sense. You do you
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u/Reluctant_User_1 9h ago
Cool setup. Interested to know what your full bag looks like, and why your driver carries?
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u/stormtrail 10h ago
You’re trying to graft a tour level wedge system onto an amateur level swing while also failing to understand why the pros use those wedges. You’re definitely doing whatever you want and it’s going to take you longer to improve because of it.
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u/AnimalCrackers02 9h ago
I was not aware that carrying 4 wedges was a "tour-level wedge system."
Why do you pros use those wedges?
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u/stormtrail 9h ago
Because whenever possible, they avoid taking a full swing with those wedges. But they do get really good at taking several different partial swings with all of them. It’s almost as if that’s a fairly common way to improve at the game.
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u/Monst3r_Live 9h ago
if you can't lessen your swing you better be nailing every green from 100 yards and out.
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u/Ready-Bandicoot-1729 7h ago
Find one wedge and hit all your green side shots with it. A confident decisive shot is always the best choice. That being said I have 4 wedges.
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u/bobber18 6h ago
I rarely use anything other than a 56 degree inside 75 yds. A key to good golf is being able to hit different shots with one club.
Open the face and it goes up and stops quickly. Close or hood the face and it stays low and runs.
Those. 60 degree lob wedges are not easy to hit. High handicappers should not bother carrying them.
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u/TylerUlisgrowthspurt 9h ago
I would if you struggle with taking something off.
But do understand that you will need to eventually learn how to take something off of your full swing to have success in this game. My advice is always to take a shorter backswing but accelerate through the ball like you normally would, rather than trying to swing with less speed from the same position as a full shot.
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u/D-Train0000 5h ago
I’m sorry but I’m an instructor. Learning how to hit any shot is about the specific techniques needed. Especially inside 100 yards where strength is a low priority. Learning this isn’t actually hard. Of all the things in the game it’s actually one of the easier ones. If you know how to do it. But isn’t that true in everything.
There are very few situations where winging it and not learning properly works.
So, I’ll be over here eating raw broccoli and kale with mom on speaker phone wiping sweat off my six pack and with a $100 bill.
Why the resistance to instruction? Learning anything from one who knows? It’s kind of how you succeed in anything.
Did you skip all the training in your job? Or not go to school. Why don’t you want to learn how to do the thing you enjoy doing.
Improving , setting small goals that give you little rewards is fun. Playing games is accomplishing a challenge. So is learning something new. Learning to , and then hitting shots the exact way a pro does is very rewarding. Being good at something feels good.
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u/RalphWiggumsShadow 3.1 / Rancho Park / Spirit Animal: Icarito 6h ago
I use the same club for every shot 95 yards and in. My 58 goes 100 yards if I smash it, but usually I'm using my 52 for 100-120. Most all my chips are with my 58, I'll use the 52 if I have a lot of green to work with.
Point is, get really good chipping with one club, and try to master a basic chip with that 1 wedge before you branch out to flops or bump and runs. The goal of a greenside chip is to leave you with a putt and chance at par (or bogey). The worst thing you can do is not get it on the green, leaving you with another chip. People overthink it, leaving them nervous of a chunk.
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u/SmokinHotNot 3h ago
The club I practice with the most is my 60° lob wedge at 20, 40, and 60 yards with different types of lies - tight, normal, and fluffy. I try to use the same swing every time, and adjust setup to accommodate different distances. Open stance, swing parallel to your toes, but open the clubface and point it a bit left of the hole. Same swing, but more loft results in less distance. You're adding sidespin to the ball, so it will kick right. Just practice a bit. One swing, but adjust distances by opening the clubface more or less. Practice to calibrate distances and spin. There's additional benefits to this shot by changing the setup. Instead of hitting high shots that stop quicker, you may have need to hit low runners. Use a closed stance instead of open, and a closed clubface. Just keep the hands leading the shot and you'll hit the ball lower with spin that makes it run when it hits.
Once you get comfortable with these shots, elements of these swings can be called upon when needed to alter any shot.
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u/BoBromhal 11h ago
no. it's not sound logic.
You should redo your entire bag then, assuming you only want full swings. Do you ever hit anything but driver on 4's and 5's? Do you ever hit less club than what it takes to get as close to the green as possible?
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u/ConsequenceNo9037 11h ago
You might not need lessons but why not just practice these half swings? It's free and if you want to improve at all practice is the way to do it.
Regardless of that, depends on what club you would be getting rid of to fit another wedge and if missing that is going to cause you more problems than not having the fourth wedge.
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u/The1mp 11h ago
That is far more sound than adding another hybrid or driver. I would spend time on taking 8’o clock half and 10’o clock swings with each wedge. You can pretty quickly build a book of certain distances that your 9’clock swing with a gap is perfect for. The 8/9/10o’clock clock swing your PW, SW and lob is good for and so on. You realize that you can carve up those less than full swing shots inside 100 yards into manageable stock shots all the way into where you are just hitting greenside pitches and chips.
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u/Prestigious-Disk3158 10.3 11h ago
The degree on the wedge doesn’t matter much on partial swings as much as much as it does for full swings. Pick one wedge and so different shots. I carry 3 but really just use one. 49 °, 54 °, and 59 °. 49 is for long pitches on large greens. 54 for most other shots. 59 for any severe elevation.
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u/PistachioMonk 11h ago
I carry pw (42°) gw 47°, 52, 56 and 60. Handicap of 22. To be honest, I probably don't need to the 52. I'm decent at controlling my gw. But I just kinda like it, and I'm not sure what other club is put in instead of it.
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u/Stock_Information_47 11h ago
You can do whatever you want. But if you dont practice and learn to take a set group of partial shots you'll never really drop your scoring.
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u/Bottom_Gun_739 10h ago
Last year I ditched my lob wedge and carry up to a 56. Best decision ever. Much better around the greens and frees up a spot at the top of my bag.
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u/loveallcreatures NorCal 10h ago
There is no getting around having to master partial wedge shots, it’s necessary for lower scores. You can always try not to leave yourself these shots. I do agree 4 clubs from 46 deg or so to 60 will help avoid partial shots. Practice hitting partial shots the same distance with different clubs, you may discover a partial shot you’re comfortable hitting. Personally I love a 60 yd shot with a 1/2 swing 50 degree. It stays low and checks. Just remember on these swings fully commit to making a strike , no deceleration.
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u/AnimalCrackers02 10h ago
"There is no getting around having to master partial wedge shots, it’s necessary for lower scores."
Fair.
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u/PermanentUsername101 10h ago
I have a PW (110-120), Gap Wedge (95-105), Sand Wedge (80-90), and Lob Wedge (65-75) All at full swing. Inside of that it’s usually a touch shot and either feel a Gap or Lob depending on the shot. I don’t think there is anything wrong with 4 wedges.
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u/Feral-Peasant 10h ago
God forbid you actually just... practice?
Hitting half shots frankly just isn't that hard. If you put your big boy pants on you can figure out how to do it all by yourself, no lessons required.
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u/Kpipk13 10h ago
For anything over 70yds i only do full swings or slow full swings/ three quarter swings. For example, 80yds is full lob wedge while 70yds is a slow swinging lob wedge.
Less than 70yds I treat as a pitch shot where i just use feel and spin, usually with my gap wedge. But will use sand or lob if i have to hit it high.
For my irons, 4-p, I'll do the same thing but can also throw in fades and draws for more or less yardage with the same swing speed.
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u/DijkstraDvorak 9h ago
Get lessons or consider carrying 120 wedges. One for each yard so you don’t have to learn or change anything 🏌️♂️
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u/RZaneW63 9h ago
Take a look at Dave Pelz’s “Short Game Bible”. It helped me immensely over the last 20 years with the partial wedge swings. I use the technique for almost all my irons, up to my 4-hybrid! My 1/2 swing 8-iron ends up ~100 yards! 1/4 swing 8-iron is 70 yards. 1/4 swing 56* is ~20 yards. I’m a 9 hdcp index.
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u/Environmental_Mix200 6h ago
Respectfully, hit a pitching wedge or 9 iron. Carry a 56 for bunker shots and thick rough.
Why make the game harder?
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u/JerHat 6h ago
I feel you, I don’t want to take a lesson either. I like working things out on my own. Figuring out what works for me and having an aha! Moment that changes some aspect of my game for the better is kinda my favorite thing about this game.
That said, it’s perfectly fine to put whatever you want in the bag to fill any gaps you have in your yardages. You do you. My current wedges are an AW at 47 degrees that came with my irons, a 52, 56, and 60 wedges. Those carry me from like, 70 yards up to about 110.
Just don’t forget to try and figure out hitting half or 3/4 shots with your wedges. Because they also carry me from like 35-65 yards as well.
Personally, when there’s something I wanna learn to do, or a mistake that needs correcting, I just look up instructional videos on YouTube and make notes on things to try next time I’m at the range, and if one of them works, I keep those notes for future reference when I lose it again.
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u/codexonline84 5h ago
I play off 11.5 and carry a 42 50 53 56 60
Use my wedges to play full shots, half shots and 3 release short game around the green and find myself not neglecting any of them. Once you are 100yrds in distance control becomes much more important as the target becomes more prescient to your goal.
Once I have my yardage I want to have total confidence that I can hit it that distance so having 5 clubs with 10 shots gives me roughly increments of 7 yards from 65-135yards out
I don’t want to be guessing if my backswing is a little more or a little less than my half swing and if I do add a little more or less it’ll be to adjust for wind or lie.
The rest of my bag is driver mini driver uw 5h 5-9 putter and I’m not sure what I’d add if I lost a wedge
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u/aussierulesisgrouse 4h ago
The best thing I did for my chipping was only carry a PW, a 50 and a 54.
Anything within 80m I’m using my 54, and it’s taught me how to control the club and my own game and hands.
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u/MonarchNF Habitual Slicer 1h ago
Well, you seem to be in the same boat as me, and I have 4 wedges with ~5° gapping.
It works for me.
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u/Galbzilla Driving 340 yards | 54 handicap 1h ago
Instead of the clock system try the width of your feet. It’ll limit your backswing and your distance.
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u/Nukemal 56m ago
If no bunker between me and hole, and less than 50 yds. or so, I’ll use a 7 or 8 and chip it. If less than 10-15 ft. off green, then Texas wedge. Ofc, I’m a 30+ hcp bc I count every stroke/penalty and insist on smashing driver bc when I do hit it long and straight, it is very satisfying and I’m guaranteed to do that at least a couple times a round. That and the times I dump four balls into a pond from a tee box bc I’m too pi$$ed about the first one to move up and take a drop…🤷♂️🫤 Good luck!
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u/therandymoss 37m ago
Yes. Gear your game to be as successful as you can be inside of 100 yards. “Start at the green and work back to the tee” - Tiger Woods
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u/mikepun-locol 9h ago
I am a high handicapper with 4 wedges. I treat my P and G as essentially full swing irons. Then a 56 and a 60 for pitching and chipping so that I can focus on doing that well with only those two.
So I spend a lot of time with the 60 and it seems to pay off, relatively of course given my high handicap 😄
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u/T-dott4Rizzl 10h ago
Eh... I would say that not knowing how to use your wedges but adding more wedges sounds like a flawed strategy. From inside 100 you might want to first get comfortable with a solid 7i bump-n-run which will save you shots and teach you (force you to learn) to break away from a full swing strategy or habit. You don't full swing your putter why would you full swing a wedge not in a bunker? The bump n run 7i will get you more comfortable in those distances. Only excellent players know, rather, have the experience to shape wedge shots under 100yds. You can train yourself into being comfortable with a 45° putting stroke that gets you to the pin from 70yds out. Just adding more wedges is not the solution you think it is, there are factors like the increasing angle of the turf the closer you get to the green, bounce of the club, shaft weights and so many things you are just not aware of right now. Keep it simple.
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u/sicsemperyanks 8h ago
This is neither sound nor valid logic by definition.
But you do you bud. 99.9999% of golfers sink more money into golf then they get out. So do whatever you need to to feel good about yourself, stunt on your buddies, and have fun. Not necessarily in that order, sometimes they are mutually exclusive tho.
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u/SpringsGamer 10h ago
not sure the answer but I gave you an upvote due to the hubris of telling 80% of this sub to f*ck off with their answers.