In this video, Joel Tadman runs through the eight things golfers need to consider when choosing new wedges and to go through during the custom fitting process. Wedges are the clubs in the bag many golfers fail to get properly dialled in for, which can lead to shortcomings when it comes to trying to get up and down around the green. These pointers should help create a checklist for you to tick off when buying new wedges to ensure they're perfectly suited to your technique and typical home course conditions.
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00:00Now be honest, how many of you have been custom fitted for your wedges?
00:03Well, the stats say that the wedge is the club that golfers tend to not get fitted for the most along with your putter.
00:09But I would argue
00:10getting fitted for your wedges is probably one of the most important clubs in your bag to get fitted for because it's really going to save
00:16you shots around the green and help you get up and down. So in this video
00:19I'm going to cover the eight reasons why you should get custom fitted for your wedges. Let's get into it.
00:30So
00:34one of the main things you need to consider when choosing new wedges is the amount of bounce you have on your wedges. Now
00:40bounce is the relationship between the leading edge and the trailing edge.
00:44You can see here
00:44it's the angle between the two and the steeper the angle the more bounce your wedge has. And bounce is really important because it increases
00:51your margin for error on your strike. If you had a wedge with completely no bounce, that leading edge would be incredibly sharp.
00:57The margin for error on the strike would be nothing at all. It'd be very difficult to strike your chip and pitch shots cleanly.
01:03So it just gives you a little bit of leeway on the strike and
01:05your technique as well as the prevailing ground conditions would influence the amount of bounce you should have.
01:11So if you tend to be quite steep into the golf ball,
01:14you want a bit more bounce to give you a little bit more resistance through the turf. As if you're quite shallow into the golf
01:20ball, you don't need as much bounce on your wedges. And then in terms of the turf conditions, if you play on quite tight
01:27links, firm turf,
01:28you don't need a lot of bounce because the ground is firm and as the name suggests, if you have too much bounce
01:34the leading edge won't get under the ball, the wedge will bounce off the ground and you won't be able to strike the ball
01:39cleanly. Conversely, if you play a lot of
01:41courses that have damp turf, soft ground conditions,
01:43you want a little bit more bounce to stop that leading edge and the sole from digging too much into the ground through the
01:48strike. So really think about the amount of bounce you have. The other thing you need to think about is
01:53how you tend to play your shots.
01:54So if you play a lot of shots with an open face, that will effectively increase the effective bounce on the sole.
02:01So you might want to go for a lower static bounce and then when you open the face on your chip and pitch shots,
02:06that's going to give you more effective bounce. So a lot to think about when it comes to bounce,
02:10technique, ground conditions, the way you open or close the face,
02:14factor all that in to get the right bounce for you.
02:17Now a really crucial element to get right on your wedges is the lie angle of the club. Now the lie angle is
02:22the angle the shaft comes out of the head when it's kind of sat flush on the ground.
02:27There's two reasons why lie angle is really important. The first is in terms of where the loft is pointing.
02:32So if the the toe of the club is too far off the ground,
02:37the loft on the face is actually pointing to the left of the target. It's a concept called face plane tilt.
02:42So that can really affect your start lines.
02:44So if the toe is too far up, you're missing to the left. If the toe is too far down or the heels off the ground,
02:49the face is pointing to the right.
02:51So even though the leading edge might look square to you, the lie angle's off,
02:54missing to the right, you're going to hit wayward wedge shots, which is something no one wants to do.
02:58So it's really important to try and get that sole of the club flush to the ground at the point of impact.
03:03And that's why you probably want to go for a slightly flatter lie angle in your wedges than you do with your irons, because with a
03:09wedge, you're not swinging it as fast, the shaft isn't flexing as much,
03:13you're not getting as much shaft droop where the shaft bends in this direction.
03:17So you probably want to go slightly flatter with your wedges to account for that.
03:22And the other reason lie angle is really important is to the kind of the cleanliness of the strike, so to speak.
03:27So if you're, if you are hitting lots of chip shots around the green,
03:29but your heel is into the ground, the toes off the ground, you're not going to get clean strikes with your wedge shots.
03:36You know, the face might close, especially if the toes up, you can miss to the left.
03:40So with your wedge shots, it's really important to get that sole flush to the ground, get that lie angle nice and flat.
03:47And it should lead to better chip shots.
03:54Oh, nearly held it.
03:57Now, another really important area of your wedges when it comes to getting fitted is the grind on your wedge.
04:01Now, grind refers to the shaping or the geometry on the sole of the wedge.
04:05And all major manufacturers will offer different grinds,
04:09especially in those mid to high loft where you're hitting a lot of different types of shot.
04:13You want to get a bit more creative around the greens.
04:15It's important to have the right grind to match up to the type of shots you like to play and also a little bit with your technique as well.
04:20So, you know, in those mid to high lofts, you'll often see some of the wedge,
04:24and especially in the heel and toe, kind of ground away or grinded away, whatever floats your boat.
04:29On the lower lofted wedges where you play a lot of full shots, the sole will look a lot more like an iron.
04:34So it'll kind of be even all the way along from heel to toe.
04:37Whereas in those mid to high lofts, like I've got here, got a little bit of heel relief, a little bit of toe relief.
04:41And that's just to give you that freedom to open or close the face, depending on how you like to play your shot.
04:47So especially if you like to open the club face, having heel relief is really important,
04:51because if you didn't, that leading edge would rise up above the ground when you open the face,
04:56and that would leave you to thin the ball across the green.
04:59So it's really important to have some heel relief.
05:02If you do like to open the face, that'll keep the leading edge nice and low
05:05and allow the club to get under the ball smoothly.
05:07So I'll hopefully try and demonstrate that for you now.
05:09So on this particular shot, I'm just going to open the face slightly,
05:13and that should allow the club just to glide along the ground and pick the ball cleanly.
05:22Hit that one a bit too hard, but as you can see, good result, nice clean interaction with the turf.
05:28So get the right grime for you, should lead to better shots.
05:32Now arguably one of the most important things when it comes to getting custom fit for wedges
05:35is having the right gapping.
05:37You can carry as many wedges as you want in your bag.
05:41Some people have three wedges, some people have four, some people have five wedges,
05:45depending on the other clubs in the other area, ends of the bag.
05:47So for me personally, I recently switched into a new set of irons
05:50where the pitching wedge was a little bit stronger, went from 46 to 44 degrees,
05:55and as a result I had to get rid of my 50 degrees
05:58and go into a slightly stronger gap wedge at 48 degrees,
06:01just to hit an even distance gap between my pitching wedge and my sand wedge, which is 54 degrees.
06:07Bit confusing, but it's really important to have even distance gaps as you work through the wedges.
06:11You don't want to have, you know, a 15-20 yard gap between your pitching wedge and your sand wedge.
06:16You want to have nice even gaps that's going to allow you to attack different flags
06:19at different distances with different swing lengths as well.
06:22So think about how many wedges you want to carry, the shots you want to hit around the greens,
06:27and make sure you have nice even distance gaps in those lofts to cover off all those distances.
06:33Now the next area to consider when it comes to your wedges is the length of the shaft.
06:37Again, really important, especially when it comes to controlling the load point of your swing,
06:41which is really critical when it comes to wedges and getting a clean strike on the golf ball.
06:45If your wedges are too long, there's a good chance that you'll tend to bottom out too early,
06:51strike the ground before the ball, duff shots, thin shots, not a great result.
06:55Conversely, if your wedges are too short, which can be the case if you're quite a tall golfer,
07:00you're an inch longer in your irons and then you just go and buy some standard wedges off the rack,
07:05obviously that results in compensations that you have to make, especially on those full shots.
07:09You could be reaching for it with your arms, just moves the load point all over the place,
07:14not good for your strike, both in terms of where you're striking the ground, but also
07:17laterally heel and toe. If the length's off, you know, you could be striking the ball too
07:23far at the toe or too far at the heel. So it's really important to get the length of the
07:26shaft right. It needs to feel comfortable to you on full shots.
07:29A general rule is, so for me personally, you know, I'm an inch longer in my irons
07:33and half an inch longer in my wedges. So still slightly shorter than my irons,
07:37but a little bit longer than standard. So it's important you get the right length,
07:40that's going to give you the clean strikes that you need on full shots,
07:43also those chip shots around the green. Now an underrated area of your wedge construction is
07:48the grip and it can have an impact on the performance, especially the size of the grip.
07:52It needs to feel comfortable in your hands. Obviously it's the only point of connection
07:56you have with the club, so it needs to feel nice in your hands. But if you go for a grip that's too
08:01thin, that can accentuate wrist action through the shot. It could lead to the club botting out
08:06too early or thinning the ball over the green. So it needs to be one that's not going to give
08:10you excessive wrist action. Generally having a grip size that matches your irons is a good idea.
08:16You can also get wedge grips, wedge specific grips that I've got here, where they tend to
08:20be a little bit longer. They also have markings on there. So if you tend to play a lot of wedge
08:25shots where you like to grip down the club, having a reminder in terms of where your thumbs are
08:29positioned will just give you that consistency of strike which should help your performance. So
08:34consider a wedge specific grip. I know Ping do a lot of those, other brands do it as well.
08:39Generally speaking, try and go for one that feels comfortable. The golden rule is to have,
08:43when you're putting your hands, it should kind of just, your fingers should be just touching
08:48the pad of your thumb there. If it's too far away, the grip's probably too thick and if it's
08:52overlapping too much, it's probably too thin. So have it just where they're touching. That'll give
08:57you a nice reminder as to the size of the grip being nice and correct and comfortable in your
09:00hands and that should help your performance. Now another area to consider in your wedges is
09:05the shaft that you play. Now you can get wedge specific shafts that give you a little bit more
09:10spin but I would say generally speaking it's a good idea to have a make a model of shaft that's
09:15similar to what you've got in your irons. That gives you the consistency of feel when it comes
09:19to your full shots with your wedges. Let's face it, you do get a lot of full shots with your wedges.
09:23So that's a really important factor. One thing I would recommend and something a lot of tour
09:27players do is they do tend to go down a stiffness profile when it comes to the shafts in their
09:32wedges versus their irons. You think about wedges, you don't apply as much load or pressure in the
09:37shaft with a wedge shot as you might do a six or a seven iron. So you think of people like Jordan
09:42Speed, he's got a Project X 6.5s in his irons and 6.0s in his wedges. So a slightly softer
09:50profile in his wedges just to give you that feel and responsiveness, especially on those shorter
09:54shots into around the green. You don't want a shaft that feels too boardy or too stiff. You
09:58want it to have a little bit of give to it, a little bit of kind of feel in there. So that's
10:01why it's really important to have that conversation with your fitter. They'll be able to guide you into
10:05the right make and model and flex of shaft in your wedges for you. Now last but by no means least is
10:12swing weight and this can have an effect on the performance of your wedge shots. Now swing weight
10:16is effectively a measure of the weight distribution of the club. If the club is more head heavy it has
10:22a heavier swing weight and if you've put kind of a heavier grip on it the balance point moves up
10:26and the swing weight becomes lighter. But swing weight can have an effect on your wedge shots as
10:31I've mentioned. Generally if your wedge is too head heavy it can lead you to kind of pull the
10:36handle too much. The head gets left behind and you get a bit snatchy with the club head. Conversely
10:41if the swing weight is too light you can get a bit too flicky through impact which could affect
10:47the quality of the strike. So do consider swing weight. It is an important factor when choosing
10:52your wedges. Obviously the fitter will guide you into the right swing weight for you to make sure
10:56that you're getting that consistent strike and angle of attack and delivery into the ball. It's
11:00going to give you the best results. So just a little bonus tip on bouts when it comes to bunkers.
11:06Now think about what club you use mostly out of the bunkers. It's typically your highest lofted
11:10wedge and as a result you probably want to go for something a little bit higher and bounce but that
11:14is dictated by the sand conditions that are prevailing at your course. So if your sand
11:20in the course that you mostly play is nice and fluffy, if there's a quite a lot of sand in your
11:24bunkers you're going to want more bounce to give you more resistance and stop the leading edge from
11:28digging. Conversely if your bunkers are quite shallow the sand often gets quite compacted
11:34you probably want to go for less bounce to help get the club under the ball. So all dependent on
11:39the kind of bunker shots you like to play and the conditions but for example this particular
11:42bunker is pretty soft it's freshly raked there's a decent amount of sand in it as you can see when
11:47you wiggle your feet. So luckily I've got quite a high bounce here also quite a wide sole as well
11:51that's going to help get better performance in the bunkers when the sand's like this so that gives you
11:57confidence that you get the club in and the sand then out again quickly.
12:01So that concludes our look at the eight reasons why you should get custom fitted for your wedges
12:05I hope you found it useful in terms of when you're getting next dialed in for your new set of wedges
12:09some of the things that you really think about maybe some things that you hadn't considered in
12:12the past that you're going to think about when it comes to getting a new wedge but if you did
12:16like the video make sure you click the like button and comment down below is there anything
12:19that we've missed when it comes to choosing a new set of wedges I'd love to hear from you.
12:23But that's all from me from Burley Park, I'll see you next time.
12:30I'll see you next time.