Reasons Why You Must Get Fitted For Your Wedges

Golf Monthly

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.

Transcript

00:00Now, to 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

00:08along with your putter, but I would argue getting fitted for your wedges is probably one of the

00:12most important clubs in your bag to get fitted for because it's really going to save you shots

00:16around the green and help you get up and down. So in this video, I'm going to cover

00:19the eight reasons why you should get custom fitted for your wedges. Let's get into it.

00:30So one of the main things you need to consider when choosing new wedges is the amount of bounce

00:39you have on your wedges. Now, bounce is the relationship between the leading edge and the

00:43trailing edge. You can see here, it's the angle between the two and the steeper the angle,

00:47the more bounce your wedge has. And bounce is really important because it increases your margin

00:51for error on your strike. If you had a wedge with completely no bounce, that leading edge would be

00:56incredibly sharp. The margin for error on the strike would be nothing at all. It'd be very difficult

01:00to strike your chip and pitch shots cleanly. So it just gives you a little bit of leeway on the strike

01:05and your technique, as well as the prevailing ground conditions, would influence the amount of bounce

01:10you should have. So if you tend to be quite steep into the golf ball, you want a bit more bounce to

01:15give you a little bit more resistance through the turf. As if you're quite shallow into the golf ball,

01:20you don't need as much bounce on your wedges. And then in terms of the turf conditions, if you play

01:26on quite tight, links, firm turf, you don't need a lot of bounce because the ground is firm. And as

01:31the name suggests, if you have too much bounce, the leading edge won't get under the ball,

01:36the wedge will bounce off the ground and you won't be able to strike the ball cleanly. Conversely,

01:40if you play a lot of courses that have damp turf, soft ground conditions, you want a little bit more

01:44bounce to stop that leading edge and the sole from digging too much into the ground through the strike. So

01:49really think about the amount of bounce you have. The other thing you need to think about is how you

01:53tend to play your shot. So if you play a lot of shots with an open face, that will effectively

01:58increase the effective bounce on the sole. So you might want to go for a lower static bounce,

02:03and then when you open the face on your chipping pitch shots, that's going to give you more effective

02:07bounce. So a lot to think about when it comes to bounce, technique, ground conditions, the way you

02:12open or close the face, factor 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,

02:21the lie angle is the 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

02:31loft is pointing. So if the toe of the club is too far off the ground, the loft on the face is actually

02:38pointing to the left of the target. It's a concept called face plane tilt. So that can really affect your

02:43start lines. So if the toe is too far up, you're missing to the left. If the toe is too far down,

02:48or the heel is off the ground, the face is pointing to the right. So even though the leading edge might

02:52look square to you, the lie angle is off, missing to the right, you're going to hit wayward wedge shots,

02:57which is something that no one wants to do. So it's really important to try and get that sole of

03:00the club flush to the ground at the point of impact. And that's why you probably want to go for a

03:05slightly flatter lie angle in your wedges than you do with your irons, because with a wedge,

03:10you're not swinging it as fast, the shaft isn't flexing as much, you're not getting as much

03:14shaft droop where the shaft bends in this direction. So you probably want to go slightly

03:19flatter with your wedges to account for that. And the other reason lie angle is really important is

03:24to the kind of the cleanliness of the strike, so to speak. So if you're if you are hitting lots of chip

03:28shots around the green, but your heel is into the ground, the toes off the ground, you're not going to

03:33get clean strikes with your wedge shots. You know, the face might close, especially if the toes up,

03:39you can miss to the left. So with your wedge shots, it's really important to get that sole

03:43flush to the ground, get that lie angle nice and flat, and it should lead to better chip shots.

03:54Oh, nearly held it. Now another really important area of your wedges when it comes to getting

04:00is the grind on your wedge. Now grind refers to the shaping or the geometry on the sole of the wedge,

04:05and all major manufacturers will offer different grinds, especially in those mid to high lofts,

04:10where you're hitting a lot of different types of shot, you want to get a bit more creative around

04:14the greens. It's important to have the right grind to match up to the type of shots you like to play,

04:18and also a little bit with your technique as well. So in those mid to high lofts, you'll often see

04:23some of the wedge, and especially in the heel and toe, kind of ground away, or grinded away,

04:27whatever floats your boat. On the lower lofted wedges, where you play a lot of full shots,

04:32the sole will look a lot more like an iron, so it'll kind of be even all the way along from heel

04:36to toe. Whereas in those mid to high lofts, like I've got here, it's got a little bit of heel relief,

04:40a little bit of toe relief, and that's just to give you that freedom to open or close the face,

04:45depending on how you like to play your shots. So especially if you like to open the club face,

04:49having heel relief is really important, because if you didn't, that leading edge would rise up above the

04:54ground when you open the face, and that would lead you to thin the ball across the green. So

05:00it's really important to have some heel relief. If you do like to open the face, that will keep

05:03the leading edge nice and low and allow the club to get under the ball smoothly. So I'll hopefully

05:07try and demonstrate that for you now. So on this particular shot, I'm just going to open the face

05:12slightly, and that should allow the club just to glide along the ground and pick the ball cleanly.

05:17Hit that one a bit too hard, but as you can see, good result, nice clean interaction with the turf.

05:28So getting the right grind for you should lead to better shots.

05:31Now arguably one of the most important things when it comes to getting custom fit for wedges is having

05:36the right gapping. Now you can carry as many wedges as you want in your bag. Some people have three

05:42wedges, some people have four, some people have five wedges, depending on the other clubs in the other

05:46area at the ends of the bag. So for me personally, I recently switched into a new set of irons where

05:50the pitching wedge was a little bit stronger, went from 46 to 44 degrees. And as a result,

05:55I had to get rid of my 50 degrees and go into a slightly stronger gap wedge at 48 degrees just to

06:01hit an even distance gap between my pitching wedge and my sand wedge, which is 54 degrees. A bit confusing,

06:07but it's really important to have even distance gaps as you work through the wedges. You don't want to

06:12have a 15, 20 yard gap between your pitching wedge and your sand wedge. You want to have nice even

06:17gaps that's going to allow you to attack different flags, different distances with different swing

06:21lengths as well. So think about how many wedges you want to carry, the shots you want to hit around the

06:26greens, and 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. Again,

06:37really important, especially when it comes to controlling the low point of your swing, which

06:41is really critical when it comes to wedges and getting a clean strike on the golf ball. If your

06:46wedges are too long, there's a good chance that you'll tend to bottom out too early, strike the

06:52ground before the ball, duff shots, thin shots, not a great result. Conversely, if your wedges are too

06:57short, which can be the case if you're quite a tall golfer, you're an inch longer in your irons and then

07:02you just go and buy some standard wedges off the rack, obviously that results in compensations that you have

07:07to make, especially on those full shots, you could be reaching for it with your arms, just moves the

07:12low point all over the place. Not good for your strike, both in terms of where you're striking the

07:16ground, but also laterally, heel and toe. If the length's off, you could be striking the ball too far

07:23at the toe or too far at the heel. So it's really important to get the length of the shaft right. It needs

07:27to feel comfortable to you on full shots. A general rule is, so for me personally, I'm an inch longer in my irons

07:33and half an inch longer in my wedges. So still slightly shorter than my irons, but a little bit

07:37longer than standard. So it's important you get the right length. That's going to give you the clean

07:41strikes that you need on full shots, also those chip shots around the green. Now, an underrated area

07:46of your wedge construction is the grip, and it can have an impact on the performance, especially the

07:52size of the grip. It 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 thin,

08:02that can accentuate wrist action through the shot. It could lead to the club botting them out too

08:06early or you're just thinning the ball over the green. So it needs to be one that's not going to

08:10give you 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. They tend to be a little bit

08:21longer. They also have markings on there. So if you tend to play a lot of wedge shots where you like to

08:26grip down the club, having a reminder in terms of where your thumbs are positioned will just give you that

08:31consistency of strike, which should help your performance. So consider it a wedge-specific

08:36grip. I know Ping do a lot of those. Other brands do it as well. But generally speaking,

08:40try and go for one that feels comfortable. The golden rule is to have, when you're putting your

08:44hands, it should kind of just, your fingers should be just touching the pad of your thumb there. If it's

08:50too far away, the grip's probably too thick. And if it's overlapping too much, it's probably too thin.

08:55So have it just where they're touching. That'll give you a nice reminder as to the size of the

08:59grip being nice and correct and comfortable in your hands. And that should help your performance.

09:03Now, another area to consider in your wedges is the shaft that you play. Now, you can get

09:07wedge-specific shafts that give you a little bit more spin. But I would say, generally speaking,

09:12it's a good idea to have a maker model of shaft that's similar to what you've got in your irons.

09:16That gives you the consistency of feel when it comes to your full shots with your wedges. Let's face it,

09:20you do get a lot of full shots with your wedges. So that's a really important factor. One thing

09:25I would recommend, and it's something a lot of tour players do, is they do tend to go down a

09:29stiffness profile when it comes to the shafts in their wedges versus their irons. You think about

09:34wedges, you don't apply as much load or pressure in the shaft with a wedge shot as you might do

09:39a six or a seven iron. So you think of people like Jordan Speed, he's got a Project X 6.5s in his

09:45irons and 6.0s in his wedges. So slightly softer profile in his wedges, just to give you that feel

09:52and responsiveness, especially on those shorter shots into around the green. You don't want a

09:56shaft that feels too boardy or too stiff. You want it to have a little bit of give to it, a little bit

10:00of kind of feel in there. So if that's why it's really important, have that conversation with your

10:03fitter. They'll be able to guide you into the right maker model and flex of shaft in your wedges for you.

10:10Now, last but by no means least is swing weight, and this can have an effect on the performance of your

10:14wedge shots. Now, swing weight is effectively a measure of the weight distribution of the club.

10:20If the club is more head heavy, it has a heavier swing weight, and if you've put kind of a heavier

10:24grip on it, the balance point moves up and the swing weight becomes lighter. But swing weight can have

10:29an effect on your wedge shots, as I've mentioned. Generally, if your wedge is too head heavy, it can

10:34lead you to kind of pull the handle too much, the head gets left behind and you get a bit snatchy with

10:39the club head. Conversely, if the swing weight is too light, you can get a bit too flicky through

10:46impact, which could affect the quality of the strike. So do consider swing weight. It is an

10:50important factor when choosing a wedge. Obviously, the fitter will guide you into the right swing

10:55weight for you to make sure that you're getting that consistent strike and angle of attack and

10:59delivery into the ball. It's going to give you the best results. So just a little bonus tip on bouts

11:04when it comes to bunkers. Now, think about what club you use mostly out of the bunkers. It's typically

11:09your highest lofted wedge, and as a result, you probably want to go for something a little bit

11:13higher and bounce, but that is dictated by the sand conditions that are prevailing at your course.

11:18So if your sand in the course that you mostly play is nice and fluffy, if there's quite a lot of sand in

11:24your bunkers, 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 depending on

11:39the kind of bunker shots that you like to play in 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

11:46you 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.

12:04So that concludes our look at the eight reasons why you should get custom fitted for your wedges.

12:10I hope you found it useful in terms of when you're getting next dialled in for your new set of wedges,

12:14some of the things that you really need to think about, or maybe some things that you hadn't

12:17considered in the past that you're going to think about when it comes to getting a new wedge. But if

12:21you did like the video, make sure you click the like button and comment down below. Is there anything

12:24that we've missed when it comes to choosing a new set of wedges? I'd love to hear from you.

12:28Well, that's all from me from Bradley Park Golf Club. I'll see you next time.

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