- 15/07/2025
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, 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, the
00:47more bounce your wedge has. And bounce is really important because it increases your margin for
00:51error on your strike. If you had a wedge with completely no bounce, that leading edge would
00:56be incredibly sharp. The margin for error on the strike would be nothing at all. It'd be very
01:00difficult to strike your chip and pitch shots cleanly. So it just gives you a little bit of
01:04leeway on the strike and your technique, as well as the prevailing ground conditions,
01:09would influence the amount of bounce you should have. So if you tend to be quite steep into the
01:13golf ball, you want a bit more bounce to give you a little bit more resistance through the turf,
01:18as if you're quite shallow into the golf ball, you don't need as much bounce on your wedges.
01:23And then in terms of the turf conditions, if you play on quite tight, links, firm turf,
01:29you don't need a lot of bounce because the ground is firm. And as the name suggests,
01:33if you have too much bounce, the leading edge won't get under the ball, the wedge will bounce
01:37off the ground and you won't be able to strike the ball cleanly. Conversely, if you play a lot of
01:41courses that have damp turf, soft ground conditions, you want a little bit more bounce to stop that
01:45leading edge and the sole from digging too much into the ground through the strike. So really think about
01:50the amount of bounce you have. The other thing you need to think about is how you tend to play your
01:54shot. So if you play a lot of shots with an open face, that will effectively increase the effective
01:59bounce on the sole. So you might want to go for a lower static bounce and then when you open the face
02:05on your chip and pitch shots, that's going to give you more effective bounce. So a lot to think about
02:08when it comes to bounce, technique, ground conditions, the way you open or close the face, factor all that in
02:15to get the right bounce for you. Now a really crucial element to get right on your wedges is the
02:20lie angle of the club. Now the lie angle is the angle the shaft comes out of the head when it's
02:25kind of sat flush on the ground. There's two reasons why lie angle is really important. The first
02:30is in terms of where the loft is pointing. So if 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. So if the toe is too far up, you're missing to the left.
02:47If the toe is too far down or the heel is off the ground, the face is pointing to the right. So even
02:51though the leading edge might look square to you, the lie angle is off, you're missing to the right,
02:55you're going to hit wayward wedge shots, which is something that no one wants to do. So it's really
02:58important to try and get that sole of the club flush to the ground at the point of impact. And that's why
03:04you probably want to go for a slightly flatter lie angle in your wedges than you do with your irons,
03:08because with a wedge, 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. So you probably want
03:18to go slightly flatter with your wedges to account for that. And the other reason lie angle is really
03:23important is to the kind of the cleanliness of the strike, so to speak. So if you're if you are
03:28hitting lots of chip shots around the green, but your heel is into the ground, the toes off the ground,
03:33you're not going to get clean strikes with your wedge shots, you know, the face might close,
03:38especially if the toes up, you can miss to the left. So with your wedge shots, it's really important
03:42to get that sole flush to the ground, get that lie angle nice and flat, and it should lead to better
03:49chip shots. Oh, nearly held it. Now, another really important area of your wedges when it comes to
03:59getting fitted is the grind on your wedge. Now, grind refers to the shaping or the geometry on
04:04the sole of the wedge, and all major manufacturers will offer different grinds, especially in those
04:09mid to high lofts where you're hitting a lot of different types of shot, you want to get a bit
04:13more creative around the greens. It's important to have the right grind to match up to the type of
04:17shots you like to play and also a little bit with your technique as well. So, you know, in those mid to
04:22high lofts, you'll often see some of the wedge and especially in the heel and toe kind of ground away or
04:27grind it away, whatever floats your boat. On the lower lofted wedges where you play a lot of full
04:32shots, the sole will look a lot more like an iron, so it'll kind of be even all the way along from
04:36heel to toe, whereas in those mid to high lofts like I've got here, it's got a little bit of heel
04:40relief, a 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 clubface,
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.
05:32Now, arguably one of the most important things when it comes to getting custom fit for wedges is
05:36having the right gapping. Now, you can carry as many wedges as you want in your bag. Some people have
05:41three wedges, some people have four, some people have five wedges depending on the other clubs in the
05:46other area, 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,
06:17even gaps that's going to allow you to attack different flags, different distances with different
06:21swing lengths as well. So, think about how many wedges you want to carry, the shots you want to
06:25hit around the greens, and make sure you have nice, even distance gaps in those lofts to cover off all
06:31those distances. Now, the next area to consider when it comes to your wedges is the length of the
06:37shaft. Again, really important, especially when it comes to controlling the low point of your swing,
06:41which is really critical when it comes to wedges and getting a clean strike on the golf ball. If
06:46your 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. Conversely,
06:56if 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 low 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 could be striking the ball too far at the toe or too
07:23far at the heel. So it's really important to get the length of the shaft right. It needs to feel
07:27comfortable 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
07:37bit longer than standard. So it's important you get the right length, that's going to give you
07:41the clean strikes that you need on full shots, also those chip shots around the green.
07:45Now, an underrated area of your wedge construction is the grip, and it can have an impact on the
07:50performance, especially the size of the grip. It needs to feel comfortable in your hands,
07:54obviously, it's the only point of connection you have with the club, so it needs to feel nice in
07:58your hands. But if you go for a grip that's too thin, that can accentuate wrist action through
08:04the shot. It could lead to the club botting out too early or you're thinning the ball over the
08:08green, so it needs to be one that's not going to give you excessive wrist action. Generally,
08:13having a grip size that matches your irons is a good idea. You can also get wedge grips,
08:18wedge-specific grips that I've got here. They tend to be a little bit longer. They also have markings on
08:23there, so if you tend to play a lot of wedge shots where you like to grip down the club,
08:27having a reminder in terms of where your thumbs are positioned will just give you that consistency of
08:32strike, which should help your performance. So consider it a wedge-specific grip. I know Ping
08:36do a lot of those. Other brands do it as well. But generally speaking, try and go for one that
08:41feels comfortable. The golden rule is to have, when you're putting your hands, your fingers should be
08:47just touching the pad of your thumb there. If it's too far away, the grip's probably too thick,
08:52and if it's overlapping too much, it's probably too thin. So have it just where they're touching.
08:56That'll give you a nice reminder as to the size of the grip being nice and correct and comfortable
09:00with your hands, and that should help your performance. Now, another area to consider
09:04in your wedges is the shaft that you play. Now, you can get wedge-specific shafts that give you
09:09a little bit more spin, but I would say, generally speaking, it's a good idea to have a maker model of
09:13shaft that's similar to what you've got in your irons. That gives you the consistency of feel when it
09:18comes to 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 it's 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 6 or a 7 iron. You think of people like Jordan Speed,
09:42he's got a Project X 6.5s in his irons and 6.0s in his wedges, so slightly softer profile in his
09:50wedges just to give you that feel and responsiveness, especially on those shorter shots into around
09:55the green. You don't want a shaft that feels too boardy or too stiff. You want it to have a little
09:59bit of give to it, a little bit of kind of feel in there. So that's why it's really important. Have
10:02that conversation with your fitter. They'll be able to guide you into the right maker model and
10:06flex of shaft in your wedges for you. Now, last but by no means least is swing weight,
10:12and this can have an effect on the performance of your wedge shots. Now,
10:15swing weight is effectively a measure of the weight distribution of the club. If the club is more head
10:21heavy, it has a heavier swing weight, and if you've put 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,
10:30as I've mentioned. Generally, if your wedge is too head heavy, it can lead you to pull the
10:36handle too much, the head gets left behind, and you get a bit snatchy with the club head.
10:41Conversely, if the swing weight is too light, you can get a bit too flicky through impact,
10:46which could affect the quality of the strike. So do consider swing weight. It is an important
10:50factor when choosing a wedge. Obviously, the fitter will be to 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
11:04bounce when it comes to bunkers. Now, think about what club you use mostly out of the bunkers. It's
11:08typically your highest lofted wedge, and as a result, you probably want to go for something a
11:12little bit higher and bounce, but that is dictated by the sand conditions that are prevailing at your
11:18course. So if your sand in the course that you mostly play is nice and fluffy, if there's quite a
11:24lot of sand in your bunkers, you're going to want more bounce to give you more resistance and stop the
11:27leading edge from digging. Conversely, if your bunkers are quite shallow, the sand often gets quite
11:33compacted, you probably want to go for less bounce to help get the club under the ball. So all
11:38depending on the kind of bunker shots that you like to play in the conditions. But for example,
11:42this particular bunker is pretty soft. It's freshly raked. There's a decent amount of sand in it,
11:46as you can see, when you wiggle your feet. So luckily, I've got quite a high bounce here,
11:50also quite a wide sole as well. That's going to help get better performance in the bunkers when the
11:54sounds like this. So that gives you confidence that you get the club in and the sand then out again quickly.
12:03So that concludes our look at the eight reasons why you should get custom fitted for your wedges. I
12:10hope you found it useful in terms of when you're getting next styled in for your new set of wedges,
12:14some of the things that you really think about, or maybe some things that you hadn't considered in
12:17the past that you're going to think about when it comes to getting a new wedge. But if you did like
12:22the video, make sure you click the like button and comment down below. Is there anything that we've
12:25missed when it comes to choosing a new set of wedges? I'd love to hear from you. But that's all from me,
12:29from Broly Park Golf Club. I'll see you next time.
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