YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Also, you should rethink the shafts. You might have more control with a shaft that’s a bit softer or more flexible than a typical wedge shaft.
CUSTOMISED Nick Dunlap has four TaylorMade wedges but two different models.
You might benefit from a shaft that’s a click heavier than your iron shaft, especially if you are playing graphite in your irons. Can all of these features come from the same manufacturer and be op- tions within the same model fam- ily? No question about it, but don’t get tied to that. Don’t think about “getting new wedges” as a package deal. Each club in your bag has a job, and that’s especially true with each wedge. Q: I TAKE A LOT OF RIBBING BECAUSE I DON’T USE A TEE ON PAR 3S. SHOULD I? If we understand your thinking, you hit irons all the time directly off the turf, so why wouldn’t you do it on a par 3? There are a few reasons. To begin with, most golfers are more comfortable hitting irons when the ball is slightly propped up – think a cushy lie in the fairway or first cut. The tee box features a closer, tighter cut of grass. But the big reason to tee up is that hit- ting directly off the turf steals distance. Using Arccos data from 2023 (all players with all irons), the gain was 11 metres – 133.4 from the grass versus 145.3 off a tee – and no iron from 3- to 9-iron showed less than a 9-metre increase. Does more distance mean more greens in regula- tion (GIR)? You bet. On all shots from fairway-type grass, the GIR percentage for all handicaps was 36.2 percent. With a tee, it was 40.7 percent. More distance and more greens hit are pretty solid arguments for teeing up.
Wedges: Carry a Matched Set or Pick and Choose? Q: OTHER THAN LOFT, OBVIOUSLY, SHOULD ALL MY WEDGES BE THE SAME MODEL?
Third, unlike a driver or iron fitting, your typical course style or conditions (bunker sand, green runoffs, etc.) may or may not impact the ideal wedge for you for a particular situation. All that said, here’s why the answer is a firm “No.” When we talk about wedg- es, we’re considering every loft above the 9-iron. Some 9-irons today have lofts as low as 37 degrees, and some are in the low 40s. In either case, we believe your pitching wedge and gap wedge, which you use for full swings, should match the other full-swing clubs in your bag. Unless you’re an elite player, you don’t want what is essentially a muscleback blade as a full-swing club. But there are, of course, other jobs for your wedges, and you need to consider them. Maybe your 54-degree needs more bounce for bunker shots or less bounce for low-running chips that are hit with a shallower swing. Maybe your higher-lofted wedge needs a sole grind that works better for open-face shots.
There is a simple answer to this ques- tion: “No.” But we don’t like simple answers because every player’s equipment jour- ney is unique. This is why a relationship with a quality fitter is so important. First, the answers about things like loft gapping, bounce, sole grinds, and even shafts are not immediately intuitive. For example, nearly every major com- pany with a wedge line offers four to seven distinct sole grinds throughout its loft range. (Decoder rings do not exist yet and likely never will.) Second, while many companies provide tips for picking wedges and de- tailed descriptions, the only real way to get it right is through a trial process on the range and short-game area, and we know that’s often not a viable option.
Answers by Golf Digest’s equipment experts, Mike Stachura and E. Michael Johnson.
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84 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
MARCH/APRIL 2025
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