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? Well, the stats say that
00:04the wedge is the club that golfers tend to not get fitted for the most along with your putter,
00:09but I would argue getting fitted for your wedges is probably one of the most important clubs in
00:13your bag to get fitted for because it's really going to save you shots around the green and help
00:17you get up and down. So in this video, I'm going to cover the eight reasons why you should get
00:21custom fitted for your wedges. Let's get into it. So one of the main things you need to consider
00:36when choosing new wedges is the amount of bounce you have on your wedges. Now, bounce is the
00:41relationship between the leading edge and the trailing edge. You can see here, it's the angle
00:45between the two and the steeper the angle, the more bounce your wedge has. And bounce is really
00:51margin for error on your strike. If you had a wedge with completely no bounce,
00:55that leading edge would be incredibly sharp. The margin for error on the strike would be nothing
00:59at all. It'd be very difficult to strike your chip and pitch shots cleanly. So it just gives you a
01:04little bit of leeway 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 golf
01:14ball, 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 them all 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 leading
01:46edge 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,
02:13factor all that in to get the right bounce for you. Now, a really crucial element to get right on your
02:19wedges is the lie angle of the club. Now, the lie angle is the angle the shaft comes out of the head
02:25when it's kind of sat flush on the ground. There's two reasons why lie angle is really important. The
02:29first is 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. You're
03:13not getting as much shaft droop where the shaft bends in this direction. So you probably want to
03:18go 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
04:17of shots you like to play and also a little bit with your technique as well. So, you know,
04:21in those mid to high lofts, you'll often see some of the wedge, and especially in the heel and toe,
04:25kind of ground away or grinded away, whatever floats your boat. On the lower lofted wedges where
04:31you play a lot of full shots, the sole will look a lot more like an iron, so it'll kind of be even
04:35all the way along from heel to toe, whereas in those mid to high lofts like I've got here,
04:39it's got a little bit of heel relief, a little bit of toe relief, and that's just to give you that
04:42freedom to open or close the face depending on how you like to play your shots. So, especially if you
04:48like to open the club face, having heel relief is really important because if you didn't, that leading
04:52edge would rise up above the ground when you open the face and that would lead you to thin the ball
04:58across the green. So, it's really important to have some heel relief if you do like to open the face,
05:03that'll keep the leading edge nice and low and allow the club to get under the ball smoothly. So,
05:07I'll hopefully try and demonstrate that for you now. So, on this particular shot, I'm just going to open
05:11the face slightly and 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, getting the right grind for you should lead to better shots. Now, arguably, one of the most
05:33important things when it comes to getting custom fit for wedges is having the right gapping. Now,
05:37you can carry as many wedges as you want in your bag. Some people have three wedges,
05:42some people have four, some people have five wedges depending on the other clubs in the other
05:46area ends of the bag. So, for me personally, I recently switched into a new set of irons where the
05:50pitching 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
06:07confusing, but it's really important to have even distance gaps as you work through the wedges. You
06:11don't want to have a 15, 20-yard gap between your pitching wedge and your sand wedge. You want to have
06:16nice even 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 hit
06:26around the greens, and make sure you have nice even distance gaps in those lofts to cover off all those
06:32distances. Now, 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 low point of your swing, which is
06:41really critical when it comes to wedges and getting a clean strike on the golf ball. If your wedges are
06:47too long, there's a good chance that you'll tend to bottom out too early, strike the ground before the
06:52ball, duff shots, thin shots, not a great result. Conversely, if your wedges are too short, which can
06:58be the case if you're quite a tall golfer, you're an inch longer in your irons and then you just go and
07:02buy some standard wedges off the rack, obviously that results in compensations that you have to make,
07:07especially 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
07:16the ground, but also laterally, heel and toe. If the length's off, you could be striking the ball
07:22too far at the toe or too far at the heel. So, it's really important to get the length of the shaft
07:26right. It needs to feel comfortable to you on full shots. A general rule is, so for me personally,
07:32I'm an inch longer in my irons and 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
07:48is the 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 you
07:56have with the club, so it needs to feel nice in your hands. But if you go for a grip that's too thin,
08:01that can accentuate wrist action through the shot. It could lead to the club botting out too early,
08:06or you're just thinning the ball over the green, so it needs to be one that's not going to give you
08:10excessive 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
08:26to grip down the club, having a reminder in terms of where your thumbs are positioned will just give
08:30you that consistency 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, try and go for
08:41one that feels comfortable. The golden rule is to have, when you're putting your hands, it should kind
08:45of just, your fingers should be just touching the pad of your thumb there. If it's too far away, the grip's
08:51probably too thick, and if it's overlapping too much, it's probably too thin. So have it just where
08:56they're touching. That'll give you a nice reminder as to the size of the grip being nice and correct
09:00and comfortable in 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 a
09:09little 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
09:26tour players do, is they do tend to go down a stiffness profile when it comes to the shafts
09:32in their wedges versus their irons. You think about wedges, you don't apply as much load or pressure in
09:37the shaft with a wedge shot as you might do a six or a seven iron. 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 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 if that's why it's really important,
10:02have that conversation with your fitter, they'll be able to guide you into the right maker model
10:06and flexible 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, swing weight is effectively a
10:17measure of the weight distribution of the club. If the club is more head heavy, it has a heavier
10:22swing weight, and if you've put kind of a heavier grip on it, the balance point moves up and the
10:27swing weight becomes lighter. But swing weight can have an effect on your wedge shots, as I've mentioned.
10:31Generally, if your wedge is too head heavy, it can lead you to kind of pull the handle too much,
10:37the head gets left behind and you get a bit snatchy with the club head. Conversely, if the swing
10:43weight is too light, you can get a bit too flicky through impact, which could affect the quality of
10:47the strike. So do consider swing weight. It is an important factor when choosing a wedge. It's
10:52obviously the fitter to guide you into the right swing weight for you to make sure that you're getting
10:56that consistent strike and angle of attack and delivery into the ball. It's going to give you
11:01the best results. So just a little bonus tip on bouts when it comes to bunkers. Now, think about what
11:07club you use mostly out of the bunkers. It's typically your highest lofted wedge, and as a result,
11:11you probably want to go for something a little bit higher and bounce, but that is
11:14dictated 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 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 depending on the kind
11:39of 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,
11:46when you wiggle your feet. So luckily, I've got quite a high bounce here, also quite a wide sole as
11:51well. That's going to help get better performance in the bunkers when the sand's like this. So that gives
11:55you confidence that you get the club in and the sand then out again quickly.
12:00So 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 dialled 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. Well, that's all from me,
12:29from Broly Park Golf Club. I'll see you next time.