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Most golfers neglect to get custom fitted for their wedges, but it's a critical step to lowering your scores. Golf Monthly's Joel Tadman explains the eight key things you need to consider during a wedge fitting to save shots around the green.
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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.
00:34So 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 for error
00:52on your strike. If you had a wedge with completely no bounce, that leading edge would be incredibly
00:56sharp. The margin for error on the strike would be nothing at all. It'd be very difficult to strike
01:01your 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
01:15bounce 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,
01:25if you play on quite tight, links, firm turf, you don't need a lot of bounce because the ground is
01:31firm. And as the name suggests, if you have too much bounce, the leading edge won't get under the
01:36ball, the wedge will bounce off the ground and you won't be able to strike the ball cleanly.
01:39Conversely, if you play a lot of courses that have damp turf, soft ground conditions, you want a little
01:44bit 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
01:52is how you tend to play your shot. So if you play a lot of shots with an open face,
01:57that will
01:57effectively increase the effective bounce on the sole. So you might want to go for a lower static
02:02bounce. And then when you open the face on your chip and pitch shots, that's going to give you more
02:07effective bounce. So a lot to think about when it comes to bounce, technique, ground conditions,
02:11the way you open 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 the
02:21lie
02:22angle is the angle the shaft comes out of the head when it's kind of sat flush on the ground.
02:27There's
02:27two 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, the loft on the face is
02:38actually pointing
02:39to the left of the target. It's a concept called face plane tilt. So that can really affect your start
02:44lines. So if the toe is too far up, you're missing to the left. If the toe is too far
02:48down or the
02:48heel is off the ground, the face is pointing to the right. So even though the leading edge might look
02:52square to you, the lie angle is off, missing to the right, you hit wayward wedge shots, which is
02:57something that no one wants to do. So it's really important to try and get that sole of the club
03:01flush to the ground at the point of impact. And that's why you probably want to go for a slightly
03:05flatter 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 shaft
03:14droop where the shaft bends in this direction. So you probably want to go slightly flatter with your
03:20wedges to account for that. And the other reason lie angle is really important is to the kind of the
03:25cleanliness of the strike, so to speak. So if you're if you are hitting lots of chip shots around the
03:29green, but your heel is into the ground, the toes off the ground, you're not going to get clean
03:34strikes 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 fitted is
04:00the 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,
04:11where 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
04:18play,
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, the sole
04:33will look a lot more like an iron, so it'll kind of be even all the way along from heel
04:36to toe. Whereas
04:37in 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'll keep the
05:03leading edge nice and low and allow the club to get under the ball smoothly. So I'll hopefully try and
05:08demonstrate that for you now. So 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 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 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, 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
06:01just 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
06:26the
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 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,
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, you're an inch
07:01longer in your irons and then you just go and buy some standard wedges off the rack, obviously that
07:05results 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
07:18laterally, heel and toe. If the length's off, you could be striking the ball too far at the toe or
07:23too
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
07:33irons
07:33and half an inch longer in my wedges. So still slightly shorter than my irons, but
07:37a 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 have
07:56with the club, so it needs to feel nice in your hands. But if you go for a grip that's
08:01too thin,
08:01that can accentuate wrist action through the shot. It could lead to the club botting out too early,
08:07or you're just thinning the ball over the green. So it needs to be one that's not going to give
08:10you
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
08:26like to
08:26grip 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
08:35grip. 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, your fingers should be just touching the pad of your thumb there. If it's too far away,
08:50the grip's probably too thick. And if it's overlapping too much, it's probably too thin. So have it just
08:55where they're touching. That'll give you a nice reminder as to the size of the grip being nice and
08:59correct 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. But one thing
09:25I would recommend, and it's something a lot of tour players do, is they do tend to go down
09:29a stiffness 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
09:44.5s in his irons
09:46and 6.0s in his wedges. So a slightly softer profile in his wedges, just to give you that
09:51feel and responsiveness, especially on those shorter shots into around the green. You don't
09:56want a shaft that feels too boardy or too stiff. You want it to have a little bit of give
09:59to it,
09:59a little bit of kind of feel in there. So that's why it's really important. Have that conversation
10:03with your fitter. They'll be able to guide you into the right maker model and flex of shaft in your
10:08wedges for you. Now, last but by no means least is swing weight. And this can have an effect on
10:13the
10:13performance of your wedge shots. Now, swing weight is effectively a measure of the weight distribution
10:19of the club. If the club is more head heavy, it has a heavier swing weight. And if you've put
10:23kind of a heavier grip on it, the balance point moves up and the swing weight becomes lighter.
10:28But swing weight can have an effect on your wedge shots, as I've mentioned. Generally,
10:32if your wedge is too head heavy, it can lead you to kind of pull the handle too much. The
10:37head gets
10:38left behind and you get a bit snatchy with the club head. Conversely, if the swing weight is too
10:43light, you can get a bit too flicky through impact, which could affect the quality of the strike. So
10:48do consider swing weight. It is an important factor when choosing your wedges. Obviously,
10:53the fitter will be to guide you into the right swing weight for you to make sure that you're
10:56getting that 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,
11:06think about what club you use mostly out of the bunkers. It's typically your highest lofted wedge.
11:10And as a result, you probably want to go for something a little bit higher and bounce. But
11:14that is dictated by the sand conditions that are prevailing at your course. So if your sand
11:19in the course that you mostly play is nice and fluffy, if there's quite a lot of sand in your
11:24bunkers,
11:25you're going to want more bounce to give you more resistance and stop the leading edge from digging.
11:29Conversely, if your bunkers are quite shallow, the sand often gets quite compacted. You probably want to
11:34go for less bounce to help get the club under the ball. So all depending on the kind of bunker
11:39shots that you like to play in the conditions. But for example, this particular bunker is pretty soft.
11:44It's freshly raked. There's a decent amount of sand in it, as you can see, when you wiggle your feet.
11:47So luckily, I've got quite a high bounce here, also quite a wide sole as well. That's going to help
11:52get 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.
12:06So 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
12:13wedges,
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
12:22like the
12:22video, 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.
12:29Well, that's all from me from Bradley Park Golf Club. I'll see you next time.