How many wedges should you have in your bag? Why do you have so many wedges? Why don’t you have so many wedges? What do all these wedges do? Do I need another wedge for Christmas? These are the questions I am going to answer!

Most people start with two wedges: a Pitching Wedge and a Sand Wedge. Let’s talk about these first. A Pitching Wedge has a average loft of 46 degrees and a Sand Wedge has an average loft of 56 degrees. These means that the Sand Wedge will go higher and land with less roll than a Pitching Wedge because theRe is more loft. Therefore the Pitching Wedge will go a little lower and a have a little more roll. A lot of golfers would be fine with just having these two wedges.

But when it comes to pitching and or bunker play you will want to add another wedge. There are two more options.

A wedge that has higher loft such as a Lob Wedge. A Lob Wedge’s average loft is 60 degrees. This means it will go higher than a Sand Wedge and have very little roll when it lands because it is traveling higher. This club is very useful out of the bunker or used for pitching when having to stop the ball on the green faster.

The last club to add is called a Gap Wedge. This club is actually a club that fills your “gap” between a PW and a SW. There is Usually a 10 degree gap between these clubs and for some golfers it is too big of a gap. Most golfers prefer to have 4-5 degrees difference in their clubs. Therefore you buy a Gap Wedge to fit in between such as a 50 or 52 degree Wedge. Let’s say your PW goes 100 yards and your SW goes 80 yards. That is a 20 yard gap and to trying to reach 90 yards might be a little harder so you add a Gap Wedge to help. Check out my Determining Loft blog to see what Gap Wedge would fit for you.

*Check out Yardage Control Blog and Determining Loft of Club Blog for more information to help! Plus next blog Pitching Yardages to continue our Gap Wedge conversation!