The wedge is a subset of golf iron having the highest lofts, shortest shaft, and heaviest clubhead. Usually, it creates a shorter shot from a short distance to throw the ball onto the green, out of hazards or any tricky spot. As the club manufacturers design the golf wedge with different modified soles to enhance the clubhead’s moving through soft lies like sand, mud, or thick grass, you will get various types of it. The configuration of this golf club can divide into four different categories according to the loft of wedges. These are –
- Pitching wedge
- Sand wedge
- Gap or Approach wedge
- Lob wedge
As these wedges create different bunker shots, the lofts’ degree also confuses the golfers. The details about the degrees of extra wedges described in this article will help you eliminate confusion.
Table of Contents
Pitching Wedge
A pitching wedge is a lowest-lofted club that use to create short-range shots. The modern pitching wedge loft angle varies from 48 to 50 degrees, having a little or no bounce where bounce means the sole’s arch to the ground. Usually, the 48-degree pitching wedge uses to hit the ball from a fairway or rough. It helps to make an approach or lay-up wedge shot. Besides, when the ball does not buries itself into the sand, golfers take the 50-degree standard pitching wedge to throw the ball from a bunker. When an amateur golfer picks an essential pitching wedge for making a shot, the player gets the average pitching wedge between 100 to 125 yards. It is also perfect for creating a chip-shot or shorter shots with high accuracy, putting motion in the 30 to 70 yards range from the rough or fringe onto the green.
Sand Wedge
The sand wedge is a specialized club designed to help the golfer striking the ball from sand bunkers. The loft angle of it is set between 54 to 58 degrees with about 10 degrees of bounce. You will also get more variation in the shaft length for a 56-degree sand wedge. Some of them have a systematic progression of shorter shaft lengths for a higher degree of loft. Many of them have a longer distance than the adjacent sand wedge loft. As it is more lofted than a pitching and gap wedge, the ball does not fly far. When golfers try to hit the ball on the air quickly from a distance gap between 80 to 100 yards, they pick it for striking the ball. Besides, this wedge’s rounded and massive base allows the golfer to make an easy slide of the ball through sand bunkers. In the 1932 US Open and British tournament, Gene Sarazen invented this specialized wedge for sand play.
Gap Wedge
The gap wedge is the most standardized design with a 520 centered loft angle and a moderate bounce rate. The 52-degree gap wedge concept originated due to the result variation in carrying distance between pitching and sand wedges. The golfers found an 8-10 degrees gap between the loft angle of sand and pitching wedge, making a distance variation up to 40 yards. To fill this divergence, manufacturers started to produce this focused wedge that becomes popular among golfers. It is also known as Approach wedge (Callaway), Attack wedge (TaylorMade), Dual wedge (Cleveland), and Utility wedge (PING). This wedge can be used for any shots but require a little less distance than other wedges. Golfers maintain a 90-110 yards distance to strike the ball for a full swing depending on other inherent variables. The loft angle varies from 50 to 54 degrees, and the critical variation among different gap wedges is on the elevated loft angle. However, you will get it with a 48-56 degrees loft angle having 0-12 degrees of club bounce.
Lob Wedge
The lob wedge is the newest type of wedge and has a loft angle between 59 and 65-degrees. This wedge is also the highest-lofted club on a golfer’s bag and uses for the shots that need either extreme angle of attack and shorter distance and spinning or no rolling distance after impact. The thinner leading edge makes it the best club choice for creating a precise approach shot on a hazard. When golfers are trying to hit the ball from a close distance for throwing in the air quickly for landing to the green with maximum spin, use the 60-degree lob wedge. Usually, the players hit the golf ball with a bounce lob wedge for making a complete swing to get the average wedge distance from 60 to 70 yards. It helps to raise the ball rapidly and go down fastly or sudden stop onto the putting surface. If you want to use this current wedge for high rough or a fairway, you will not get it as a set of clubs; you need to buy it separately.
Which loft wedges should you be using?
Final Word
Choosing the right degree wedge to get a perfect distance between clubs may be confusing, but it will become more readable when you start using a custom wedge. The wedges are generally used to drive the ball near the hole and then use a putter to complete the next task. The standard rule for choosing the wedge angle degree is taking all four types in your golf bag. For example, if a golfer picks a pitching wedge with a 460 loft angle, he should carry a 50-degree gap wedge, a sand wedge with a 54-degrees of loft angle, and a lob wedge that is less than that 58-degree. You can also visit our website to get more information about the best wedges for your golf bag.