What wedge setup are ye all using ?

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119472050#Comment_119472050

But.... I did hit my PW 165 that one time!

Out of interest, you being a decent golfer and all, I'm assuming those distances are very controlled swings?

If you had to, would there be an extra 10-20% there if an internet bully made you 'step on it' 😂

coillcam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119476733#Comment_119476733

Not at all, sure everyone online drives it 350 yards with their gamer swing!

The hot weather gave me a serious ego boost in the last couple of rounds, was easily 1 club long on the first two holes for both days. If only I could find something to blame the putting on.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119475901#Comment_119475901

Based on some yardages i have to think people are incorrectly calculating their yardages or using crazy lofts on their irons. Average club speed on pga tour is 114mph, PW carrying 135-145 yards is equivalent to 110-120mph clubhead speed and driver carry of 284-310 yards which i would have a hard time believing for your average club player. Total distance might be a bit more accurate, for reference my club head speed is 105/106mph with the driver and these are my total yards (average) according to arccos, its fairly close to my real world experience plus trackman sessions. There are some weirdness as you'll see some clubs averaging les than stronger lofted club (e.g. 6 and 7 iron) but thats just down to me not tidying up some punch outs properly.

Thats my wedge setup, GW is part of my iron set and is 50d. I've 2 SM8 vokeys then with 54d 12 D grind and 58d 12 D grind. Use both for full swing shots and my 58 is my club for anything around the green. Rarely use the 54 around the greens unless its a long bunker shot.

coillcam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119476976#Comment_119476976

I'd be sceptical of your arccos numbers even. Just as I'd be sceptical of the Garmin app for my watch. 105mph is my exact swing speed from multiple trackman sessions and there's no way you're averaging those driver/3w/3h numbers real world without some regular links golf or downhill drives that skew the numbers. You'd have to be pushing 110mph+ to average 292 total without some caveat. Maybe it's some mad outliers in a small data set or arccos calculates it differently. The 6i and 9i-PW gap stands out too.

For reference, my absolute best drives on flat parkland yesterday in 26C were running out a mile and still not able to break 290yds. The handful of times I break 290yds it's wind-assisted and downhill.

Rikand

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119476779#Comment_119476779

They would be controlled full swings yes.

But no, I wouldnt have much extra if I tried to step on one. Trying to hit harder just throws my swing off and I end up mishitting it in some way, so there's just no point. My swing is my swing :D

Obviously there's some degree of variance in those numbers, but I'm just hoping to end up within a 10 yard radius of the flag at worst in either direction :D

SEORG

My PW is 46 ( bent a degree weaker from the standard). I then have 50, 54, 58.

I'll sometimes take out the 54 & 58 and replace them with a 56 and add a 3i.

My stock PW is about 110 metres.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119477070#Comment_119477070

Its based on my last 10 rounds which have been on firm conditions. There’s 2 or 3 holes on my home course where a good drive will go 300 plus very easily if you’re on the fairway as they’re downhill quite severely so they’re skewing it for sure. 3h has gone that far but it’s all down to rollout of 30-40 yards and isn’t carry distance. My home course plays very firm during the summer so you get a lot of extra distance from roll out. For reference my trackman average carry is around 250 yards with driver. 3w is 230, 3h is 210 or so and about 10-15 yards incrementally from there. The 6i is wrong as I said because there’s punch outs calculated in it, 9i is about 135ish carry for me, PW 120 typically.

as you say though you need to be weary of any of those figures and compare with real life experience. Total distance is not overly useful when it includes shots off the tee. Like my 5i is not a club I’d hit into a green from 200 yards but it goes about that far off the tee with rollout so you need to keep that stuff in mind. I find arccos pretty good though in my experience so far.

bakerbhoy

I am pw gw mizuno pro 21 hot metal and 56 ping glide 2.0 s.

Play all three to knock down yardages.

Only go full yardage where height and carry are in play.

80 yards max with 56.

OEP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119476976#Comment_119476976

27 yards between your 9 and PW is odd - your PW seems short.

Age and handicap needs to go with distances as well - younger lower handicap players are generally going to hit it further. And I think now younger people swing harder than younger people did 20 years ago, just because that's what's happening on tour. Swing speeds are up in general, but isn't that the case with all sports. And far doesn't mean accurate. All I know is that if my watch says I'm 140 - 145 yards from the middle of the green and I hit a reasonable shot with my PW, I'll land in or around that distance. I gained 5 - 10 yards (depending on the club) with a swing change this summer.

coillcam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478217#Comment_119478217

Actually, that's interesting about the punch shots being skewed on the 6i. For some reason, Garmin disregards most of the shorter recovery shots and pitches but not the wedges that were boned 20 yards long.

OEP

https://golfingfocus.com/how-far-do-pro-golfers-hit-each-club/

This is interesting, scroll down to Brooks' yardage book. He has 'Full' and 'Max'. My full and my max are the same thing really. Which probably isn't a good thing but that's why I'm at the handicap I'm at. I'd imagine most people that seem to hit their irons far are the same. When we see pro's distances, we see their full and not max. Also, I have a big drop off towards the top of the bag - so where I might be close to some pros with a PW, when it comes to a 4i I'm 15+ yards behind them. PW is a lot easier to hit than a 4i.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478501#Comment_119478501

Yeah i know myself those yardages are wrong. 9i would be my club if i want to be sure of carrying 130 minimum if that makes sense, actual carry is in or around 135-140 i would estimate. PW is closer to 130 than 122 carry wise but if was in doubt about a hazard and had 130 to cover it i'd have a 9 iron in my hand! Yeah age and handicap is a factor for sure, a guy i play with is similar age but absolutely bombs the ball and would be at least a full club longer than me if not more but off the tee he's in the wilderness so can't keep the ball in play to take advantage of his distance. If he figures that out he'll be low single digits for sure.

If thats what you're getting from the watch then its as good a barometer as anything i would say. Thats a nice speed increase, was that with superspeed sticks?

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478578#Comment_119478578

Arccos normally does that for me as but i had to play some low hook recovery shots with my 6i in the last few rounds which went around 120ish yards but have been included in the calculation for my average distance. I assume its something to do with it being closer to a 'good' shot than a normal punch out that might go 60-70 yards. 6i is my go to recovery club so i often see strange things with it in the app.

big_drive

I've a pw at 46 degree in my iron set.

Also have 52 and 58. Those two are due an upgrade, are 5-6 years old.

I'm going to change to a 50 and 56 to tighten up gap between pw and next wedge.

Also feel 56 will be fine as highest wedge

OEP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478625#Comment_119478625

No, I was getting lessons and the change he made had me create much more width in my backswing which in turn allowed me to rotate much better. I'm really coiled now and the top of the backswing. I've always tried to swing hard, whether that's good or bad I don't know but it's what I've always done. When my game is off I can be all over the place though. I think it could be who you play with as well - so the people I play with, we're all in our early 30s and single figures and hit the ball pretty far. There's definitely an element of ego and trying to keep up with your mates!

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478639#Comment_119478639

You can remove shots from calculations in Arccos though if you don’t want them to ‘count’ so it’s grand in that sense

The Big Easy

I bought a set of Pron wedges from Amazon last year, so have 52, 56 and 60. Also a 48° vokey as the PW in my AP3s is 43° or 44°.

So does that count as 4 wedges or 5?

I can hit the PW a fair way, but always point out that it's a 9 iron essentially.

The pron wedges arrived last year on the morning of the Captain's Prize qualifier and in the most monumentally stupid decision of all-time I put the 60° in the bag for it's debut having never hit it. Cost me about 6 shots in the first 4 holes, recovered to only miss the cut by 2.

Have developed the chipping yips lately, have been reading the thread and almost bought a Ping Chipr, although I don't think my ego would ever let me.

The cunning plan for this year's qualifier on Saturday is to take the 60° out of the bag completely and not be tempted to loft everything skywards.

This whole idea of full, max, and 3/4, I really need to master. My best shot with the 60° is 90 yards flat out, everything else is too feely.

I am seriously tempted by the Ping Chipr though, no pictures on the scorecard!

big_drive

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479085#Comment_119479085

Guaranteed the chipr would be more useful than a 60 degree. It's after getting brilliant reviews online. I think Cleveland might have one as well, which is probably better price wise if you're looking

Russman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479085#Comment_119479085

Its fascinating, I've almost come to the conclusion that a lob wedge costs more shots than it saves, unless in very skilled hands. I'm old enough that I grew up with nothing higher than a 56 degree and learned how to open the face, its only in the last year or so I've stuck a 60 in the bag, and while its great from bunkers, it gets little or no use outside of that unless its a real emergency.

I put a new set of irons in the bag at the weekend and currently I've got PW 44, GW 50, SW 56 & LW 60. I can probably live with that and its the most likely outcome I'd say. If I'm honest I'm not mad about the 50, its kinda a no man's land club, for me its a little too strong to chip around the greens with, but its potentially not long enough to gap properly back to the PW. I'll do more testing over the autumn, but I'm half tempted to go 48, 52, 56 and drop the 60 altogether. Probably not though, two gap wedges is bit overkill 😀! or maybe pick up a cheap 58 as an experiment and see if its more versatile than a 60.

OEP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479811#Comment_119479811

I've always liked my 58. It's lofted enough to be great out of bunkers and for going over things but also not so lofted that you can't play longer shots too. I use it for most shots inside of about 80 yards, I still like to play a bump and run when I'm within about 5 yards of the green though.

The Big Easy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479811#Comment_119479811

Im thinking of dropping the 56 and 60 for a 58.

You need to have a lot of time to practice and play to be very consistent with the 60 I think. I don't have that time currently, so I think I will just take it out.

I'm actually ok with opening up the 56 if needing to over something anyway. I just need to out now and practice the 56 and maybe 9 iron for chipping.

I've almost exclusively practiced with the 60 for the last month trying to fix something that's only getting worse. It comes right on the practice area, but then you arrive short of the first and duff one up the hill, then thin the second through the back.

newport2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119478612#Comment_119478612

Agree. When we look at pro's distances, that's the distance they choose to hit it. Totally unrelated to how far they can hit it, especially when it comes to shorter irons.

The best advice I ever got for my irons was from a book by Raymond Floyd. He said he could hit an 8 iron 175 yards (this was written in the 80's, so probably between todays 9i and PW loft, plus balata balls). But in tournament golf, he hit it 145 yards because that is where he got the best consistency. So a multi-major winner is taking 30 yards off his irons to get better results. From then on, I deliberately tried to hit my irons 1 club shorter than I was and I became a far better iron player that I had been before.

I remember Adam Scott being interviewed after a round in the Open when it was hot, dry and hard. They were talking about a 180 yard approach and how he held the green. He said the only way he could hold it was to hit a sand wedge. so he did. He normally hits a sand iron 110yards.

OEP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119480042#Comment_119480042

Not hitting my irons so hard might be my winter project this year!

boccy23

All this talk of wedges makes me want to get new ones. All I have is a PW, 52° and 56°. PW goes about 110 yards and below that I tend to choke down and play arms shots with a PW or 9-iron to control distance.

coillcam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119480550#Comment_119480550

It's whatever you're comfortable with based on your age/swing speed/ability/preference etc. I play regularly enough with some older gents in my home club. None of them has more than two wedges: PW and SW. 95% of the time they're running the ball in from inside 100yds with 7/8/9i. Their most lofted club is only a bunker club and on rare occasions, they need to carry rough, water or some obstruction. On the other side of the bag, they'd have 3/5/7 wood and one or two hybrids. I even saw a guy with an 11 wood.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119479933#Comment_119479933

I'm the same as this, 58 is my favourite club in the bag to be honest. Very rarely lets me down and if it does its entirely my fault. Use it for all shots 80 yards and in too but i don't play a bump and run at all, for whatever reason i just can't get the speed/distance down with it. I think its cos i began playing golf by playing pitch and putt which meant i developed a very wristy chip/pitch swing that i still have. When i try a bump and run using a normal swing with no wrists I end up whacking it about 40 yards further than i intend to. Its really frustrating as i know i could use those shots a few times a round.

billy3sheets

58 is my favourite club in the bag to be honest. Very rarely lets me down and if it does its entirely my fault.

Love this comment 🙂

Russman

Obviously none of us can compare to tour players, but I saw a clip last night on one of the Taylormade social media outlets with Rory hitting wedges, and he explained how/why he goes 47, 55 and "just over" 59, despite all the WITBs showing him at 46, 54, 58. No gap wedge is interesting.

Ivefoundgod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119483256#Comment_119483256

😂 in hindsight that reads a bit odd allright but i suppose what i meant was once i play my usual shots with it i'm fine. When i try do something out of the norm like a low spinner or flop shot or whatever is when things go wrong if that makes sense.

willabur

My ping i500 irons include PW and UW at 45 and 50 degrees respectively

I have vokey 56 and 60 degrees

I use the vokeys for anything inside of 60 yards, I don't trust them on full shots. I like the 60 as I swing positively at short distances, less chance to flub or leave the club in the ground with it. 56 is used when I want to get something on the ground and rolling asap