How To Buy Golf Wedges - Ultimate Golf Wedge Buying Guide
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If you’re like most golfers, you want to shoot lower scores and beat your playing partners every time you tee it up.
Instead of trying to figure out how to hit it further or another Golf Digest tip to shallow the club, become an expert wedge player instead. Your wedges play a pivotal role in your game, yet most golfers almost ignore these clubs entirely.
Look, I get it; buying a new driver to hit bombs is more fun. But what’s the point of hitting it long if you can’t score well?
The secret is to learn more about your wedges and equip yourself with the right clubs.
Four Type of Golf Wedges
Let’s start by first understanding all the different wedges available.
Pitching Wedge
The first type of wedge is one that comes with almost all iron sets – pitching wedge. Your PW is a very versatile club that gets frequently used by most golfers.
A pitching wedge usually has a loft between 43 – 47 degrees, depending on your iron set.
On most game improvement sets of irons, expect lower loft as that makes the ball travel further as their primary goal is distance. For more advanced iron sets that are focused on ball-striking (aka blade irons), expect much more loft (46-47 degrees). This helps elite golfers shape shots and flight the ball at different trajectories.
What’s great about this club is that you can use it for a variety of shots from different distances. It works great for full swings; you can hit knockdown shots, long bunker shots, and long chip shots too.
Gap Wedge
The gap wedge, also known as a utility or auxiliary wedge, is usually 3-6 degrees higher loft than your pitching wedge. As the name suggests, it fills the gap between your pitching wedge and sand wedge. It’s also great for a myriad of shots inside 100 yards.
Sand Wedge
The third type of wedge is one I’m sure you’re familiar with – the sand wedge. While it’s made to help you get out bunkers, you can hit it for all kinds of other shots too.
The loft of a sand wedge is generally between 54-57 degrees.
Lob Wedge
The final wedge type is the lob wedge. This isn’t a club that every golfer has, and usually for good reason. A lob wedge isn’t always the easiest wedge to hit, which is why I do not suggest it for high handicap players.
But if you’re someone who can shoot in the 80s or better, this wedge can greatly help your game. You can use it for short bunker shots, to hit high shots over trees/hazards, and greenside shots too. As you look to get into single digits or even scratch handicap, the lob wedge will become your new best friend.
The loft for lob wedges ranges from 57-64 degrees.
Golf Wedges 101
Now that you have a better understanding of the four types of wedges, let’s go over some more questions that most golfers have.
How many wedges should I carry?
Regardless of handicap, I would recommend at least three wedges. For elite players who want more short game options, use four wedges (add a lob wedge).
Michael Leonard
Michael Leonard is a full-time writer, author, creator of Wicked Smart Golf and +1 handicap amateur golfer. He left his corporate career in 2017 to pursue entrepreneurship and professional golf; since then, he’s competed in 160+ tournament days and went to Q-school in 2019.
