Are You Carrying the Right Wedges?
Shot Scope data reveals some surprising differences in how golfers build—and actually use—the scoring end of their bags.
Open almost any golfer's bag and you'll probably find some version of the familiar lineup: pitching wedge, gap wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge. Maybe it's 50°, 54° and 58°. Maybe 52°, 56° and 60°. Maybe it's an odd-numbered combination. Maybe there's no lob wedge—or gap wedge—at all.
But here's a question we probably don't ask often enough: Why are those particular wedges in your bag?
Is it because they produce the yardage gaps you need? Because each one gives you a shot the others can't? Or because that's simply the wedge setup you've always carried?
Recent Shot Scope data gives us an interesting look at the wedges golfers across different handicaps carry, how far they hit them and which ones they actually use around the green. And it suggests that the important question isn't necessarily how many wedges you should carry.
It's whether each one has a reason to be there.
Last Week, You Told Us: Use the Data to Practice Smarter
Last week, we asked:
If you could learn just ONE thing about your golf game from data, what would you want to know?
The answer wasn't particularly close. 64% of you said you would want the data to tell you where you should spend your practice time.
That makes sense. Data is most valuable when it helps us make better decisions about our own games—not simply when it gives us another number to track.
And that same idea applies to the equipment in our bags. This week, we're using the data to ask a different question: Are the wedges we're carrying actually giving us the distances and shots we need?
Better Golfers Build Their Wedge Setups Differently
Shot Scope analyzed which specialty-wedge lofts golfers carry across handicap levels, and there's a noticeable pattern.
Among 25-handicap golfers, 56° and 60° are the two most commonly carried lofts. As handicaps fall, 50°, 54° and 58° become increasingly prevalent. Among scratch golfers, those are the three most commonly carried specialty-wedge lofts in the data.
But don't look at that graphic and conclude that 50°–54°–58° is somehow the "better player's wedge setup." That's not what the data tells us.
Shot Scope's data reflects the even-numbered specialty-wedge lofts most prevalent in today's market. If you play 49°, 53° and 57°—or 51°, 55° and 59°—there's nothing inherently better or worse about your setup.
The individual number stamped on the club isn't the answer.
What matters is where that wedge fits relative to the clubs around it, how far you actually hit it and what shots you use it for.
Carrying a Wedge and Using It Are Two Different Things
Shot Scope also tracked which wedges golfers actually selected from inside 50 yards.
Among 25-handicap golfers, the 56° accounted for 25% of those shots and the 60° another 26%. Combined, more than half of their shots inside 50 yards were played with one of those two lofts.
Scratch golfers showed a different pattern. Their most frequently used loft was 58° at 31%, followed by 60° at 24% and 54° at 18%.
The specific lofts aren't necessarily the story. The important point is that golfers of different abilities aren't using their wedges the same way.
Nor should they.
Some golfers develop tremendous confidence with one wedge and use it for a wide variety of shots, changing trajectory through setup and technique. Others prefer several wedges and allow loft to do more of the work. Either approach can work.
The better question for your own game is:
Are you carrying wedges for shots you actually hit?
Because there's a big difference between owning four wedges and having four wedges with four useful jobs.
ONE QUESTION
What's in your bag today?
A. PW + SW
B. PW + GW + SW
C. PW + GW + SW + LW
D. Something else
We'll share what Inside the Scoring Zone readers are actually carrying in a future article.
Your Biggest Wedge Gap Might Be Hiding in Plain Sight
If you want to evaluate your wedge setup, don't start with your lob wedge. Start with your pitching wedge.
And don't just look at the letters stamped on the sole. Find out its actual loft.
Today's pitching wedges can vary substantially depending on the iron set. That means two golfers can both say they play PW–GW–SW–LW while having dramatically different actual loft gaps.
Consider these two setups:
Both bags contain clubs labeled PW, GW, SW and LW. But they're clearly not the same scoring setup.
The first has a nine-degree gap between the pitching wedge and gap wedge. The second progresses in consistent four-degree increments.
We recommend starting with approximately 4°–6° of loft separation between your wedges. That's generally a good foundation for creating useful distance gaps, but it shouldn't be treated as an absolute rule.
Because ultimately, you don't hit degrees.
You hit yardages.
Loft Gaps Aren't Necessarily Yardage Gaps
Four degrees of loft separation doesn't guarantee a particular number of yards between two clubs. Your swing, clubhead design, shaft, ball flight and how consistently you strike each wedge all influence the result.
Shot Scope's actual playing data illustrates this particularly well.
For the average male 20-handicap golfer in its dataset, the pitching wedge travels 108 yards and the gap wedge 94—a 14-yard difference. But the gap then falls to nine yards between the gap wedge and sand wedge and just seven yards between the sand wedge and lob wedge.
Does that mean the lob wedge should come out of the bag?
Not necessarily.
Full-swing distance is only one way a wedge earns its place. Your lob wedge might be invaluable from a short-sided lie. Your sand wedge might be the club you trust most from bunkers. One wedge might produce the low-running pitch you use several times a round while another gives you the height you need when there's very little green to work with.
Those are different jobs.
But if two wedges produce nearly identical distances and you use them for essentially the same shots around the green, it's reasonable to ask why both are taking up spots in your bag.
You Only Get 14 Spots
This is where wedge selection becomes more than a short-game question.
Golf gives us a maximum of 14 clubs, so every spot devoted to one end of the bag comes at the expense of something somewhere else.
Maybe four wedges are essential to your game. Maybe you need five. Maybe three give you everything you need.
A golfer who regularly faces shots from 70, 85, 100 and 115 yards may place enormous value on having more scoring options. Another golfer may be comfortable manufacturing those distances with fewer wedges and would rather have another hybrid or fairway wood.
We explored the same issue recently with the 3-wood: Is the club actually doing enough to justify one of your 14 spots?
The same question applies at the other end of the bag.
If your 3-wood rarely gets used or doesn't produce results significantly different from another club, perhaps another scoring club would provide more value. But the opposite can also be true. If your sand wedge and lob wedge travel nearly the same distance and you use them for essentially the same shots, perhaps one of those clubs is occupying a spot that would be more useful somewhere else.
Every club needs a job.
Take the Five-Minute Wedge Test
Before your next round, spend five minutes looking at the scoring end of your bag.
Start by finding the actual loft of your pitching wedge. Don't guess based on the PW stamped on the sole. Look up the manufacturer's specifications if necessary.
Then write down the actual loft and your comfortable carry distance for every wedge that follows it. Don't use the longest you've ever hit each club. Use the distance you can reasonably expect from a normal, repeatable swing.
Finally, assign each wedge a primary job. Full swings? Three-quarter shots? Bunkers? Low-running chips? Pitches? High, soft shots?
Then look at the entire scoring set.
Do you have a large distance hole somewhere? Do two clubs essentially duplicate each other? Is there a wedge you almost never use? Is there a shot you regularly face for which you don't have a comfortable club?
Those answers are more important than whether the clubs say PW, GW, SW and LW—or whether the lofts happen to be odd or even numbers.
So, How Many Wedges Do You Really Need?
There isn't one correct answer.
The Shot Scope data reinforces that. Golfers of different abilities carry different lofts, use them differently and produce very different yardage gaps.
Your ideal setup might be four wedges. It might be three. It might even be five. Your lofts might be odd numbers, even numbers or some combination of the two.
The goal isn't to build a wedge setup that looks right when you read the numbers stamped on the soles.
It's to build a scoring system that gives you the distances and shots your game actually requires.
So perhaps the better question isn't:
How many wedges are in your bag?
It's:
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