You probably know the lofts of your wedges. But do you know their bounce? More importantly, do you know what that number actually means?
Look at the sole of most wedges and you'll probably find two numbers. One is loft. That's the easy one. The other is bounce.
Golfers have been told that more bounce is better for certain swings and conditions, while less bounce works better for others. That's generally true, but there's a problem: that little bounce number doesn't tell the whole story.
Two wedges stamped with exactly the same bounce can interact with the turf very differently. And understanding why might change the way you think about your wedges.
First, What Exactly Is Bounce?
Bounce is the angle created between the leading edge of the wedge and the lowest point of its sole. Its basic job is pretty simple: bounce helps keep the leading edge from digging too deeply into the turf or sand.
Even the best players in the world rely on it. At the 2021 Hero World Challenge in The Bahamas, Rory McIlroy arrived with a significant change to his 58° wedge: he had moved from 8° of bounce to 14°.
The reason? The conditions.
Albany Golf Course featured closely mown areas around the greens and grainy turf. McIlroy found that the additional bounce helped the club move through the ground more easily and gave him greater confidence around the greens.
His explanation was refreshingly straightforward:
“I just have more trust in it... it's not going to dig, it's going to get out of the ground a little bit easier.” — Rory McIlroy
That's bounce doing its job.
The graphic above makes the basic concept pretty easy to see. More bounce generally raises the leading edge farther from the ground and provides more resistance to digging. Less bounce generally allows the leading edge to sit closer to the ground.
But here's where bounce starts getting more complicated.
The Number Isn't the Sole
Imagine two wedges. Both are 56°. Both say 10° bounce. You might reasonably assume they should perform pretty much the same way through the turf.
Not necessarily.
Bounce angle is only one part of the sole. How a wedge actually interacts with the ground is also affected by sole width, curvature or camber, leading-edge shape, heel and toe relief, and where the lowest point of the sole is located.
That's not just our opinion. Major wedge manufacturers themselves fit golfers for more than a bounce number. Titleist's Vokey fitting methodology, for example, evaluates turf interaction and then has golfers test different grinds while hitting pitches, chips and bunker shots. The objective is to match the entire sole configuration to the golfer and the shots being played—not simply select a number stamped on the club.
The number isn't the sole.
That's an important distinction because two golfers using wedges with identical stated bounce can experience very different turf interaction—and two wedges with identical stated bounce can behave differently for the same golfer.
Then There's You
There's another variable no number stamped on a wedge can completely account for: the golfer swinging it.
Some golfers deliver the club steeply and take substantial divots. Others are shallow and barely disturb the turf. Traditional fitting guidance generally points steeper swings and softer conditions toward more bounce, while shallower swings and firmer conditions tend to favor less.
That's useful guidance, but it doesn't address everything that happens during an actual round of golf.
You don't play every wedge shot with the same swing or from the same lie. During one round, you might hit your 56° from a lush fairway, a tight lie, deep rough, a fluffy bunker and wet turf. Same golfer. Same wedge. Five very different jobs.
And that's where the comparison with Tour players gets interesting.
Tour Players Have an Advantage You Don't
Think again about Rory McIlroy changing the bounce on his lob wedge. He wasn't necessarily searching for the one perfect bounce angle that would work everywhere. He was configuring his equipment for the conditions he was playing.
Tour professionals operate in an equipment world most recreational golfers never experience. They have access to expert fitters, equipment representatives, multiple bounce and grind configurations, launch monitors and Tour equipment support capable of helping them optimize their equipment as conditions change.
And Tour players really do change wedge configurations. McIlroy has carried different lob-wedge sole configurations for different conditions, while players including Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas have also carried alternative wedge setups that allow them to choose a sole or bounce configuration based on the course they're playing.
Soft conditions and fluffy bunkers this week? They can prepare for them. Firm turf and tight lies next week? They can make another choice.
Most of us don't play golf that way. We buy our wedges and put them in the bag. Then we take those same wedges to our home course on a wet spring morning, play them from hard summer turf in July, take them on a golf trip where the grass and sand might be completely different, and keep playing them when softer conditions return in the fall.
Same golfer. Same wedges. Very different conditions.
And unlike a Tour professional, there's no equipment van waiting beside the first tee to grind us a different sole.
So perhaps recreational golfers should be asking a slightly different question. Instead of focusing exclusively on:
“What's the perfect bounce for me?”
Maybe the better question is:
“How versatile is the sole I'm buying?”
That's the Problem Edison Set Out to Solve
This challenge—how do you make one wedge perform effectively across more lies, conditions and types of shots?—is something we spent decades thinking about. It ultimately became one of the fundamental design concepts behind Edison wedges: the Dual Bounce Sole.
Rather than designing the wedge around one continuous sole geometry, the Edison sole incorporates two distinct bounce surfaces designed to interact differently with the turf depending on the shot and how the club enters the ground.
On fuller swings, the sole is designed to provide resistance to excessive digging. Around the green, where you may manipulate the face or encounter tighter lies, the other portion of the sole helps provide the versatility those shots demand.
The idea isn't to eliminate bounce, nor is it to claim there's one perfect bounce angle for every golfer and every condition. The objective is to make the sole more versatile.
That's important because most of us aren't changing wedges based on tomorrow's weather forecast. We're asking the same wedges to handle whatever the golf course gives us.
You're Not Buying a Bounce Angle. You're Buying a Sole.
We're not suggesting you should ignore the bounce number on a wedge. It's useful information. But don't make your decision based on that number alone.
Think about your swing. Are you generally steep, shallow or somewhere in between? Think about your normal playing conditions. Are they predominantly soft or firm—or, like most golfers, some of everything? And think about the jobs you're asking each wedge to perform: full swings, pitches, chips, bunker shots, tight lies and open-face shots.
Because ultimately:
The next time you look at your wedges, turn one over. Look past the loft number. Look past the bounce number. Look at the entire shape of the sole.
There's a lot more engineering happening down there than most golfers ever think about. Considering that the sole has to deal with every tight lie, fluffy lie, bunker, patch of rough and piece of wet turf you encounter, maybe we should be paying a little more attention to it.
Want to See How Edison Approaches Bounce?
Learn more about the Dual Bounce Sole and the other design ideas behind Edison wedges.
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