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Intermediate Golf

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Why play 3 wedges?

Having multiple wedges in your bag gives you more options from 100 yards and in.

by Scott Heyn, PGAPublished: February, 2012

(photo: Eddie Meeks)
The scoring zone is anything inside of 100 yards. From this area you will hit more than 70 percent of your shots in golf. This area is also the most precise part of the game that is not on the putting green.

The goal from inside 100 yards is to hit the ball exactly the right distance and direction. As with anything you do in life, you want instruments designed specifically for what you are doing.

This means adjusting the length, loft and design of the club to hit specific shots. If there were no limit to how many clubs you could carry, I would add at least two more wedges to my bag!

By playing multiple wedges in your bag your total number of shots increase, while you learn one basic swing. Many players use just one wedge and play all of their shots around the green with it.

The problem with that is that you have to learn each shot and master its fundamentals. If you have all day every day to work on your wedge game, I welcome you to try it. Most of you will not have that kind of time. I recommend learning the fundamentals of how to play a wedge shot: Use the length and loft of the club to vary how far you want to hit the shot, and use the loft of the club to vary the trajectory.

Changing the length and loft of the club will allow you to be more specific with your distance control.

I play wedges with 52, 56 and 60 degrees of loft, a consistent 4-degree gap. That makes me very confident in the distance I will hit each club. Then you really just have to work on your direction.

As a practice routine go on the course and spread out with each wedge ten yards apart. Hit three shots from each station, starting from the closest and moving to the farthest.

From the first, hit your 60 degree wedge, then your 56 in the middle, and the 52 from the farthest.

The key to this drill is to make the same length swing with the same tempo with each club. This way you just have to learn one swing and can cover many distances by changing the instrument.

The other great benefit of carrying multiple wedges is that you can change the trajectory of the shot and vary how the ball reacts when it hits the green. If you have a back pin and you can roll the ball to it, change to a lower lofted wedge; the ball will come out lower. If you need to hit a shot that lands soft, take a club with more loft and swing a bit harder.

You also will be more consistent; by changing clubs you will not have to open or close the clubface, which is much harder to do consistently.

Keep as many wedge options in your bag as possible to make you more consistent and accurate with the least amount of practice.

By having more wedges you also will have more flexibility to hit all of those fun shots around the green.

Scott Heyn, PGA, is the general manager at Black Gold Golf Club in Yorba Linda. He can be reached at (714) 961-0253, ext. 111.

Readers Feedback:

I also carry 52,56 & 60 in my bag and I enjoyed reading your article. I just wish I could hit my short chips better. I would rather be 75 to 125 yarda than 10 to 30 yards or in a greenside bunker.
Comment at 2/8/2012