I got emailed this article from Callaway, and unlike most of the spam, or gossip that passes for news in the golf world, it actually taught me a few things on wedge gapping and overall wedge selection. Particularly the windows, the shot sizes, and how thinking of things this way can help minimize gaps up close.
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So, for me that article is 100% accurate. I have the lofts from my set from 1989 pretty much spot on. LW-64* SW-56* PW-50* 9i-46* with varying amounts of grind on the soles and lead tape to make them work for me. Today, my current wedges look like this LW-60* SW-54* GW-50* PW-46* with varying amounts of grind on the soles and lead tape to make them work for me. I utilize a swing with my clubs what I feel +10%—stock— -10%. My stock swing is about 90% of what I feel I can generate…I can turn it up or turn it down…if you follow me! I can get 135 out of a PW, but stock is 122, just depends what I’m trying to do. When the game is firing correctly, I can be deadly with those. (I have to be, or I would get wiped)—I don’t have the distance to hang with the kids today…245-265 is where I’m at off the tee. The kids here…well that’s a 3w or 5w for them!
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I’ve no idea what amount of lead tape would be beneficial. I’ve the idea—borrowed from Wishon—of plotting swingweight to irons, and trying to get a smooth line between them. Now to find my kitchen scale that reads in fractions of a gram… God knows my 46PW feels like I’m swinging an Indian Club versus the other wedges, or frankly, most of the rest of the irons in my set. Of course, it’s an S-flex Ping G10, vs the (near as I can tell) R-flex Ping i3+s that make up my irons. I’m sure getting swingweight on those would be illuminating.
I’ve a 46, 52, and 56 that seem to work well, albeit the gapping is wonky. 52 and 56 are much closer together; the 46 was going about as far as the 43 9i, before I lengthened the irons. Now, with better contact, the 9i sails.
A fitting, and the uniformity that went with it, would be awesome. So would the excess cash that’d cost.
I really did like the idea from the article (which is why I made the post to begin with), of honing the exact yardages for each club, and each of the three swings he mentioned. Get good data. After that, start finding gaps, and thinking of how to fill them.
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I’m a bit more old fashioned and do it by feel. All of my clubs (except Driver) start(ed) at a D4. After that, I play with them until they perform for me, I don’t worry about frequency matching. I want my set to make sense for me. So my LW might now be a D5 or 6, my SW might be D3 because I ground the sole down a bit more from stock, I didn’t grind my LW but I did add more weight to the top edge of the club, I don’t care…I want it to be consistent on distance and shot shape that I want that matches my swing. So, that is a hit or miss especially for me or anyone. First, for me, I purchase a stock club that I like (for me CG12’s), then I put some blue tape on the sole and take a swing(s), I do this to mark for me, where or if I have to grind the sole a bit so I am getting a pretty flat “bottom out”. Sometimes it’s a little file, sometimes it’s more. (you can’t do this with cast clubs) My wedges are forged. Then to the range, hit balls and look at flight using my stock swing. Then tape here/there until I’m getting a fairly str8 flight with my wedges. Wanna know why a schmo like me is more deadly with those clubs than people that don’t take the time to do this…THAT’S WHY! 99.99% of schmo’s like me don’t do this. Take a look…watch the entire video cuz it’s good, BUT, go to 7:13/7:15 of the vid and pause it. That’s Lee’s wedge…Does it look like yours? Looks more like mine for sure! I’m not worried about how shiny and nice my clubs look…I want them, especially the scoring clubs to perform! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEX9TbE9XUo
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