“I Don’t Need No Steenking Gap Wedge – Or Do I?”
Sure, you love your pitching wedge and you use your sand wedge so much that the logo on the sole is barely legible. And who would want to disrupt the good karma of that dynamic duo by introducing a strange new wedge? But have you noticed the rather large “gap” in distance between these two clubs when struck with a full swing?
Perhaps you argue that you don’t need a gap wedge because 1) you can hit your PW with 80% effort and achieve gap wedge distance or 2) gap wedges are for sissies – after all, your dad never carried one and none of the boys on the Champions Tour did either! Well first of all, hitting a shot with less than a full swing (i.e. a “touch” shot) is not the easiest thing to do. Have you ever crushed a drive on a par 4 and had to either lean on a sand wedge or back off a pitching wedge? Of course you have – sometimes with lovely results and many times (be honest) with hideous results. Secondly, your dad and all the great players of 30 years ago didn’t need gap wedges because there was a normal 4 degree progression in loft between the PW and SW (like all the other irons in the set). To get clubs to fly farther, manufacturers have gradually decreased lofts in the 1-iron through PW. They didn’t change the loft of the SW because we wouldn’t be able to get out of the bunkers smartly. Although today there is usually still a 4 degree progression between irons, it is not uncommon for the PW to be 46-48 degrees and the SW to be 55-56 degrees. That means there can be up to a 10 degree difference in loft – that’s two and a half clubs difference!
No one would argue that the wedges are our scoring clubs. Can you really afford to have such a gap in distance? Maybe it’s time to pull that hard to hit 3-iron and add a gap wedge. A good clubmaker can make sure that new gap wedge will fit in nicely in terms of length, lie angle, flex and swingweight. And don’t worry about disrupting the good karma. Remember when you added the lob wedge – that worked out OK didn’t it?
For more great info on how to select the right golf clubs for your swing check out Tom Wishon’s book Search for the Perfect Golf Club.
Patrick Blair
Blair Golfworks
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