There are four basic wedges that are available to the game of golf today.
These wedges all have a particular place in your bag in terms of the shots you can hit with them. Since 70% of the scoring is done in golf from inside 100 yards it is essential to have these four wedges in your bag.
These wedges are:
The Pitching Wedge - This wedge is included in your set and is probably the ?one? wedge that every player has. It is usually the club that is hit form about 100 to 125 yards form the pin. The loft on these clubs are somewhere between 46 and 50 degrees depending on the manufacturer. This will be the longest wedge in terms of distance in your bag.
The Gap Wedge - This wedge is typically the club that is left out of the so called ?mix? because of its late introduction to the wedge game. This club is used to fill the gap between the pitching and sand wedges and can carry lofts between 50 and 54 degrees. These clubs are sold individually at your local retailer.
The Sand Wedge - Don't be fooled by the name of this club into thinking it's only for use from the sand. Its loft is somewhere between 55 and 59 degrees and provides a great amount of spin or stopping power. It can be purchased on its own or sometimes come with your set. You usually hit this club form 90 yards into the pin including the sand traps.
The Lob Wedge - These clubs must be purchase separately from your local retailer. They are used for shorter high shots around the green that you would like to stop quickly. They generally have a loft of 60 to 64 degrees and are a lot of fun to hit.
As a general rule of thumb the average player should try to space the loft of the different wedges to 4 degrees.
What that means is there should be 4 degrees difference from pitching wedge to gap wedge, 4 degrees form gap wedge to sand wedge , and 4 degrees form sand wedge to lob wedge.
There are a number of other variables that we can get into to help you select the best wedges for your game but these should give you a great starting point.
