If you’ve ever been to a professional golf tournament in person, I feel you really gain a true appreciation for how razor sharp the top players’ short games are. Countless times, I have watched a tour pro short-sided and pull off a shot of the highest calibre, sliding the club underneath the ball, getting it to land softly and checking up on slick greens. You try to recreate it the next time you’re on the golf course, and the result is, let’s say, very different.
Rory McIlroy made the switch into the new TaylorMade MG5 wedges at the Irish Open
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully understand that a large percentage of this success is down to countless hours practicing and raw talent, but one thing I’ve noticed from spending time around countless professional players and looking at their equipment on the days leading up to an event is that they often have the option of selecting the perfect tools for the job.
I’ve noticed that a lot of players will travel with and test multiple lob wedges. By this, I don’t mean testing different models of the best golf wedges; rather, finding the correct bounce and grind to execute the short game shots required around the greens at that specific course or expected weather conditions.
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Kristoffer Reitan is someone who travels each week with four lob wedge options with different bounces and grinds
(Image credit: SMS On Tour)
This was highlighted to me by an image SMS on Tour posted on social media, which showed Kristoffer Reitan travelled with four seemingly identical Ping lob wedges to the French Open. They weren’t the same, of course, with each wedge offering slightly different turf interaction due to how they have been customised.
If, like me, you play at a variety of golf courses, or the conditions of your home club change fairly severely from season to season, then understanding what the bounce and grind on a wedge is and what you should be using could be the next step towards a short game that is closer to that of a tour pro.
To put simply, the bounce on a wedge is the angle between the leading edge and the lowest point on the sole of the club or the trailing edge. The more bounce you have on a wedge, the higher the leading edge sits from the turf, and it will help prevent any excess digging of the clubhead.
Titleist Vokey Wedges offer six different bounce and grind options
(Image credit: Future)
Typically, a higher bounce wedge will have anywhere between 10°-14° of bounce, and is found on some of the most forgiving wedges, whereas a wedge with low bounce will typically have 4°-8°. What bounce you have on your wedges will largely be decided by your angle of attack and your style of chipping and pitching, so if you don’t know what you should be using, I couldn’t recommend a custom wedge fitting enough.
Having a fitting into the correct bounce and grind can make a huge difference to your short game
(Image credit: Future)
The grind itself refers to the shaping of the sole, which can be manipulated for the head to interact with the ground differently and therefore allow you to hit various shots. Some soles will be more narrow with heel and toe relief for maximum versatility, allowing the golfer to open and close the face to hit a variety of shots. Others with wider soles allow the club to glide through turf or sand effortlessly and are great for bunkers with deep or fluffy sand or those seeking a little more forgiveness.
Tour players often have some very creative wedge grinds to deal with certain conditions
(Image credit: Future)
Most manufacturers now offer at a minimum three different grind options, but others, such as the Titleist Vokey SM10 wedges, are offered in six standard grinds as well as a couple more specialty grinds, such as the K* grind – a popular model on the professional tours, that has been used by the likes of Justin Thomas, Ludvig Aberg, and recent DP World Tour winner, Marco Penge.
The K* grind offers the wide sole found on the regular Vokey K grind, with a touch more heel and toe relief, as well as a steeper pre-wear to create slightly more bounce on the leading edge to prevent any digging on shots being played with a square face.
The fact that professionals on both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour travel to different countries or states each week means they invariably face different conditions, whether that be grass types or the firmness of the turf itself. Rather than relying on the same wedge and their ability to clip the ball in the same manner each time, I’ve noticed so many professionals carrying different options, predominantly in their lob wedges, that are tailored to the conditions they are about to face.
A lot of courses the players face in the US are parkland-style courses, with lush and soft fairways, and particularly in the south, are made from Bermuda grass – a sticky, grainy grass that has a particularly soft base. In these conditions, players are likely to opt for a higher bounce wedge to help prevent the leading edge from digging and getting stuck in the ground, and will glide through the turf better, helping golfers escape from the deep, fluffy bunkers they typically face.
Different grinds on wedges are often labelled underneath the stated loft on each wedge
(Image credit: Future)
However, a links course proposes a completely different challenge, with tight, firm ground where I have personally been a victim of my lob wedge having too much bounce and catching the ball straight off the leading edge and seeing it shoot off the other side of the green. A lower bounce wedge on links turf will help the club slide under the ball easier, creating a much more consistent contact point, somewhere between the second and fourth groove.
You may be reading this thinking, “Well, I’m not a tour pro and I play the same course all year round”. Well, the chances are, your course changes pretty dramatically throughout the season, with softer ground and longer grass in the spring and fall and firmer, tighter turf in the summer.
When playing on links turf, a wedge with less bounce will have the leading edge sit closer to the ground and likely improve contact
(Image credit: Future)
I think more golfers should definitely be looking into investing in another wedge as a 15th club to call upon as the conditions change with the seasons. After all, it makes complete sense to use a wedge that’s designed to help in certain conditions rather than fight against them, right?
While I completely understand it’s another investment that has to be made, surely, we’re better off committing to playing better golf and using the tools that can actually help us do so, rather than getting annoyed for duffing or thinning shots purely because the wedge in our hand isn’t suited at all to the shot we’re looking to play?
The next time you’re looking to upgrade your wedges, have a think about the conditions you face at different times of the year and seriously consider adding an extra wedge option to your arsenal. A cost effective solution would be to pick up something second hand, from places like 2nd Swing in the US or golfclubs4cash in the UK.
Having the correct bounce and grind on your wedges could be the reason you’re hot and cold with your short game at different times of the year, and so you may just find the secret to a better short game isn’t just in your ability, but the tools you choose to put in them.
