This video was originally posted on Feb 15, 2023 on Elite Fit Golf channel.
In this video we look at if your gap wedge should match your other wedges or match your irons?
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This video was originally posted on Feb 15, 2023 on Elite Fit Golf channel.
In this video we look at if your gap wedge should match your other wedges or match your irons?
42 Comments
I play with 2 gap wedges. My main one is from my set and I have a 52 degree wedge. They are on the stronger loft side and it works for me
I actually use my gap wedge more for half and 3/4 shots. I have the set gap wedge and the issue I find with it is that for Chipping it can come off hot
I literally just ordered my set’s gap wedge a few days ago. My current GW matched my SW and the weight and bounce just didn’t work for me.
I now use my 52deg for a lot of flop shots and it is away better than the 60 deg. Chips rolling up greens. So I keep the 60 deg for straight forward flops but the 52deg is used for very tricky flop shots with a full open face. Much better fell, I keep a 48 deg in the bag too , plays very different from my PW 43 deg. I have popped over massive trees 100ft high to green centre with the AW/48deg from 110 yards out. The PW would fly over this shot. So 5 wedges but 6I is my longest iron now.
My Gap Wedge is my favorite wedge, 52 deg vokey SM9 Full swing from 120yds. However, it is my go to "around the greens" wedge, with the exception of bunkers and massively heavy rough (60deg). I guess the argument could be made that my 56 should match the set as that actually is the wedge that i really only use full swing Also I already play a combo set of sorts. Matching Mizuno Pro 2 iron from 2-8 iron, 9&p mp63 and sm9 vokey wedges 52,56,60.
I use my gap wedge around the greens a lot. I think most amateur players like me should use less loft around the greens.
If you want 5 more yards why not just adjust the loft? Accomplishes the same thing.
Gap wedge is just a pitching wedge in 'older Iron sets' because they stamped 9 on the 8 iron to make people feel warm fuzzy. Now your PW is the 9 iron and you 'need' a 'gap wedge'. 🤦
I have traditional lofted Hogan PTx Pro irons and have 58, 54, and 50° Hogan wedges. I just call them by their loft and don't use the term gap, sand, and lob because I use all of them out of sand at times.
I previously had 46,48,52,56 and used 56 for almost everything around the green. Tested 58 and loved it! Now have 46,52,58 and am much happier.
Your awesome!!
Interesting. I think I'll stick the gap wedge that came with my set of Hot Metals in my bag and see if it's better than the 50 degree Volkey SM7 currently in the bag. I've made some OK to good shots with the Volkey, but it seems like I have to step on it to get it to fly 115 yards which is between my sand wedge (100) and PW (130). And when I step on it sometimes my miss is left or even bad left. Or bladed. I sometimes joke that I can hit my gap wedge farther than my 7-iron.
This is why I play iWin single length irons from 5 thru 58 degree lob with great success.😺
I agree. My Callaway X forged only went to 46* pitching wedge and I have the 54*&58* full toe callaway wedges so I bought another pitching wedge that matched the set off EBay and had it bent to 50* and it works great for me. I just painted the P a different color so I wouldn’t get them confused and I had the shaft cut to Gap wedge length. Great videos! Love your channel!
I'm 65 y.o. so my distances are not what they used to be. My PW has a loft of 45° (reduced from the stock 47°) and I found that a gapping of 6° to 7° works for me. That being said, I play a 52° AW and a 58° SW. My distances are: PW 105 yds., AW 90 yds., and SW 75 yds. While my iron set is the Taylor Made P7MC I was not able to get a gap wedge in that set. Instead I did stick with TM but got the Hi-Toe wedges which is still a pretty good match.
What’s the explanation as to why this is? Longer length club? Lie? Plain blade vs tech? Fitting? Gotta be a reason??
What irons do you game?
I see you are still gaming those sub 70s must really be nice. Love that raw rusty finish
Just purchased a set of Mizuno Pro 233 5-PW with UST recoil 95 F4 and already have a set of Mizuno T22 wedges (50/54/60) w dynamic gold steel shafts. Are you saying it is better to get the Pro 233 GW to match this set? And since the irons have the recoil shafts, should I also get my wedges in the same recoil shafts?
I'm interested in what you think is the best gapping for the three specialty wedges when the pitching wedge is 44 degrees
AJ is right…modern GW of today has the same loft as a PW from 20 years ago.
Biggest difference is he swung the iron set GW ~4mph faster than the Mizuno GW. Not much else.
I've got JPX 921 HMs, and had got T22 LW, SW, GW. Off my best shots, the gapping was perfect, but I increasingly began to realise that I was hitting a lot of full gap wedges, and coming up short. My belief is that this was influenced by the T22 having heel weighting, so a toe hit was particularly bad. So I changed GW to the S23, which is designed to blend with the 923 series, and is centre weighted. I've stopped coming up short….
The S23 gives you the flexibility to select bounce and grind, but works far better as an iron. They do have "set" gap wedges too, but I like a smoother switch into specialist wedges. Sold.
My GW is primarily a full shot club, so I agree AJ. But, as you say, it can be hard, if not impossible, to find a GW that matches your irons. Many brands do not make a GW in many of their lines, especially better player irons. I'm guessing that's because they assume better players will do what the Pros do, but it doesn't help us short-hitting, low handicappers, does it?.
Agree. Have a matching AW, works fine.
If your wedge is 51°, why is your launch angle 31°?
Only play set irons 6i-9i and Glide 4.0 wedges, 46 (bent to 45) PW, 50 gap, 54 & 58
Is it bad to not take a divot? I never take one. I only do when I hit a bad shot otherwise I pick the ball.clean with every club even wedges
I saw a video interview with John Rahm about why he went with the stock set AW or Attack Wedge. His reasoning is that it fits the gapping for him. Also, because the stock set wedge was more forgiving.
I had a blade wedge in that role for most of my life. When I made that jump, it was a major improvement in that part of my bag. Now, I am starting to see more pros doing the same thing.
Very good points. This is the problem with strengthening lofts you pay for it this end of your bag. Being a senior I now play larger cavity back irons and the pitching wedge is 44.5 deg. We all know the issues you can and do get with this type of iron regarding feel shots (not full shots) I have the set gap wedge but still had that same problem so I stopped at P.W and went into Vokey's with a 46F, 52F and 56M. Works a treat for me but everyone is different.
Agree with this, all my old sets of irons finished at pw, then i used Cleveland gap, sand, lob, but i used to struggle with full shots with that gap wedge, this time with my new irons i made sure i had gap in that set, 5-gw, its been a revaluation, would definitely recommend it
I really feel like I’ve seen this video before.
I have a 44 deg Gradidge wedge from the 40s and a SmartSole 58 and LaunchPad wedge, all 3 suit me fine
I usually buy sets with matching Gap wedges, but I got a great deal on some 4-PW 2020 Cobra Forged Tec irons. I couldn't find a matching gap wedge at a reasonable price, so I bought a 49° Crews Triple Sole wedge with a DG s200 shaft on eBay for $10. I had never heard of that brand before, but thought it looked similar to my old Vokeys. I found out later that it's a fairly prestigious Japanese brand. I love that club and have no plans of replacing it with the matching gap wedge to my set
Your peak height with the set wedge was quite a bit higher making it more susceptible to wind. Not what you want from that range when you’re going after a pin and find yourself short sided because of the wind. Makes the side to side dispersion not matter quite as much. The bounce and sole grinds are often more forgiving on (I’m gonna call them) “designer” wedges in the “gap wedge” series of lofts. The idea of those wedges is to keep the ball down and control it with spin. Many pros also play their “pitching wedge” as a designer wedge for this same reason.
This is going to sound stupid but here goes . What do you mean by maching my GW with my Irons ?
Completely agree!
Good video I had a set of stealth irons with ventus shafts reweighted he put weight plug in. Now all iron have a terrible tap to get the ground or lay down on the ground or just tapping in the ground. What is casein that please
I prefer my gab wedge to be like my irons. But my irons set, Callaway Apex 19 went to only PW and they want way to much for a single club in that model. So I got the callaway MD CB 52° that is more forgiving than maybe a Cleveland Zipcore 52°.
I have the PXG 0211
4 to lob wedge with MMT shafts
10 clubs including gap , sand and lob
They are all gaped perfectly !!!!
I love my gap wedge !!
I like the idea of a company selling all ten clubs !! There’s no guessing
My gap goes average 118
So I was always told that when you hit off a mat you don’t get the same distances or reactivity as hitting of a fairway. I would love to see a comparison of data from off a mat and of like a fairway or grass range.
This is exactly why I use a 50* GW when my PW is 46* then I use a 56 and 60 as my other two wedges. It just makes more sense in distance gapping with me.