Our Wedges

We think of wedges like we imagine that professional chefs think of their knives. A huge mistake made by most amateurs is to grab a "set" of Vokey or Cleveland wedges off the rack.

Just like fairway metals, nothing says that wedges should match. You're way better off choosing your wedges specifically for the conditions you play.

Your first hurdle is to choose your "wedge loft progression". If you follow the Pelz method, you're going to be encouraged to put a lot of wedges in your bag. Pelz recommends a pitching wedge (48*), gap wedge (52*), sand wedge (56*), lob wedge (60*) and "X" wedge (64*).

If you subscribe to the Stan Utley theory – the "other guru" – you're going to go with just two wedges after your pitching wedge. Utley recommends a 53* or 54* gap wedge/sand wedge and a 58* sand wedge/lob wedge. He thinks most players should just take the 58* and learn to hit every shot with it.

So you have the choice between Pelz who is politely described as "mechanical" versus Utley who is more "feel".

Your next hurdle is "bounce" and "sole grind".

Just like all other clubs, the only way to find your "Magic Wedge" is by hitting shots outdoors on the courses that you play. If conditions are firm and fast and rough is long, you're going to like a low bounce wedge with a straight leading edge. Nothing says that the leading can't be "relieved" creating a little bounce to keep the leading edge from "digging".

The sand in your bunkers matters. The softer the sand, the more bounce is recommended. Bounce creates your "margin of error" in soft sand. Just the opposite in hard sand. A wedge with too much bounce is likely to bounce into the back of the ball and blade it over the green.

Wedges with ultra-custom grinds are starting to appear. The Scratch "SFU" (for Stanley Franklin Utley) combines a pretty big "effective bounce" with a relieved heel and toe. The relieved heel permits opening the blade to act like a lob wedge. The relieved toe permits a chipping stroke from the fringe. Tour players are increasingly chipping with the toe of their high loft wedges to make the most solid contact possible.

So where does that leave us? We like the Japanese forged wedges. We'd like to say it's because of the "soft feel". Some players will swear that they can tell the difference between cast and forged wedges. Club making folklore recalls a test that was conducted in the past that reportedly pitted cast wedges against forged wedges – all painted black – with Tour Players doing the testing. The story goes that they couldn't tell the difference. Maybe that story was planted by the Vokey and Cleveland PR organizations which both have a vested interest in selling cast wedges.

So what if the most popular wedges in the world are cast?

Our experience is that we've given a bag full of wedges to hundreds of players to take out for field testing. It is very rare for them to choose a Vokey or Cleveland when compared against a Scratch, Miura, Vega or Miura wedge. Is there a feel difference? You don't have to ask; you can check out a bag full of test wedges from the Golf Lab and find out for yourself.

Most good players think they can feel the difference. At a minimum, they're prettier.

If you're looking for durability, consider the Bobby Jones wedge set that carries both Jesse Ortiz' and Dave Pelz' signatures. They're built with a super hard insert that is guaranteed to outwear a dozen ordinary wedges. If that's what the guru of the short game thinks about soft feel – why worry?

By now, you should know the only way to tell for sure.