Wedge Gapping

With so many loft options, getting the correct ‘Loft-Gapping’ is critical to providing you the best distance coverage with full wedge shots as well as versatility around the greens. One of the problems with the modern day set is that the loft of the pitching wedge has become so strong (less lofted) that it has created a gap in loft to the sand wedge — many pitching wedges will come as standard in a set with as little as 43° or 44° of loft, which means if you have a standard loft on your sand wedge of 56° you have a gap of over 12° of loft — roughly the difference between your 4 iron and your 7 iron!

The guys at Vokey recommend gaps between your wedges of no more than 4–6°, which equates to roughly 10–15 yards of gap between wedges. So how can you go about checking your wedges and what lofts are best for you? First job: you need to find out the loft of the pitching wedge in your set — you can do this by visiting the manufacturer’s website and checking your club specs. Now some golfers like to carry four wedges, some three, so you can find out which wedges you can fit into your bag.

Let’s say for example your pitching wedge has 45° of loft — I would recommend you now should have a 50° wedge (sometimes known as a gap wedge), then a 55° wedge; this would be the wedge you would use for bunker shots, and then a 60° wedge — this has nice consistency of 5° gaps between clubs. However if you would rather only have three wedges, then you can add a 50° gap wedge and a 56° wedge which again becomes your sand wedge — so you have options. You just need to find out the loft of your pitching wedge first.

Take a look at the Vokey website for further information on wedge fitting.