How to Select Golf Wedges

Choosing the right golf wedges can slash strokes from your score, but matching lofts, bounce, and grinds to your game often feels unnecessarily complicated. This guide breaks it all down into a simple, step-by-step process. You'll learn exactly how to configure your wedges to cover all your yardages and handle any shot the course throws at you, building a setup that gives you total confidence inside 120 yards.

Start with a Wedge Audit: Know What You Have

Before you buy anything new, let’s figure out what you’re already working with. Most golfers have a pitching wedge (PW) that came with their iron set. This club is your anchor, the starting point for your entire wedge system. The most important number you need to find is its loft, which you can usually find on your club manufacturer’s website.

Modern iron sets have seen lofts get progressively “stronger” (lower) to produce more distance. A pitching wedge from 15 years ago might have been 48 degrees, but today, it’s common to see them at 45, 44, or even 43 degrees. This is the main reason why many golfers now have a huge yardage gap between their pitching wedge and their old 56-degree sand wedge. Knowing your PW loft is the first step to closing that gap.

Step 1: Get Your Gapping Right with Loft

The primary job of your wedges is to give you a specific club for every distance inside 100-120 yards. The goal is to eliminate those awkward, in-between shots where you’re forced to take an aggressive half-swing or a soft full-swing. Consistent, repeatable, full-swing distances are what we’re after.

The fundamental principle here is loft gapping. You want to create evenly spaced distance gaps between each of your wedges. For most амаteur golfers, this means having about 4 to 6 degrees of loft between each wedge.

Building Your Wedge Set from the Pitching Wedge Down

Let's use an example. Say you look up your irons and find your pitching wedge (PW) has a loft of 45 degrees. Using the 4-6 degree rule, here is a logical way to build out your wedge set:

• Pitching Wedge (PW): 45° (Your starting point)
• Gap Wedge (GW or AW): 50° (Creates a 5-degree gap with your PW)
• Sand Wedge (SW): 54° (Creates a 4-degree gap with your GW)
• Lob Wedge (LW): 58° (Creates a 4-degree gap with your SW)

This setup - 45°, 50°, 54°, 58° - provides perfect gapping. With this configuration, you’ll likely see a consistent 10-15 yard distance gap between each club on full swings. The 110-yard shot that used to be a choke-down pitching wedge now becomes a smooth, full-swing 50-degree gap wedge. This means more confidence, better distance control, and ultimately, shorter putts.

Don't have room for four wedges? A three-wedge setup can work just as well. Using our 45-degree PW example, you could opt for a simpler 45°, 52°, 58° setup. The gaps are a little wider, but still very manageable.

Coach’s Tip: Go to a driving range or simulator and hit 10 shots with your pitching wedge. Use a rangefinder or the simulator data to find your average, comfortable carry distance. Do the same with your next wedge down (likely a sand wedge). If you see a yardage gap of more than 25 yards, you desperately need a gap wedge to fill that hole.

Step 2: Understand Bounce and Pick the Right One For You

If loft determines distance, bounce determines how your wedge interacts with the turf and sand. This is arguably the most important secondary factor in wedge selection, and it's also the most misunderstood. Getting it right makes chipping from tight lies and hitting from fluffy bunkers infinitely easier.

So, what is bounce? Look at the bottom of your wedge. Bounce is the angle created by the leading edge, the sole of the club, and the ground at address. A higher bounce angle means the leading edge of the club sits higher off the ground. The sole of the club "bounces" off the turf or sand instead of digging in.

It acts like the hull of a boat. A V-shaped hull cuts through the water, while a wide, flat-bottomed boat skims along the surface. Less bounce cuts, more bounce skims. Wedges list the bounce number right on the head, next to the loft (e.g., 56-12 means 56 degrees of loft, 12 degrees of bounce).

Bounce is generally categorized into three levels:

• Low Bounce (4-6°): Ideal for firm turf, tight lies, and golfers with a "sweeping" motion. Players who pick the ball clean with a shallow angle of attack benefit from low bounce, as it keeps the leading edge close to the ground, allowing for crisp contact.
• High Bounce (10°+): Your best friend in soft conditions. High bounce excels out of fluffy sand and thick rough because it prevents the club from digging too deep. It’s also fantastic for golfers with a "digging" motion - a steep angle of attack where they take big divots. The extra bounce provides forgiveness and keeps the club moving through impact.
• Mid Bounce (7-10°): The most versatile option. It performs well from a wide variety of lies and suits most golfers’ swing types. If you’re unsure what kind of player you are or play courses with a mix of conditions, a mid-bounce wedge is a nearly can't-miss choice.

How to Choose Your Bounce: Swing Type and Course Conditions

Forget trying every option at the store. You can make an educated decision by answering two simple questions:

1. Are you a "Digger" or a "Sweeper"?

• Diggers (Steep Angle of Attack): Do you take deep, bacon-strip divots, especially with your wedges? If so, you're a digger. You need high bounce (10° or more), especially on your sand wedge. That bounce will be your safety net, preventing you from ever hitting it fat.
• Sweepers (Shallow Angle of Attack): Do you barely bruise the grass, taking very small or no divots at all? You're a sweeper. You will benefit from low bounce (8° or less), as it allows your wedge’s leading edge to get under the ball on crisp, firm fairways.

2. What are your typical course conditions?

• Soft & Fluffy: If your home course has fluffy sand in the bunkers and soft, lush fairways, that all points toward high bounce. All that width on the sole will glide right through.
• Firm & Fast: If you play on courses with tight, thin lies, hardpan bunkers, and firm conditions, you'll benefit from low bounce. It will help you get that leading edge cleanly under the ball without skipping into its equator.

Many golfers find it helpful to have a mix. For instance, you might have a high-bounce (12° or 14°) sand wedge for bunker shots and a lower-bounce (8°) lob wedge for delicate little chips around the green.

Step 3: A Quick Word on Grind

Finally, we have grind. Grind refers to the shaping of the sole of the wedge, where parts of the heel and toe are "ground" away by the manufacturer. If bounce is a big, system-wide setting, grind is the fine-tuning that allows for more shot-making versatility.

For example, a "C-Grind" has significant relief in the heel and toe. This allows a player to open the clubface wide for a flop shot without the leading edge rising too high off the ground. A "Full Sole" or "S-Grind" keeps the full bounce intact and is geared more for players who hit square-faced shots most of the time.

For most golfers, focusing on getting the right bounce is far more important than worrying about a specific grind. However, if you are a player who loves to manipulate the clubface around the greens - opening it, closing it, playing with the ball in different parts of your stance - then looking into different grind options will absolutely help you unlock more types of shots.

Final Thoughts

Building your ideal wedge setup isn't magic. It's a logical process of first creating consistent distance gaps with proper loft gapping, and then selecting a bounce that works with your swing and the courses you play. By following this framework, you remove the guesswork and build a system that lets you swing with confidence every time you pull a wedge.

We know that even with the perfect set of wedges in your bag, tricky lies and tough shot decisions still happen on the causeway. We designed Caddie AI for these exact moments. When you're facing a tough approach shot or are stuck in a weird spot, you can get instant advice on club selection. You can even take a photo of a challenging situation in the rough or a bunker, and our AI will analyze it to suggest the smartest way to play the shot. It's like having an expert caddie on call 24/7 to help you make smarter decisions and get the most out of your game.