Highest lofted club is a 54 degree wedge - anyone else? (*** MERGED ***)

[ShortGolfer]

I play on executive course with high grass around tiny greens.  Both the 58 low bounce and 60 high bounce are very useful around the greens.  

I rarely get to use them on decent lies.  Usually better than 50% success rate on shots that count.  Some days better than 75%

Sometimes I go into practice mode and stop counting shots to experiment.  Everyone drops extra balls on the course I play.

 

The low bounce works very well when there is a clear path to make contact with the ball.

I'm still working on getting out of high grass and staying on a tiny green.

Sometimes the shot I can make leaves me with a difficult putt, even it if is in the middle of the green.  I haven't mastered making downhill putts with lots of break.

But if the ball is buried in the grass I can't put enough spin to make it check up going downhill, which is what I'd like to do.

 

There are times where the 60 is really useful, like hitting a lob shot on a steep downhill lie when I need it to check up on the green.

Edited November 2, 2023 by ShortGolfer

[gvogel]

13 hours ago, Vater said:

The highest lofted club I carry is a 54 degree wedge. I feel like I can make any shot I need to and have greater success than when I try to make a 60 deg work. 
 

I’m sure I’m in the minority, but anyone else do the same? For those of you still playing 58+ wedge, how many times a round are you using it? And how many of those times does it do what you want it to do?

Me too - although I bent my 54* Vokey TDK to 55*.

I like to keep my bag to 8 or 9 clubs for walking, so one wedge and a PW is enough for me.  I used to use a 60* Vokey, sometimes spectacularly, sometimes not.

[cgasucks]

In my first years of playing this game my highest lofted wedge is 60 deg but really needed a gap wedge as I was sick and tired of gripping down on my PW for approach shots.  Thanks to the pandemic lockdowns, my wedge game is so much better and took out the 60 and put in a 56 and a 52 in my bag.  If I want super high flop shots, I simply open my 56 wide open.

[mikedejong33]

I have a 56 and a 60, but I could certainly do without the 60. I pretty much only hit it when severely short sided or out of bunkers. When I travel and want to lighten the load, I leave the 60 at home. For normal rounds I will carry it just in case its absolutely needed, but I can certainly live with just the 56. I hit the 56 anywhere inside 100 yards, and again, the 60 only when in real trouble short sided, so maybe once or twice a round at most. Even then, the 56 works almost as well. Its basically a luxury club that I don't really need.

[Ben B]

Grew with only a PW and a 56. Between those 2 clubs there are no shots I cannot handle. My home course growing up had raised postage stamp greens (some had 5-8ft drop offs behind or to the sides of the greens) so I had to learn how to manipulate the PW and 56 to manufacture shots around the green. My short game is by far and away the strongest part of my game due to no hitting many greens. I can honestly say that a 56 is all most players need. My current 56 is a Mizuno T22 56.10 D grind and by far the best 56 I have ever played with. 

 

 

[ShortGolfer]

Yes, I could play with just the 52 and 56, though that does make hitting it out of washed out bunkers tougher.  I'd really like to use my 58/6 when there is no sand left in the bunker.

But, if there is no sand, it is often possible to thin it and bounce it off the side wall of the bunker!  Sometimes the carom with carry it out of the bunker, even if that isn't what I had intended.

So even the miss can work more often than some folks normal hacks if you don't decelerate.

 

The other thing is that high loft isn't always desired or needed to get out of a bunker if you normally hit a high fade.

Thus, instead of a low bounce wedge, a normal iron can be used to pick the ball out of a bunker with no sand interaction.

 

Last time out I intentionally pulled the ball to the left twice to give me different short approach shots to the hole.  

I think it is a good idea to be able to do that when you need it. 

The first time put the ball in an area that was relatively clear of leaves.  The 2nd time I avoided a bunker shared between two holes.

Edited November 3, 2023 by ShortGolfer