Experience going to custom/speciality 48/52 vs set pitching and gap wedges

adamc92 · March 11

I do not have the luxury of testing, demoing or fitting for speciality wedges, but I am considering moving into a s159 48* and 52* to match with my 56* and 60* to replace my P/U i230.

Would like to hear the experience of anyone who has done similar with their own setup. Did you stick with the non set matching pitching and gap wedge long term?

oskaru · March 11

I've used a specialty wedge @ 49 degrees for many years now. It came to be because I just didn't like the look of my set pitching wedge. The crotch area where the top line meets the hosel just wasn't very refined and it looked very "shovely". I've always been very picky about that sort of thing and if something looks off it can really affect my game. If the club doesn't look right behind the ball I cannot see the shot I might want to pull off, if that makes sense.

Now, if I were to play an iron set with a more... aesthetically pleasing pitching wedge, then it could be a different story. I'd probably still gravitate towards the specialty wedge out of habit, but honestly, I see my current 49 degree wedge as more of a 10 iron than a wedge-wedge. It doesn't have any special grind to it and for all intents and purposes it's used more similar to my 9 iron than my sand wedge.

Urb · March 11

48* vokey because I use it for full shots and sometimes pitches and chips.

If I only used my 48 for full swings, probably go with a set wedge or maybe a Mizuno S23 with a tiny cavity for some forgiveness.

darkhelmet · March 11

Your irons are already relatively compact, shouldn't be too different going to the s159 wedges, especially with the 52. For the 48, you might be edging into the area where your mis-hits can suffer -- not a lot, but maybe just enough to notice.

I had an enlightening experience going in the other direction. I tried a set of progressive cavity Hogan irons a number of years back, where the 8-9-P were essentially blades, and the cavity started with the 7. They looked cool and felt good, but after a while I knew that they were a little too unforgiving for me (especially the long irons). Moved to a set of TM R7 irons, and the first round I hit a thin shot with the R7 9i -- was sure I had dumped it in the front bunker, but it actually cleared by about 5 feet. It's those "mostly good" shots that could now leave you short of the green when you're talking about getting down below 50^o of loft.

The "specialty" wedges are meant to give you more flexibility in the types of shots you attempt. Flighting it a little higher, little lower, opening the face, etc. If you're just using the P/U for full shots, I personally would just stick with the set wedges.

Also, I just took a look at your irons -- they offer different loft gapping options. If you have retro, then 48/52 would slot in just fine. But if you have either the stock lofts or the "power" lofts, your current PW is about 45^o. So you would be going from (9-P-U) 41-45-50 to 41-48-52. Big dropoff from your 9 to your new PW.

tbsbama · March 19

I play PXG Gen 6 irons, but all of my wedges are Cleveland RTX 6. I do play a 48 and a 52. 52 gets almost all of the work around the greens, except for extremely long or extremely uphill chips, that is where the 48 comes into play. I will hit the 48 full at times but most all of my fairway wedge shots are 3/4 or 1/2 shots for dispersion and distance control. This has worked for me for years and I don't see myself ever changing.

hook_or_slice · March 19

On 3/11/2024 at 3:16 PM, adamc92 said:

I do not have the luxury of testing, demoing or fitting for speciality wedges, but I am considering moving into a s159 48* and 52* to match with my 56* and 60* to replace my P/U i230.

Would like to hear the experience of anyone who has done similar with their own setup. Did you stick with the non set matching pitching and gap wedge long term?

The i230 pitching wedge is 45*, no way would I consider replacing that with a specialty wedge.

The U wedge is 50*, for my game I would certainly keep that as mostly a full swing club.

Dannyyy · March 20

I actually went the other direction and replaced my Vokey SM8 GW by a 50° T100 to match my irons and it was a total game changer for me. My 46° PW carries 155 yards so I kind of needed an 11th iron more than a wedge. It’s probably the club I use the most and feel the most comfortable using.
I don’t love hitting full swing with specialty wedge,I always feel like I will scoop it with a full swing for some reasons, especially from the rough.