Why do you need a lob wedge?

[odshot68]

Assuming you have a 56 degree sand wedge you like what is the function of a lob wedge?  

[petep5280]

To help club OEMs make more money  

[Lasorcier]

You don't. 

[petep5280]

I dont think many golfers need 3w, 4i or LW. 

Edited March 28 by petep5280
Typo

[Ger21]

For that one shot that comes up every 4 rounds. Then you hit it fat and make double.

[doctor220]

Hard to hit it soft enough from 40-50 yards over a bunker or up a slope with a 56 imo. Think most people bogey golfer or better should have a 58-60ish wedge 

[Phireside]

i ditched my LW many years ago. 56 is fine by me.

[ShortGolfer]

If I'm on a good fairway lie I could hit nice soft shots to the hole ten yards away with a 54* SW.

I was just practicing that with a mat in my back yard this afternoon.

But, that is a really tough shot off the hard dirt so I use a 58/6 TS lob wedge instead.

The course I play has thick rough around the tiny greens so a 58/8 Z grind is also useful.

It also have downhill lies very close to the green.  I aways pull a lob wedge when I want a short high shot from a downhill lie and the grass is too thick to putt through it.

 

I'd rather have those lob wedge grinds with 56* of loft but they  don't make them.

Edited March 28 by ShortGolfer

[Avidswampthing66]

Because I use a 54* out of the bunker, with high bounce 12*.   I like having a lower bounce option for shots around the green.  Open, flop, back of stance spinner and other creative shots.  Having a club with many shots adds to a richer experience for me.   Does it lower scores?  IDK haha

[SoCalTitleist]

Better to have more options with scoring clubs than long irons or woods 

[odshot68]

So as a follow up why a 60 and not a 64 degree?  Neither would be used outside of 30 yards. 

[GolfinDave]

I use them for different shots. Sand wedge I’m comfortable on full shots,

pitching intermediate distances or out of the sand. Lob wedge I use exclusively around the green to generate max spin and control. 

[picardyThird]

You can have different bounce and grind combinations between your SW and LW to give you more options for full or partial shots, from a variety of lies (including bunkers, which may be soft or firm). I use my LW all the way out to almost 80 yards, and I'll use my SW down to 10 yards. It's all about having enough options to be flexible enough to be able to handle the huge variety of shots that this game demands from you.

Edited March 28 by picardyThird

[dmeeksDC]

For those low screamers from tight lies near the green. 

[bunta]

1 hour ago, odshot68 said:

Assuming you have a 56 degree sand wedge you like what is the function of a lob wedge?  

 

to lob the ball. Ideally higher than the 56.

[Baraethon]

45 minutes ago, SoCalTitleist said:

Better to have more options with scoring clubs than long irons or woods 

This is it for me. I have driver, 3w (barely used), 7w, 21° utility iron and I really don't need anything else at the top of the bag. There's no more useful gap to be filled, so I'd rather have 54-58 for more flexibility rather than doing it all with a 56.

[ShutSteepStuck]

I rarely use anything other than a 60 around the greens. I’m always surprised when I see a halfway decent player that doesn’t carry anything more than a 56

[jlevitt9]

44 minutes ago, GolfinDave said:

I use them for different shots. Sand wedge I’m comfortable on full shots,

pitching intermediate distances or out of the sand. Lob wedge I use exclusively around the green to generate max spin and control. 

 

This. I have a higher bounce 58*, and a T grind Vokey 60*. gives me tons of options around the green depending on the lie. I'm a 2 handicap and my weakness is/was inability to get up and down. I do not hit the T Grind on anything more than a 30 yard pitch, but in the 15 rounds I've owned it, I've holed out 3 times from off the green, after not having holed out from off the green in as long as I can remember!

[Roejye]

I don't need one, in fact I dropped it early last year, and only had 1 shot where I felt like I needed it. Luckily for me, it was a round I didn't keep track and my friend loaned me his. I got out of the depression with overgrown grass, but I didn't hit a world beater that nestled an inch from the hole. Frankly, if I had used my 56° I probably would have done okay. 

 

For most of the courses I play, I wouldn't really need one. The reason I pulled it was because I liked it so much that I was pulling it when I didn't need to and of course, not executing and costing myself shots.

[roundersmitty]

I find there is a big difference between a 58 degree and 60 degree wedges. I find the 60 is harder to make high percentage shots with. 

[craz-e]

I have recently taken the lob wedge out of the bag. I have great confidence in my 56* sand wedge and found it was a club I just didn't use/need. 

[naj959]

I never understood why people struggle with the 60. I play a Vokey S grind with 10 degrees of bounce and it is my go to club around the green.  I'm more confident with it than my 56 that is a different brand and grind. I use it all the way out to 75 yards. 

 

I did buy a low bounce 64 to play with  and that was pretty much a disaster. Gamed it for maybe 3 rounds and it just wasn't practical.

[philly2kuk]

22 minutes ago, naj959 said:

I never understood why people struggle with the 60. I play a Vokey S grind with 10 degrees of bounce and it is my go to club around the green.  I'm more confident with it than my 56 that is a different brand and grind. I use it all the way out to 75 yards. 

 

I did buy a low bounce 64 to play with  and that was pretty much a disaster. Gamed it for maybe 3 rounds and it just wasn't practical.

I use the same lob wedge and grind and I love mine. I also use mine up to 70/75 yards out for full shots. It’s more versatile than my high bounce sand wedge which would give a lovely thin off anything other than a soft/wet lie.

Edited March 28 by philly2kuk

[aussieb]

Lob wedge is for short sided shots around the greens from various lies and bunkers for me.  Anybody's that played the Sand Belt will tell you that you aren't getting it up and down with anything else!  There are times when pitches and chips need that extra zip that come from being able to put more speed into a shot.  There are also occassions when you need one club to have a different sole/bounce to your SW, so versatility is a key option that you wouldn't have.

[mat562]

For me, it's my go to club around the greens and out to 40 yards or so, and I'm able to use it from tight lies and from hard packed sand where my regular 56-degree sand wedge isn't ideal for the job. The key, for me, is having the two wedges with very different soles and grinds. I take pretty much all the bounce off my lob wedge, whereas the sand wedge has a decent amount and a more conventional sole to present it to the turf and sand. The latter works well from bunkers, and I can chip and pitch with it in any sort of turf conditions, but from really tight stuff, the sort of greasy, wet hardpan we get in my part of the world in autumn and winter, and the baked, crusty tight lies we get in summer, the 60-degree is a better option.

 

Like most people of my generation, I grew up doing everything with a 56 degree sand wedge, and got pretty good with it by spending hours around the practice green with it and learning how to manipulate the face angle and achieve different contacts from different lies. As soon as I got my hands on a lob wedge at the age of 14, though - which, like all my lob wedges had been the subject of some enthusiastic grinding by its former owner - it felt like cheating.

 

 

Edited March 28 by mat562

[Trouble_shooter]

Short side shots, not a lot of green to work with. For the most part my 54 degree is my workhorse. But ive hit some sweet touch shots with my 60. Like everything else though, practice with it, its not the easist short game club.

[mat562]

On 3/28/2024 at 2:48 AM, odshot68 said:

So as a follow up why a 60 and not a 64 degree?  Neither would be used outside of 30 yards. 

 

I've got an old Cleveland 588 64-degree wedge that's gathering dust in the loft. As someone who likes to use a lot of loft around the green (I play 95% of my chips with the 60, and the majority of the rest with the 56-degree sand wedge) it should be ideal, but my experience was anything but.

 

For me, the act of opening up a 60 somewhat and creating and maintaining the loft through impact is what creates the nippy, sharp strike and the spin. When I use a 64 it has too much loft. Opening it up creates way too much for most shots, and trying to play the shot with more of a square face means that I lose the feeling of the hands leading and the back of the sole glancing against the turf. I turns me into a square-faced, leading edge chipper by its design, which is at odds with the way I generally chip and pitch. I bruise the turf, I don't cut a bit of a divot with the leading edge.

 

For chipping, and particularly for pitching, there's also a tendency to progressively deloft the club; by unconsciously moving the hands forward, just to take some of the excessive loft of the 64-degree off and get the ball going forward. Again, the club ends up changing my technique, rather than me picking a club that complements it, as is the case with my current wedges. The club dictating how I play a shot is the wrong way round for me.

 

 

Edited March 29 by mat562

[SJP1]

There’s definitely a valid question here about a lot of amateurs playing a lobber.

 

I think those that require one generally play courses where the green complexes are more severe and are firm and fast. 
 

Then there’s bag composition and technical capabilities.

 

But ultimately it’s far, far easier to play some shots with a 60 than you can with a 56. The same is also true the other way around. They’re tools for jobs, but you’ve got to have the skills to use them.

[jaffabell]

Rocco Mediate has never used anything higher than 56 and he is a wizard around the greens, and nearly won the US Open 🙂 

[bvanlieu]

3 minutes ago, jaffabell said:

Rocco Mediate has never used anything higher than 56 and he is a wizard around the greens, and nearly won the US Open 🙂 

 

With those fast greens had he gamed the 60 he *would have* won. So there. 😛 

 

Yes you can get a feel for opening a 56 to get a similar launch condition but the strike then is slightly glancing. A pro level of feels, sure...but the repeatability of a 40-60y square struck shot over my 55 opened a smidge when I need more loft (vs spinn-ach on the shot) makes me keep it.

 

I also use it as my primary sand club as I have a ridiculous skill for leaving myself short sided bunker shots. 

 

The top of my bag, where I don't swing 110+ MPH, I don't have to worry about 15y between clubs and 200-240y approaches on a consistent basis, so I skip a club there but scoring clubs and precision for repeatable distances inside 100y, I like having more wedges.