Buy 50 deg Gap Wedge or Choke on 45 deg Pitch?

[Stuy Pegleg]

Got the AP1, but it's Pitch is 45 degrees. Now I have almost a 35 yard gap between my 54 degree sand wedge and the pitch.

 

A) So would it be worth it to buy a Gap wedge at 50 degrees, which will almost exclusively be used for full swing 100 yard shots?

 

B) Or could I achieve the same effect by choking down on my Pitch to hit 100 yard shots when I normally hit 115-120 yards with the Pitch?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Trajectory with the Pitch is sufficiently high enough for most shots so I'm not sure if the steeper shot of the Gap wedge to hit over trees, for example, would be of sufficient benefit...

 

Of course I can try this on the driving range, i.e., choke my pitch to see if I can hit it 100 yards, but I am wondering if there are other issues that merit consideration.

[heybrady]

I think you definitely need the GW. At that distance, it is too hard to hit a reliable half-shot. If you are using the GW mostly for full shots, you might want to see if you can get your hands on an AP1 gap wedge. It will match well with you set and give you more forgiveness than a 588 wedge or something similar.

[rblmp32]

If you normally hit your pw 115, I would definitely try out the choke down shot and see what you get out of that. It may come easily to you and save you some $$. Otherwise, go with the other wedge.

[generalbolg]

you do have other options here. one thing to consider would be to alter the lofts on your PW and SW. you bend your PW a degree or two weak, and SW and LW degree or two strong, and you may have much more suitable distance gaps. this would be a much more cost effective solution.

 

judging by the distances you hit your wedges, it seems a lot more likely that youd benefit from keeping that 5 wood in the bag, rather than carrying 4 wedges.

 

just my $.02.

[golfernut78]

i play a 47* pw and use to play a 54* wedge as my sand wedge and for full shots and a 60*. it was a good setup up, but at the time my pitching wedge was 120 yards and my 54* was 90 yards. i don't know why, but i found myself in the 105-100 yard range a lot. i would try to close the 54* and put it back in my stance, but that led mis hits of hitting it thin or spinning it too much. i would take easier swings with the pw and choke down, but i had a tendency to not finish the swing and lose the ball right. decided to make a change and went with a 52* for a gap wedge and a 58* for sand/lob wedge. the 52* is my money club for 110-100 yards and the 58* is easy out of the sand and does everything i did with the lob wedge. maybe you could think about a 50* and a 58* setup.

[bobcat]

With a 45* PW, you definitely need the 50* GW... :drinks:

[Stuy Pegleg]

i play a 47* pw and use to play a 54* wedge as my sand wedge and for full shots and a 60*. it was a good setup up, but at the time my pitching wedge was 120 yards and my 54* was 90 yards. i don't know why, but i found myself in the 105-100 yard range a lot. i would try to close the 54* and put it back in my stance, but that led mis hits of hitting it thin or spinning it too much. i would take easier swings with the pw and choke down, but i had a tendency to not finish the swing and lose the ball right. decided to make a change and went with a 52* for a gap wedge and a 58* for sand/lob wedge. the 52* is my money club for 110-100 yards and the 58* is easy out of the sand and does everything i did with the lob wedge. maybe you could think about a 50* and a 58* setup.

 

Thanks for all your replies. After a couple of rounds, I am putting my 5 fw back into my bag. No. 2 hybrid is to hard to hit.

 

Golfernut78: I actually remember your postings about using a more evenly-spaced setup for wedges. So based on your and others’ posts I got a 54 sand that’s between my then-47 pitch and my 60 lob. Funny, I am now thinking about replacing my 54/60 setup with a 52/58, too.

I seem to chip past pin with the 54 more often than not, so perhaps a higher loft at 58 would be helpful (and not have to worry about opening up the 54 clubface or hitting softly).

 

It’s almost shocking, but going from player’s forged to game improvement modern cavity, everything seems to be at least one club longer.

 

Basically, I am considering two options:

A) 50 gap (mostly full swings and bump and run type shots) 54 sand and 58 lob or

B) 52 gap/sand and 58 lob

 

Leaning more toward A) b/c I think that I’m hitting my 4 hybrid almost the same distance as my new 4i . So basically replace the 4h and get the 50 gap….

[golfernut78]

i play a 47* pw and use to play a 54* wedge as my sand wedge and for full shots and a 60*. it was a good setup up, but at the time my pitching wedge was 120 yards and my 54* was 90 yards. i don't know why, but i found myself in the 105-100 yard range a lot. i would try to close the 54* and put it back in my stance, but that led mis hits of hitting it thin or spinning it too much. i would take easier swings with the pw and choke down, but i had a tendency to not finish the swing and lose the ball right. decided to make a change and went with a 52* for a gap wedge and a 58* for sand/lob wedge. the 52* is my money club for 110-100 yards and the 58* is easy out of the sand and does everything i did with the lob wedge. maybe you could think about a 50* and a 58* setup.

 

Thanks for all your replies. After a couple of rounds, I am putting my 5 fw back into my bag. No. 2 hybrid is to hard to hit.

 

Golfernut78: I actually remember your postings about using a more evenly-spaced setup for wedges. So based on your and others’ posts I got a 54 sand that’s between my then-47 pitch and my 60 lob. Funny, I am now thinking about replacing my 54/60 setup with a 52/58, too.

I seem to chip past pin with the 54 more often than not, so perhaps a higher loft at 58 would be helpful (and not have to worry about opening up the 54 clubface or hitting softly).

 

It’s almost shocking, but going from player’s forged to game improvement modern cavity, everything seems to be at least one club longer.

 

Basically, I am considering two options:

A) 50 gap (mostly full swings and bump and run type shots) 54 sand and 58 lob or

B) 52 gap/sand and 58 lob

 

Leaning more toward A) b/c I think that I’m hitting my 4 hybrid almost the same distance as my new 4i . So basically replace the 4h and get the 50 gap….

 

if your thinking of dropping the 4h or 4i, i would just add the 50 and keep the wedges you have already. you need to worry about yardages and not what clubs you have in the bag. i think just adding that 50 would be the ticket.

 

for what its worth, when i played the 47*, 54* and 60*, everything worked out at first, but then i as i got stronger i saw that my pitching wedge was going farther, but the 54* not as much, and i was putting a ton of spin on it hitting it that hard.