Professional Fitting
Many golfers have now sought professional help fitting their irons to their game, gaining the correct length, lie angle, flex and grip size. This simple exercise has helped fantastically in giving golfers a more consistent strike and better direction and hence lowering their scores.
When, however, the subject of what wedge to carry comes up, there seems always to be a pause and the inevitable answer of lob-wedge and maybe a gap-wedge comes out.
I have simply obtained all the different permutations of wedges available and I now conduct a proper wedge fitting on my range at the beautiful Hermanus Golf Club.
Here’s how it works:
- Firstly, the golfer hits his own pitching-wedge a number of times and the average distance is taken – for example, 100 metres.
- Next the golfer hits his sandwedge a number of times and the average is taken – this could be 60 metres.
- The difference is 40 metres, so now I simply need to find the wedge that will hit 80 metres, hence the gap-wedge is found.
- Having established a gap distance of 20 metres, we now can find a lob-wedge to hit 40 metres.
- Now we have clubs that hit 100 metres, 80 metres, 60 metres and 40 metres.
The story, however, does not end here because I need to establish the correct bounce on your new wedges, and across to the chipping green we must go.
By chipping a number of balls I can determine very quickly the correct bounce of the club. Too much bounce will lead to a lot of thinned shots; too little and the client ‘duffs’ a lot of chips. When I fit bounce I will never try to fit on a carpet, only on grass, where I can get a true reflection of my client’s chipping abilities.
So if you want to get the correct wedges in your bag, no matter what make, find a PGA professional that can give you a true wedge fitting.
Tip by Julian Shaw
Julian Shaw is a long-time member of the PGA of SA. His CV includes time on the Sunshine Tour, at Humewood Golf Club and at the Jamie Gough Academy in Cape Town. Julian moved to Hermanus Golf Club in 2006 to take up the position of head professional.
Contact Julian on 084 442 7170.
