YOUR Wedge Bounce??
You can visually tell if your Wedge Bounce is working correctly.
Last week while regripping a set of golf clubs, I came across a great visual to help golfers understand what the wear pattern on their wedges should be. See the picture shown below:
The edge on the sole of your wedge that is closest to the grooves is the Leading Edge. The sole edge that is furthest from the face is the Trailing Edge. When a wedge has positive bounce, the Trailing Edge is lower than the Leading Edge when you address the golf ball.
What you can notice in the picture is the wear pattern on the sole of this wedge. There is significant wear all along the bottom of the sole of the wedge. If the Wedge Bounce is being "activated" correctly – to allow the wedge to "bounce" through turf or through sand – most of the wear on the sole should be very close to the Trailing Edge of the club.
Now, the result shown in the picture can come from a wedge that is not suited for the way a particular golfer swings, due to the design of the wedge (probably not enough bounce on it), or a combination of both. Regardless of why this wear happened, the likely result is that this player has to work too hard to hit good sand shots and/or other types of short game shots.
How can YOU tell if the wedges you have in your bag are working well for the way you hit your short game shots? Well, there are two simple evaluations you can do. First, you can look at the bottom of your wedges and see the wear pattern on them – are you "activating" the bounce? Second, you can put a piece of tape on the bottom of your wedge, and hit some wedge shots off of a lie board – you can quickly see where you are making contact on the bottom of your wedges.
Recently I evaluated the clubs of another player who had Negative Bounce on his Gap Wedge – meaning this club will dig into the ground for all golf shots and not bounce out easily – amazing that someone would design a wedge this way – and luckily he no longer carries this wedge in his bag!
Take the time to learn about how your wedges are working for you – and if they are not, You Deserve Better!
HOW ABOUT YOU? – Please comment if you have done this wedge evaluation and found out some information you were not aware of.
The Fit Is IT!!
Tony
