Pitching - Club Selection

An article by: Bobby Eldridge on 12-17-2007
This article has been read 17261 times.

Pitching Instruction and Club Selection

When you are faced with a shot that requires more air time than roll time there are three or four clubs you can choose from. Most sets of golf clubs come with a pitching wedge and sand wedge. In the past 20 years the LOB and gap wedges have become very popular. The LOB wedge will give you that extra loft the sand wedge won't. The gap wedge is a wedge that fills in the space between the pitching wedge and sand wedge.

A bit of good news is the wedges of today have the degrees of loft indicated on the bottom of the clubs. What you have to do if your wedges don't have the numbers on the bottom is find out what the loft of your wedges are before you can get started. There is a chance if you own three wedges you could potentially have three wedges with the same amount of loft. Believe me if you do not have a lie and loft machine somewhere in your town it is worth shipping your wedges to someone who can bend them to the degrees you want.

Pitching - The Lob Wedge

If you use the LOB wedge as the most lofted club in your bag you can work backwards to your pitching wedge. Let's start with the LOB wedge; most LOB wedges have 60% of loft. If your next wedge is a sand wedge it should have 56% of loft, the gap should have 52% and the pitching wedge at 48%. The 4% increments has to do with the distance you can hit the ball with a full swing.Each club should be about 10 yards apart with a full swing. On less than full swings the clubs are closer in distance.

Before you go and purchase any new wedges there is one last item. Some wedges are forged and some are cast. A wedge that is forged is made of softer metal. If you are going to purchase a wedge try and find a forged club and not cast. It is more difficult to stop a ball using a cast wedge.

Pitching - The Golf Ball

The golf ball makes a huge difference when you are trying to hit a soft pitch shot around the green. There is one huge problem. It is a double edge sword. If you play a two piece golf ball, you will gain distance off the tee and in your full swing but it is very difficult to stop it compared to a solid golf ball. You have to decide if distance is more important than your short game.

 

You can continue on to the next series of golf lessons about the pitching setup. The first lesson in the Setup series of pitching lessons is about the correct ball position. Or you can view golf lessons on the golf Backswing, Downswing, or Follow Through.