Golf Wedges Help Lower Your Score

Golf wedges are irons used for short shots with a high loft (pitching wedge, sand wedge). 

 
Many players now carry a wedge for every possible scenario around the green. In the past, you can do with one multi-purpose wedge. But golf courses keep getting creative, so you’ll have more opportunities to lower your score if you bring as many different types of wedges as possible.

All wedges are characterized by high lofts (typically 45-60 degrees) to increase trajectory, and significant sole weight to help you penetrate sand or grass—like beach sandals. Each wedge type, however, has its own characteristics, to suit a particular distance or lie.

One important requirement is bounce angle to enable the club head to "bounce" out of the sand or rough.

Pitching Wedge (45-49 degrees of loft): Used for longer approach shots (about 110 yards for men, 90 yards for women).

Gap Wedge (49-54 degrees of loft): For shots of about 100 yards for men, or about 95 yards for women. Bounce is typically 5-12 degrees.

Sand Wedge (54-57 degrees of loft): Used for shots of about 90 yards maximum for men, or about 80 yards for women. It needs a lot of bounce (10-16 degrees)

Lob Wedge (57 or more degrees of loft): Used for shots of about 65 yards maximum for men, or 60 yards for women.  Bounce is lowest here (0-10 degrees), because in these situations there is generally very little room under the ball.