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3 or 4 Wedges?

• craymo1 10 Posts

  Thu, Sep 26 2013 7:00 PM

  Struggling to decide value of 3 wedges and a 3 wood or 4 wedges. Currently have G20 irons which give me a good deal of range and 3 wood only really comes into play on long par 5's (or 4's into the wind). Any thoughts?

• alosso 21,094 Posts

  Thu, Sep 26 2013 10:05 PM

  It's an individual thing, though I've never heard any experienced player vote for three.

  A "Courteney" is a set of three evenly spaced custom wedges, highly recommended here in addition to the iron set's PW..

  Four wedges (i.e. PW from the iron set and three individual wedges) give more choice of yardage selection in the lower range of approach shots, Including the punch yardages, you get seven or eight (1) 100% shots from different distance. granting high precision shots.

  (1) if PW punch and top wedge full shot differ enough

  It's obvious that the choice depends on the PW's yardage, thus on the iron set available or planned. With a shorter iron set, only two wedges may be sufficient. The yardage ranges in a triple set are about

  50/60 yds for the shortest one,

  75/85 yds for the medium club,

  95/105 yds for the long wedge,

  providing punch shots of approx. 80%.

  My choice, fitting to a 110 yds PW, is 50 (punch 41) - 77 (63) - 100 (81) yds, with mid quality (lvl 40) at the low end and high quality at the top. The latter minimizes ball roll - "darting" and backspin zzzips are fun!

  I sacrificed my hybrid to get the space, and once tried to figure out how to swap 3WD and hybrid for different courses. Alas, I have no strategy yet - advantage 3WD most of the time.

• courteneyfish 15,796 Posts

  Thu, Sep 26 2013 10:05 PM

  Check out what the best players use. Not many dump the 3 wood.

• gmaster007 2,101 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 2:10 AM

  craymo1:

  Struggling to decide value of 3 wedges and a 3 wood or 4 wedges. Currently have G20 irons which give me a good deal of range and 3 wood only really comes into play on long par 5's (or 4's into the wind). Any thoughts?

  you can always get the bag plus,
  and set multiple configurations based on format/course.
  that way you can load your setups in a single click of a button
  whether it's 3 wedges or 4.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 4:56 AM

  craymo1:

  Struggling to decide value of 3 wedges and a 3 wood or 4 wedges.

  There shouldn't be any struggle, TMs don't need a 3W, IMO. I never owned one until I made Legend.  :-)

• sue333318 631 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 5:45 AM

  Agree with Jim - Only need a 3w when u make legend so play with the 4 wedges.

• courteneyfish 15,796 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 5:58 AM

  I was just looking at it from the long term outlay angle. He'll probably make Legend in a month or two so why buy an extra wedge that probably won't get used again? Or he may even spend out on four wedges to get the best spread, then when he goes back to three they won't be equidistant anymore.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 6:11 AM

  courteneyfish:

  He'll probably make Legend in a month or two

  2+ strokes in a month or two is a tall order. If it's anything like it was when I made Legend that last 1/2 stroke takes quite a good number of 29s,  30s and 31s. I didn't make the jump until I started learning more than the flop with those 4 wedges. The Chip and Pitch got attention and the short game improved dramatically and that's when the lower scores showed up. The best part is the benefit you get at the higher levels from having spent the time to learn those wedges even though you'll eventually drop one of them.

   

  p.s., I played 4 wedges as a Legend for a while with meh results. It was easy and fun up to Legend but the 3W is a must if you want to hang in the higher levels.  :-)

• Chinajohn 1,190 Posts

  Fri, Sep 27 2013 7:34 PM

  craymo1:

  Struggling to decide value of 3 wedges and a 3 wood or 4 wedges. Currently have G20 irons which give me a good deal of range and 3 wood only really comes into play on long par 5's (or 4's into the wind). Any thoughts?

  When you get to level 84 the Taylormade R11 3W is an absolute must have IMO. With full BS it goes 240yds but more importantly it stops within 1yard, (ONE Yard), this makes some of the longer  more challenging par 3s a LOT easier, admittedly this distance is mostly an issue from the legend tees with the added distance that tier requires. From the fairway the L84 will go 250 ish (depending on spin. wind etc) and stop within 15 - 30yds, personally I wouldn't be without it.

   

• Fekdrink 138 Posts

  Sat, Sep 28 2013 2:05 PM

  Hi craymo1. I'm at a similar level to yourself and do play 4 wedges on some courses. For example on St Andrews front 9 the 3 wood never comes out of my bag. Personally I can't see any reason not to buy the Level 26 Cleveland CG16 52 degree wedge (105yards) or even the Level 42 Ping Tour W 52 degree (100yards) to fit in between your G20s and your current wedges. The latter costing less than a set of the balls you're using. Then pick your courses - when to play 3 wood and three wedges and when to play four wedges. Good luck, Fekdrink.