How Much Bounce Does Your Wedge Need? (Video)

Nick Clearwater has some tips to help you figure out how much bounce you need on your wedges.



Clearwater's tips here basically tell you to get more bounce than you think you need -- in my experience, he's right -- and his fitting tip using marker tape on the sole is useful. But I can also give you a general rule to help you decide whether you need more or less bounce.

As a general rule, the steeper your angle of attack at impact, the more bounce you need.

• If you tend to sweep the ball off the turf with your wedges, you can probably use less bounce.
• If you tend to hit down sharply on the ball and dig into the turf, you should look at higher bounce wedges.

While we generally try to get rid of an over-the-top swing, it's possible to play decent golf that way. One thing that will help is to get wedges with more bounce because it helps keep you from digging into the ground so much.

But you don't need an over-the-top swing to need more bounce.

I used to have trouble getting out of the sand with my old wedges. I realized I needed more bounce when I tried using a 9-iron to get out. I gripped it so the face of the wedge pointed almost straight up (that's wide open, folks) and discovered I could hit the ball out with no trouble. That made me realize that I probably needed more bounce, and that did indeed solve the problem.

Nick Clearwater is right. If you have trouble with your wedge play, chances are that you need more bounce. It's something that a quick fitting at a golf shop can help you find out very quickly and, trust me, getting the correct bounce for your swing is one equipment fix that can make an immediate improvement in your score.