Golf Wedge Distances - What Is The Ideal Set-Up?

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Golf Wedge Distances

Knowing how far you hit each wedge in your bag and making sure there isn't too big a gap in yardage between them is essential to playing your best. In the video and article below, PGA pro Nick Drane talks discusses this and explains how to alter your set-up with each club to hit a wide range of short game shots.

Let's start with your wedge line-up. Titleist makes some of the best golf wedges on the market and to make the most of that, you need to look at the key distances from pitching wedge and down. This will help you work out how many wedges you need so that you feel comfortable you can get the ball fairly close from any yardage inside 100. As a rule, it makes sense to have gaps of 4-6° from your pitching wedge.

So, I have a 44° pitching wedge, 48° gap wedge, a 54° sand wedge and then a 58° lob wedge. These have all been fitted for me, which is also a very sensible idea. In terms of gapping, I have approximately a 15-yard distance between each club. However, as well as having a full swing for each wedge, I also have a different technique that I can adopt to manipulate distance too.

For the full swing, I take my grip at the end of the club, with the ball position in the middle of my stance. In the video above, you can see how I make a normal full swing with a full finish.

Because I'm gripping the club at the end of the grip, I get that wider arc and more speed - which equates to more distance.

Full Swing Vs Grip Down

By changing the set-up and width of the arc, it's easier to be consistent with your distances. To hit a shorter distance with the same wedge, hold the club in the middle of the grip - so grip down - and narrow the stance. The rhythm of the swing remains the same which should help with the consistency of the strike.

This gives me a shorter swing and more of a three-quarter follow-through. With a narrower arc, I generate less speed in the swing, so the ball won't go as far. Even though I'm gripping down the club, I'm still going to be aggressive and positive through the ball.

So, with my four wedges and two different techniques, I'm able to hit eight different yardages. In short, I can play a greater number of shots, create more birdie opportunities and, as a result, shoot lower scores.

Practice Tip

I'd really recommend taking a bucket of balls to the range and just experimenting with your wedges. You don't have to pick a target - just hit four or five with each wedge and see where they fall and note the grouping. Quite often when a target is in the way, I'll see players react to that - so by removing the target you'll be able to focus on distances and strike.

Observe what your grip-down 54° does, for example, rather than trying to make it go a certain distance. Let the club and that technique tell you how far it's going to go. Taking this approach can really boost confidence in your short game.