How To Use A Lob Wedge, Should I Carry A Lob Wedge (Video) - by Pete Styles
How To Use A Lob Wedge, Should I Carry A Lob Wedge (Video) - by Pete Styles

Should you carry a lob wedge in your bag? Solid question this one and I think firstly we need to understand what a lob wedge is. Lob wedge is a 60 degree golf club. It's more lofted than any of the club that you have in your bag. And I say 60 degrees that’s the loft on my lob wedge. Some people would carry 58 degree wedges of lob wedge; some would carry a 64 degree wedge as a lob wedge. But basically it's more lofted than your sand wedge. So the stand is at three iron, three to nine iron with the pitching wedge, with the sand wedge. I don’t think that sand wedge provides enough loft for most golfers. Particularly when you're around the green you want to lift the ball up and over a bunker, you want the ball to come down and stop on the other side.

That’s when a lob wedge is going to become really useful into your game. More loft on the club head means that at setup you don’t have to manipulate and open your sand wedge so much because a lob wedge already has four or five degrees more loft. Now one of the problems that most golfers find with a lob wedge, is they get a bit scared of it because a bad shot with a lob wedge is very critical. A bad shot with a lob wedge will be worse than a bad let's say chip and rung with a seven iron. Little bump and run around the green with a seven iron is never going to go that badly wrong. To hit your lob wedge well you need to hit it hard, to hit it hard you bring in that risk but if you thin it or fat it or duff it, it's going to go badly wrong. So we've got to have a lot of commitment to this lob wedge. We've got to really enjoy using it, really enjoy practicing with it and make sure your lob wedge is one of your favorite clubs. To play a good lob wedge shot, play the ball around about the center of your stance. Narrow the stance grip down on the golf club, lean to the left side of the golf club and then hit down hard and that’s the priority. Hit down and hit down hard. A lot of golfers with a lob wedge they try and help the ball and scoop the ball and lift it up into the air. It's not a technique that’s going to work for you I'm afraid. You’ve got to be hitting down, you’ve got to be positive, you've got to hit down nice and firm with this one. So leaning on that left side and being positive and the ball just goes up, up, up, up, up, and lands. And I stress hitting down hard because most of the energy from this golf club is going vertically, it's going upwards. So you've got to hit down hard to get it to go far enough. A lot of good players hit nice lob wedge shots short of the green into the bunker because they didn’t commit to it enough. So I recommend that most golfers should have a lob wedge in your bag, learn to make friends with it, be positive with it a need when you're playing it on the golf course be nice and committed as well.
2014-11-07

Should you carry a lob wedge in your bag? Solid question this one and I think firstly we need to understand what a lob wedge is. Lob wedge is a 60 degree golf club. It's more lofted than any of the club that you have in your bag. And I say 60 degrees that’s the loft on my lob wedge. Some people would carry 58 degree wedges of lob wedge; some would carry a 64 degree wedge as a lob wedge. But basically it's more lofted than your sand wedge. So the stand is at three iron, three to nine iron with the pitching wedge, with the sand wedge. I don’t think that sand wedge provides enough loft for most golfers. Particularly when you're around the green you want to lift the ball up and over a bunker, you want the ball to come down and stop on the other side.

That’s when a lob wedge is going to become really useful into your game. More loft on the club head means that at setup you don’t have to manipulate and open your sand wedge so much because a lob wedge already has four or five degrees more loft. Now one of the problems that most golfers find with a lob wedge, is they get a bit scared of it because a bad shot with a lob wedge is very critical. A bad shot with a lob wedge will be worse than a bad let's say chip and rung with a seven iron. Little bump and run around the green with a seven iron is never going to go that badly wrong. To hit your lob wedge well you need to hit it hard, to hit it hard you bring in that risk but if you thin it or fat it or duff it, it's going to go badly wrong. So we've got to have a lot of commitment to this lob wedge. We've got to really enjoy using it, really enjoy practicing with it and make sure your lob wedge is one of your favorite clubs. To play a good lob wedge shot, play the ball around about the center of your stance.

Narrow the stance grip down on the golf club, lean to the left side of the golf club and then hit down hard and that’s the priority. Hit down and hit down hard. A lot of golfers with a lob wedge they try and help the ball and scoop the ball and lift it up into the air. It's not a technique that’s going to work for you I'm afraid. You’ve got to be hitting down, you’ve got to be positive, you've got to hit down nice and firm with this one. So leaning on that left side and being positive and the ball just goes up, up, up, up, up, and lands. And I stress hitting down hard because most of the energy from this golf club is going vertically, it's going upwards. So you've got to hit down hard to get it to go far enough. A lot of good players hit nice lob wedge shots short of the green into the bunker because they didn’t commit to it enough. So I recommend that most golfers should have a lob wedge in your bag, learn to make friends with it, be positive with it a need when you're playing it on the golf course be nice and committed as well.