Golf Wedge Bounce, What Is It And How Is It Beneficial To Me (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Wedge Bounce, What Is It And How Is It Beneficial To Me (Video) - by Pete Styles

What is the bounce of a golf club, and how is it important to a golfer? Well, bounce is probably a word that not many people are familiar with unless they’ve got a new set of wedges and they’ve read that it has bounce on it. But a lot of people still don’t know what it actually means. I think we’re all familiar with loft, so on my wedge here it says 60 degrees worth of loft. It’s got that number on there and the 60 degrees is the loft on the club face how high the ball should fly. And also at the back of this wedge it says 10 degrees of bounce. So the 10 degrees of bounce is the amount of the --the leading edge sits above the trailing edge when the shaft is held vertically. So, that angle there that you can see the fact that this edge is lifted above the -- the leading edge is lifted above the trailing edge that, is bounce angle. And you have some degree of bounce angle on all of your irons. But it only tends to be important to us with our wedges.

Now golf wedge bounce angle, consider it to be like an insurance policy. The bounce is there for when things go wrong, and it will help you when things go wrong. So, if you make a mistake the insurance policy will kick in and help you out. And the bigger the bounce angle, the bigger the help it will be able to provide when something goes wrong. Now bounce angles will normally vary between around about 14 degrees of bounce being the most, down to four degrees of bounce being the least. Although I did say the wedge the other day that was a zero bounce wedge. So anywhere between 14 and I guess zero. Now the more bounce the more the bottom edge sticks out. So, what happens here is as the club comes down and contacts either; the soil and the grass, but particularly in the sand. The bounce angle works like a spoiler and it stops the club from digging in too much, and it actually makes the club come back out of the soil or the sand. So, if you were taking a bunker shot and you had no bounce on the club, you can’t believe what a difference it would feel like. It would -- the club would enter the sand like a knife. You would swing down and you'd hit into the turf or the sand and the club would just stop, because there’s absolutely nothing to bring that club back out again. It would just knife into the turf and your follow through would be there, and it would jar quite heavily. So, we’ve never really experienced hitting that wedge shot with no bounce at all, because all the other wedges in to your bag have some degree of bounce. The more golf wedge bounce has the more you hit in, the more it kicks the club back out again. Hence why I say a sand wedge has a lot of bounce, and that’s the insurance policy. So if you hit a bunker shot heavy, catch the ground too early, the bounce will fire that club back outwards, forwards, and upwards, and you won’t notice too much of an effect. Now, bounce angle sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But there are times when bounce angle can cause a few problems. So, if I was playing let’s say just on the edge of this carpet here. This is a very firm floor; it’s a lot harder than the mat I'm on. If I was chipping and pitching from this area here, I would find it very difficult to get a good strike on the golf ball if I had too much bounce. So, the bottom edge of the golf club will be lifted off the ground, sorry, the leading the edge of the golf club is lifted off the ground because of the bounce. As I strike the ball it’s going to be very difficult to get that club to fit neatly under the back of the ball. It’s like trying to kick a soccer ball up in the air when you got clown shoes on. You just can’t get your foot underneath the ball to fire it in the air, because there’s too much bounce. So in reality when we’re playing golf we need to have a variety of different bounces on our different clubs and then use those appropriately. Genuinely speaking I would put a lot of bounce on a sand wedge, between 10 and 14 degrees of bounce on a sand wedge. But on a lob wedge I would have less than eight, between eight and four degrees of bounce on a lob wedge. Therefore my lob wedge is perfect for those little neat, nip shots around the side of the green if I’m on a tight Fairway. My sand wedge is perfect for those fluffy lush lies around the side of the green or even in a bunker. So vary the degrees of bounce, and understand the bounce to change your ability to play great, clean, crisp wedge shots. 2014-11-10

What is the bounce of a golf club, and how is it important to a golfer? Well, bounce is probably a word that not many people are familiar with unless they’ve got a new set of wedges and they’ve read that it has bounce on it. But a lot of people still don’t know what it actually means. I think we’re all familiar with loft, so on my wedge here it says 60 degrees worth of loft. It’s got that number on there and the 60 degrees is the loft on the club face how high the ball should fly. And also at the back of this wedge it says 10 degrees of bounce. So the 10 degrees of bounce is the amount of the –the leading edge sits above the trailing edge when the shaft is held vertically. So, that angle there that you can see the fact that this edge is lifted above the — the leading edge is lifted above the trailing edge that, is bounce angle. And you have some degree of bounce angle on all of your irons. But it only tends to be important to us with our wedges.

Now golf wedge bounce angle, consider it to be like an insurance policy. The bounce is there for when things go wrong, and it will help you when things go wrong. So, if you make a mistake the insurance policy will kick in and help you out. And the bigger the bounce angle, the bigger the help it will be able to provide when something goes wrong. Now bounce angles will normally vary between around about 14 degrees of bounce being the most, down to four degrees of bounce being the least. Although I did say the wedge the other day that was a zero bounce wedge. So anywhere between 14 and I guess zero. Now the more bounce the more the bottom edge sticks out. So, what happens here is as the club comes down and contacts either; the soil and the grass, but particularly in the sand. The bounce angle works like a spoiler and it stops the club from digging in too much, and it actually makes the club come back out of the soil or the sand.

So, if you were taking a bunker shot and you had no bounce on the club, you can’t believe what a difference it would feel like. It would — the club would enter the sand like a knife. You would swing down and you'd hit into the turf or the sand and the club would just stop, because there’s absolutely nothing to bring that club back out again. It would just knife into the turf and your follow through would be there, and it would jar quite heavily. So, we’ve never really experienced hitting that wedge shot with no bounce at all, because all the other wedges in to your bag have some degree of bounce. The more golf wedge bounce has the more you hit in, the more it kicks the club back out again. Hence why I say a sand wedge has a lot of bounce, and that’s the insurance policy. So if you hit a bunker shot heavy, catch the ground too early, the bounce will fire that club back outwards, forwards, and upwards, and you won’t notice too much of an effect.

Now, bounce angle sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But there are times when bounce angle can cause a few problems. So, if I was playing let’s say just on the edge of this carpet here. This is a very firm floor; it’s a lot harder than the mat I'm on. If I was chipping and pitching from this area here, I would find it very difficult to get a good strike on the golf ball if I had too much bounce. So, the bottom edge of the golf club will be lifted off the ground, sorry, the leading the edge of the golf club is lifted off the ground because of the bounce. As I strike the ball it’s going to be very difficult to get that club to fit neatly under the back of the ball. It’s like trying to kick a soccer ball up in the air when you got clown shoes on. You just can’t get your foot underneath the ball to fire it in the air, because there’s too much bounce. So in reality when we’re playing golf we need to have a variety of different bounces on our different clubs and then use those appropriately.

Genuinely speaking I would put a lot of bounce on a sand wedge, between 10 and 14 degrees of bounce on a sand wedge. But on a lob wedge I would have less than eight, between eight and four degrees of bounce on a lob wedge. Therefore my lob wedge is perfect for those little neat, nip shots around the side of the green if I’m on a tight Fairway. My sand wedge is perfect for those fluffy lush lies around the side of the green or even in a bunker. So vary the degrees of bounce, and understand the bounce to change your ability to play great, clean, crisp wedge shots.