This is exactly why I use a 50* GW when my PW is 46* then I use a 56 and 60 as my other two wedges. It just makes more sense in distance gapping with me.

I use my gap wedge around the greens a lot. I think most amateur players like me should use less loft around the greens.

120 has been my nemesis since switching to the zx7 irons. The set didn’t have a gap wedge and I decided to just go by degrees so I got a 50 degree wedge. In theory this wedge should be perfect but my pitching wedge goes 130 and my 50 goes 110 unless I really think big full swing. Now I’m thinking I’ll get the srixon gap wedge that matches the irons , then use my 52 and get a 56.. call it a day. Obviously I’ll have to try the srixon gap wedge to see if it does give me that 120 number or close to it. Thank you for this video

I agree. My Callaway X forged only went to 46* pitching wedge and I have the 54*&58* full toe callaway wedges so I bought another pitching wedge that matched the set off EBay and had it bent to 50* and it works great for me. I just painted the P a different color so I wouldn’t get them confused and I had the shaft cut to Gap wedge length. Great videos! Love your channel!

I previously had 46,48,52,56 and used 56 for almost everything around the green. Tested 58 and loved it! Now have 46,52,58 and am much happier.

I see you are still gaming those sub 70s must really be nice. Love that raw rusty finish

Very good points. This is the problem with strengthening lofts you pay for it this end of your bag. Being a senior I now play larger cavity back irons and the pitching wedge is 44.5 deg. We all know the issues you can and do get with this type of iron regarding feel shots (not full shots) I have the set gap wedge but still had that same problem so I stopped at P.W and went into Vokey's with a 46F, 52F and 56M. Works a treat for me but everyone is different.

Gap wedge is just a pitching wedge in 'older Iron sets' because they stamped 9 on the 8 iron to make people feel warm fuzzy. Now your PW is the 9 iron and you 'need' a 'gap wedge'. 🤦 I have traditional lofted Hogan PTx Pro irons and have 58, 54, and 50° Hogan wedges. I just call them by their loft and don't use the term gap, sand, and lob because I use all of them out of sand at times.

Great advice as always! I love my 52 Cleveland RTX as I use it as my go to for chipping around the green, but also for longer shots, but not often due to the setups and tees I play…

I saw a video interview with John Rahm about why he went with the stock set AW or Attack Wedge. His reasoning is that it fits the gapping for him. Also, because the stock set wedge was more forgiving. I had a blade wedge in that role for most of my life. When I made that jump, it was a major improvement in that part of my bag. Now, I am starting to see more pros doing the same thing.

I totally agree. I have always had my gap wedge match my irons. I use it for mostly full shots.

never really thought of it as you mentioned. Will give it a try.

I had a theory about this when I bought my first set (current set) of fitted irons. Ended up going 4 - GW in the p790s. And matched it up with a 54 and 58 degree callaway wedge (the gap is 50 degrees on a p790 GW). Glad I did that since like you mentioned, I hit the gap wedge a lot and it's almost always full.

I have the PXG 0211 4 to lob wedge with MMT shafts 10 clubs including gap , sand and lob They are all gaped perfectly !!!! I love my gap wedge !! I like the idea of a company selling all ten clubs !! There’s no guessing

I love my vokey gap wedge and hit that much better than my pitching wedge from my set. I know they are teo different clubs but they are close enough.

Agree with this, all my old sets of irons finished at pw, then i used Cleveland gap, sand, lob, but i used to struggle with full shots with that gap wedge, this time with my new irons i made sure i had gap in that set, 5-gw, its been a revaluation, would definitely recommend it

I think you are 100% correct but mostly it comes down to shaft and head wight matching. e.g. I use Nippon Pro Modus 105 iron shafts in the P-770 and it all flows to the gap wedge. My 54 and 58 are not really fitted per se, they are off the rack Vokey or Clevelands usually and they have whatever "wedge" flex or DG shaft from the factory, and while they can be hit full, they feel noticeably heavier swing weight wise and I don't usually hit more than 3/4 type shots with them anyway. Much easier to take a little off the set gap wedge and tbh I rarely chip with the gap wedge, but mostly due to not practicing with it since I have the other two wedges. If you used the same shafts in irons and wedges than I think this argument holds less weight and it wouldn't matter. Often times I pull the 54 and 58 and just have a 56 and then the set gap wedge. This allows me to carry the Mini Driver at all times. 🙂 Seve used only a 56. Most people have too many wedges and suck with all of them. a 14 hfcp I know has a 58 and 62 which is cringeworthy. I am not saying I am amazing but if you force yourself to only have a 50 and 56 you would be amazed what you can do. high flop is still easy.

I usually buy sets with matching Gap wedges, but I got a great deal on some 4-PW 2020 Cobra Forged Tec irons. I couldn't find a matching gap wedge at a reasonable price, so I bought a 49° Crews Triple Sole wedge with a DG s200 shaft on eBay for $10. I had never heard of that brand before, but thought it looked similar to my old Vokeys. I found out later that it's a fairly prestigious Japanese brand. I love that club and have no plans of replacing it with the matching gap wedge to my set

My last two sets had a PW, GW, and SW. I purchased a LW from another brand to experiment with but only use it once or twice a season. I can play just as well with the 55 deg SW that has been adjusted to 57. The LW is just taking up up space so out it went and I added a 5 hybrid to the set. 👍🇨🇦👨‍🦳

True indeed. Thanks.

I have the Mizuno 243 4-Pw. I go to the T24 in a 48-degree, 54, 58. I feel I am more consistent with a traditional blade-style wedge. They blend really well with my irons feel and shape. I don't see much loss in forgiveness either.

it's the golf equipment manufacturers fault. i remember the good old simple days when a pitching wedge was 52* and your sand wedge the usual 56*. no such thing a a gap wedge or a lob wedge. the 48* wedge we have to day was the 9 iron back then.

Your peak height with the set wedge was quite a bit higher making it more susceptible to wind. Not what you want from that range when you’re going after a pin and find yourself short sided because of the wind. Makes the side to side dispersion not matter quite as much. The bounce and sole grinds are often more forgiving on (I’m gonna call them) “designer” wedges in the “gap wedge” series of lofts. The idea of those wedges is to keep the ball down and control it with spin. Many pros also play their “pitching wedge” as a designer wedge for this same reason.

Nailed... thanks 🤙

This is why I play iWin single length irons from 5 thru 58 degree lob with great success.😺

I hate the over strengthening of lofts that has been occurring since the late 80’s, I play with a set of 2-PW Wilson Pro staff Irons from the late 60’s, two of my favorite clubs are the 9 and PW, the lofts are 48* for the 9 iron and 52* for my Pitching wedge, which lines up with a modern PW and Gap wedge, my 7 Iron is 38* that’s 4 degrees weaker than a “weak” modern 7 Iron, instead of people carrying less irons and more and more wedges we need to look at bringing iron lofts back to a realistic level, there’s no difference between a 4 iron at 22* and a 3 iron at 22* except the number, but this strengthening of lofts leads to awkward gaps at the bottom of the bag because instead of carrying only 2 “specialty wedges” people are now carrying 3, 4 or even more non set wedges nowadays that act completely different than the rest of their irons

I now use my 52deg for a lot of flop shots and it is away better than the 60 deg. Chips rolling up greens. So I keep the 60 deg for straight forward flops but the 52deg is used for very tricky flop shots with a full open face. Much better fell, I keep a 48 deg in the bag too , plays very different from my PW 43 deg. I have popped over massive trees 100ft high to green centre with the AW/48deg from 110 yards out. The PW would fly over this shot. So 5 wedges but 6I is my longest iron now.

My Gap Wedge is my favorite wedge, 52 deg vokey SM9 Full swing from 120yds. However, it is my go to "around the greens" wedge, with the exception of bunkers and massively heavy rough (60deg). I guess the argument could be made that my 56 should match the set as that actually is the wedge that i really only use full swing Also I already play a combo set of sorts. Matching Mizuno Pro 2 iron from 2-8 iron, 9&p mp63 and sm9 vokey wedges 52,56,60.

I've got JPX 921 HMs, and had got T22 LW, SW, GW. Off my best shots, the gapping was perfect, but I increasingly began to realise that I was hitting a lot of full gap wedges, and coming up short. My belief is that this was influenced by the T22 having heel weighting, so a toe hit was particularly bad. So I changed GW to the S23, which is designed to blend with the 923 series, and is centre weighted. I've stopped coming up short.... The S23 gives you the flexibility to select bounce and grind, but works far better as an iron. They do have "set" gap wedges too, but I like a smoother switch into specialist wedges. Sold.

I play with 2 gap wedges. My main one is from my set and I have a 52 degree wedge. They are on the stronger loft side and it works for me

AJ is right...modern GW of today has the same loft as a PW from 20 years ago.

I have jpx 923 forged 6-pw/44* and 49 s23. The gw in the set was 49*, and 50$ more. The 16 yardage gap between them is a bit frustrating, would be intetesting to try the gw in the set to see how far it goes.

I have a 44 deg Gradidge wedge from the 40s and a SmartSole 58 and LaunchPad wedge, all 3 suit me fine

Completely agree!

Your awesome!!

I'm weird, I play 4 specialty wedges. I use the bryson split of strong lofted set and 2 wedges is 44 and 48 degrees

I'm 65 y.o. so my distances are not what they used to be. My PW has a loft of 45° (reduced from the stock 47°) and I found that a gapping of 6° to 7° works for me. That being said, I play a 52° AW and a 58° SW. My distances are: PW 105 yds., AW 90 yds., and SW 75 yds. While my iron set is the Taylor Made P7MC I was not able to get a gap wedge in that set. Instead I did stick with TM but got the Hi-Toe wedges which is still a pretty good match.

So the short answer is for many people it was just better when there iron set went from 4iron to sw.

Just purchased a set of Mizuno Pro 233 5-PW with UST recoil 95 F4 and already have a set of Mizuno T22 wedges (50/54/60) w dynamic gold steel shafts. Are you saying it is better to get the Pro 233 GW to match this set? And since the irons have the recoil shafts, should I also get my wedges in the same recoil shafts?

I actually use my gap wedge more for half and 3/4 shots. I have the set gap wedge and the issue I find with it is that for Chipping it can come off hot

I prefer my gab wedge to be like my irons. But my irons set, Callaway Apex 19 went to only PW and they want way to much for a single club in that model. So I got the callaway MD CB 52° that is more forgiving than maybe a Cleveland Zipcore 52°.

My GW is primarily a full shot club, so I agree AJ. But, as you say, it can be hard, if not impossible, to find a GW that matches your irons. Many brands do not make a GW in many of their lines, especially better player irons. I'm guessing that's because they assume better players will do what the Pros do, but it doesn't help us short-hitting, low handicappers, does it?.

So I was always told that when you hit off a mat you don’t get the same distances or reactivity as hitting of a fairway. I would love to see a comparison of data from off a mat and of like a fairway or grass range.

The issue with my Stealth iron set gap wedge is that it seems to be hard to control height compared to my Vokey gap wedge. Stealth gap feels like it rockets up in the air no matter if I'm hitting full or knock down type shot.

Only play set irons 6i-9i and Glide 4.0 wedges, 46 (bent to 45) PW, 50 gap, 54 & 58

I literally just ordered my set’s gap wedge a few days ago. My current GW matched my SW and the weight and bounce just didn’t work for me.

Here is another scenario. I picked up last years irons 5-PW. I need a gap wedge but can't find one that matches my set. Should I get a competitors game improvement gap wedge or should I go specialty wedge?

Seemed like you also swung the gap wedge that matched your irons a bit faster, looks like 4mph on average. Is that because of a shaft difference? I have the stock shafts that are in my wedges, would you recommend matching up your shafts throughout the set into your wedges, or are you losing something when you go away from the typically spinny shafts in a wedge?

I have the taylormade speedblade 50degree approach. I use it 3/4, half and full shots and chip and run. Should I be using a specialized wedge instead?

What irons do you game?

I'm interested in what you think is the best gapping for the three specialty wedges when the pitching wedge is 44 degrees

My 9 iron is 36". Should my pitch, gap, sand and 60° be the same length or should there be a 1/4" or 1/2" gap.

Why do so many golfers want their wedges to look all rusty?

yep

Biggest difference is he swung the iron set GW ~4mph faster than the Mizuno GW. Not much else.

That's Facts are you playing your 47° and 51° same length

Is it bad to not take a divot? I never take one. I only do when I hit a bad shot otherwise I pick the ball.clean with every club even wedges

I really feel like I’ve seen this video before.

This is going to sound stupid but here goes . What do you mean by maching my GW with my Irons ?

My gap goes average 118

If you want 5 more yards why not just adjust the loft? Accomplishes the same thing.

If your wedge is 51°, why is your launch angle 31°?

What’s the explanation as to why this is? Longer length club? Lie? Plain blade vs tech? Fitting? Gotta be a reason??