Wedge Lie vs Iron Set Lie

[KnightPS]

I am curious what lie most people play their wedges. I play my AP2's 2" upright and they fit me really well. I have an older set of Cleveland wedges that have served me very well and they are both standard lie. Now that I plan on buying new wedges I am wondering if they should also be bent upright to match the rest of my set.

 

I understand the real answer is to go get fit, but I am sitting my desk right now and just curious what others have done.

 

Thanks.

[square]

[quote name='KnightPS' timestamp='1441900952' post='12293632']
I am curious what lie most people play their wedges. I play my AP2's 2" upright and they fit me really well. I have an older set of Cleveland wedges that have served me very well and they are both standard lie. Now that I plan on buying new wedges I am wondering if they should also be bent upright to match the rest of my set.

I understand the real answer is to go get fit, but I am sitting my desk right now and just curious what others have done.

Thanks.
[/quote]

Have your wedges match the lie angle of your iron set.
It is common on internet forums to suggest playing wedges flatter than the iron set, but that strategy causes unnecessary challenges.

[nbg352]

While square may, generally be correct, keep in mind that wedges are often 2-3* upright from the rest of the set. Many players will benefit from flattening a couple of degrees, ESPECIALLY if it is common to pull the wedges left more often or regularly than the rest of the irons in the set.
I will often make all wedges 1/2* higher in lie than the 9 iron, which follows the normal 1/2* increments in lie angle from longest.to shortest club.

[buckeyefl]

[quote name='square' timestamp='1441901565' post='12293692']
[quote name='KnightPS' timestamp='1441900952' post='12293632']
I am curious what lie most people play their wedges. I play my AP2's 2" upright and they fit me really well. I have an older set of Cleveland wedges that have served me very well and they are both standard lie. Now that I plan on buying new wedges I am wondering if they should also be bent upright to match the rest of my set.

I understand the real answer is to go get fit, but I am sitting my desk right now and just curious what others have done.

Thanks.
[/quote]

Have your wedges match the lie angle of your iron set.
It is common on internet forums to suggest playing wedges flatter than the iron set, but that strategy causes unnecessary challenges.
[/quote]

Perhaps for you but not others. There is a reason that people are fit with some wedges flatter and it not only doesn't cause problems but improves performance. Get fit is the lesson to be learned.

[CafecitoHippo]

I play my wedges a little flatter than my irons. My irons are turned 3* up over standard (PW and GW are 64* standard) and I have my wedges turned up 2* (both of those are 64* standard as well).

[dog flog]

The idea of the flatter lies is that you want your wedges to sit perfectly flush to the ground at address, not slightly toe up like the rest of the irons. That's because wedges are used mostly for shots that don't stress the shaft enough to return the sole of the club back to flush at impact. This can cause two problems. One, the heel digs into the ground causing left shots and two, the bounce of the club becomes less effective. Though this makes perfect sense to me, I still haven't bent my wedges. Maybe I'll do it in the winter when lack of golf makes these little things start to bug me.

[Golf64]

I've been too many OEM fitters. All say go 1* flat from your irons.

[nbg352]

[quote name='Golf64' timestamp='1441905177' post='12294072']
I've been too many OEM fitters. All say go 1* flat from your irons.
[/quote]
That is conservative.

[Matt J]

I like my wedges about 1.5* flatter than my irons although I've thought lately to go even a touch more flat.

Depends if you pull them on full swings and if you like to knock them down, both of which encourage a bit flatter lie angle. Truly, playing them at standard sounds about right coming from 2 up. How's that working? If you're pushing them then maybe another degree up would help.

Edited to add: I wouldn't be scared to have them check, no telling where they're at if you haven't done it in awhile...

[azgreg]

I use TLT fitting. All my wedges (pw, gw, sw, and lw) all are the same length and lie then my set goes in 1° increments from there.

[KnightPS]

[quote name='Matt J' timestamp='1441907415' post='12294384']
I like my wedges about 1.5* flatter than my irons although I've thought lately to go even a touch more flat.

Depends if you pull them on full swings and if you like to knock them down, both of which encourage a bit flatter lie angle. Truly, playing them at standard sounds about right coming from 2 up. How's that working? If you're pushing them then maybe another degree up would help.

Edited to add: I wouldn't be scared to have them check, no telling where they're at if you haven't done it in awhile...
[/quote]

Standard has been okay, though I think my game is improving to the point where a little tweak might help performance. Left is not usually the miss, currently I tend to send the ball a little higher than intended and to the right, coming up short.

[nbg352]

That would tend to indicate that your wedges may in fact be too flat, especially if short right is not your normal miss on all other iron shots as well..

[Lord Helmet]

I was fit into 2* flat wedges.

[Hot Rod 71]

Full swing wedges can be set to the same lie angle as your irons. I have my 50* at 2* up like the rest of my irons since I mainly use it on full shots.

Wedges you only use on partial swing should be a little flatter.

I have my 54* bent 1* flat and 60* bent 2* flatter than my irons. This makes it easier to 1) play opened faced shots and 2) make solid contact on pitches and chips.

[Matt J]

[quote name='nbg352' timestamp='1441918034' post='12295400']
That would tend to indicate that your wedges may in fact be too flat, especially if short right is not your normal miss on all other iron shots as well..
[/quote]

I'd try going upright a half to 3/4 a degree at a time and see if the right miss goes away.

Agree with the above post that it also depends on whether that's a normal miss for you. If so the irons might be a bit flat too.

[Wknd_Warrior]

keep in mind how the shaft length works into it compared to the rest of your set since longer shafts effectively play more upright.

[ijohnson]

Set PW, and all my standard wedges play 3 up at 65.5. For me it helps a ton chipping when I want to choke down as well, but I'm trying to move towards a more Tiger 2000 era upright stance which makes it way upright.

[rharvey3]

I have always played my wedges flatter than my irons, however with my next set I am planning on playing them the same.

[rbilramz]

I've been told that wedges should be 1/2-1 degree closer to standard than your irons by two different top 100 club fitters. The first time it seemed like an odd concept (since it was either way), after hearing it twice I trust the experts.

[Hot Rod 71]

[quote name='rbilramz' timestamp='1442124761' post='12306668']
I've been told that wedges should be [b]1/2-1 degree closer to standard than your irons[/b] by two different top 100 club fitters. The first time it seemed like an odd concept (since it was either way), after hearing it twice I trust the experts.
[/quote]

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here. Can you elaborate?

[DLev45]

Does the wedges flatter than irons rule of thumb apply to pitching wedge (45*) and gap wedge (50*)? I have my irons 2-up through my gap wedge and my 54 and 58 1-up, but I’m thinking I might need to take the PW & GW down a degree as well.

[Howard_Jones]

Normally we keep the progression of 0.5* more upright for each club shorter, all the way to the shortest club in the set, the PW.

From the PW we normally only have 2/8" progression between clubs, so if we play the GW to full swing, we now use 0.25* more upright if we bother at all....most just leave it at the same as the PW

Wedges played mostly to partials, often the SW and LW might be set to 1* flat vs the others. Thats beneficial if pulling those clubs is a common mishit for the actual player.

[hd.softail]

Just ponder this and I type the below with the caveat "IN GENERAL"...

Let's say the iron set PW lie angle is set at 64 degrees then we keep gap (52) and lob (58) also at 64 while each club is still getting shorter than the PW, you are effectively setting your 2 wedges up "flatter" than the iron set. If you were matching the lie of your iron set, then you would have set the 52 to 64.5 and the 58 to 65.

Unfortunately in my years of fitting everyone hears go flatter in their wedges and they do this with the result being they've now made their lob wedge 2 degrees (or more) flatter than their set progression. When the correct answer (in my humble opinion) is to stop progressing lie angle at the PW and maintain that degree while still letting wedge length progress shorter; effectively making your wedges play flatter. (Some argue stop the lie progression at the 9i if your length difference between 9i and PW is only .25" vs .5", I wouldn't argue that point; the same concept applies.)

To really get into the custom fitting weeds, I'll add that I've found in more advanced fitting some benefit to making all wedges in the above example the same length and set the same "fitted" lie angle for all 3. While I don't recommend this for everyone, in every set I've had for the last 20 years my PW, GAP and SW/LW have all been the same length and Lie. Typically I set the PW 1/4" short from standard which matches the standard GW length and then the SW/LW is made 1/4" longer than standard to get it to match the other 2 wedges in length. For me this setup adds a tremendous amount of consistency and feel in my short game. Make sure the OEM or club builder you're working with can achieve your needed swingweight tolerances.

[DLev45]

Thanks Howard.

I previous had my iron set 2-up all the way down to my gap wedge, which matches my set. My 54 & 58 are specialty wedges.

My 9-iron through 58* are all set to 65* lie angle, which is 2* up from standard for the 9-iron, 1.5 up for the PW & GW, and 0.5 up for the 54 & 58, but I have noticed that I tend to hit the 9-iron relatively straight, whereas I miss left with the PW through 58.

Would you see any detriment to having the PW through 58 being ACTUALLY flatter, than the 9-iron, rather than flatter to stock? The progression would go as follows:

9-iron at 65* (2-up to spec)

PW at 64.5 (1-up to spec)

GW at 64.5 (1-up to spec)

54 at 64.5 (standard to spec)

58 at 64.5 (standard to spec)

[Howard_Jones]

Make it simple, never mind "paper specs", use a ball marker test on ALL clubs, to get lie angle right. Each club is really a fitting object of its own, so its not a good idea to make it look "right or wrong" on the paper, that paper want help you with anything. Do a ball marker test on each of them and you want have to think about it again.

[Rbsiedsc]

On 11/26/2019 at 7:02 AM, DLev45 said:

Does the wedges flatter than irons rule of thumb apply to pitching wedge (45*) and gap wedge (50*)? I have my irons 2-up through my gap wedge and my 54 and 58 1-up, but I’m thinking I might need to take the PW & GW down a degree as well.

sorry for the bump but I have been thinking of this as well. I rarely swing my 9-PW fully. I always have a left miss with them. My other irons in my set I do not. I am tempted to go down 1-2 deg in lie to help that.