No Gap Wedge Like Tiger

[bobbyclampett!!]

Do any pros use the same set-up as Tiger (5w, set 3i, no GW)? Do any of you all? I'm curious how it works. I suppose Tiger likes no GW because he grew up in an era before GWs were popular, and his butter blade Mizunos and Titleists were probably 48 degree PWs, which made the gap smaller between PW and SW. But still, that's a pretty big gap. Does he have to hit a lot of 3/4 PWs when he has, say, like 120 to the hole? Does he hit more lower SWs around the green? Is this made easier by playing butter blades in your set instead of shovels or even "player's cavity" or "player's distance" irons, because the PW is closer to a wedge GW than a bigger club? I think this could be a cool set up (more traditionally lofted clubs, blades) that gives you a set 3i and a 5w at the top end of your bag, an option for a low stinger off the tee and a high lofted club into a par 5. But I worry about the 120 shots and missing a GW for chipping around the greens.

 

Let me know if any of you play this set up or any other pros (Rory?) and how it works.

[Yoshifan151]

DJ does a similar setup, but he uses a 7w. Still 3-PW and 2 wedges, his 52 is 54 degrees though.

 

I also like having a 48-50 degree PW, then just 2 wedges after. The larger gaps for wedges are fine because they're much easier to take some distance off opposed to longer irons and woods, so I get more coverage at the top of the bag with full swings. I played 49, 54, 60 when I had Nike Forged Blades and really enjoyed it. When I bag my 681 Ts it'll be the same with the weaker lofts on those irons. 

[bobbyclampett!!]

24 minutes ago, Yoshifan151 said:

DJ does a similar setup, but he uses a 7w. Still 3-PW and 2 wedges, his 52 is 54 degrees though.

 

I also like having a 48-50 degree PW, then just 2 wedges after. The larger gaps for wedges are fine because they're much easier to take some distance off opposed to longer irons and woods, so I get more coverage at the top of the bag with full swings. I played 49, 54, 60 when I had Nike Forged Blades and really enjoyed it. When I bag my 681 Ts it'll be the same with the weaker lofts on those irons. 

Yeah I knew DJ only used two wedges, but thought he went 52, 58, so essentially no sand wedge, but didn’t know he bent 52 to 54. 
 

So if you wanted to do the Tiger set up with no GW, would a deal breaker basically be needing a 48 bladed PW? Does anyone even make a 48 PW anymore?

[Mookieb10]

28 minutes ago, Yoshifan151 said:

DJ does a similar setup, but he uses a 7w. Still 3-PW and 2 wedges, his 52 is 54 degrees though.

 

I also like having a 48-50 degree PW, then just 2 wedges after. The larger gaps for wedges are fine because they're much easier to take some distance off opposed to longer irons and woods, so I get more coverage at the top of the bag with full swings. I played 49, 54, 60 when I had Nike Forged Blades and really enjoyed it. When I bag my 681 Ts it'll be the same with the weaker lofts on those irons. 

I disagree. Dj goes 47,52,60. 48,56,60 is a lot different. 

[jacobanderson123]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Tiger goes 49, 56, 60. I don't think there are many newer clubs with pitching wedges that weak, unless you get the P7TW in the Tiger specs. Other option is obviously bending clubs weak.

[jacobanderson123]

23 minutes ago, Mookieb10 said:

I disagree. Dj goes 47,52,60. 48,56,60 is a lot different. 

DJ's 52 is bent to a 54

[Yoshifan151]

44 minutes ago, bobbyclampett!! said:

Yeah I knew DJ only used two wedges, but thought he went 52, 58, so essentially no sand wedge, but didn’t know he bent 52 to 54. 
 

So if you wanted to do the Tiger set up with no GW, would a deal breaker basically be needing a 48 bladed PW? Does anyone even make a 48 PW anymore?

 

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/lists/masters-champion-dustin-johnson-what-equipment-pros-play/

 

Yup, scroll down to the wedge section, it talks about the 52 being a 54. 

 

And as @jacobanderson123 said you basically gotta go Tiger spec P7TW or bend weak. You could also do boutique such as NCW or look for an older set of blades.

[Gohigh]

I think he can deloft his 56 to any loft he wants, judging by his leading edge relief.

 

I switch out from 46-50-55-60 to 46-52-58 depending on course. If I carried a 48 PW, then I think 54-60 would be perfect.

[MrCook]

25 minutes ago, Yoshifan151 said:

 

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/lists/masters-champion-dustin-johnson-what-equipment-pros-play/

 

Yup, scroll down to the wedge section, it talks about the 52 being a 54. 

 

And as @jacobanderson123 said you basically gotta go Tiger spec P7TW or bend weak. You could also do boutique such as NCW or look for an older set of blades.

 

Or you can skip the set PW and go 48 specialty wedge like Rory does with his 48, 54, 60 TM MG wedge setup. No clue what loft his Rors Proto 9i is sitting at though.

[lefty1978]

1 hour ago, jacobanderson123 said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Tiger goes 49, 56, 60.

Yes. Tiger's pw is 49°, and he goes 56° and 60°. 

 

I personally carry 47° pw, 52°, 58°.

[Fairway14]

I carry 48*, 52* 56* and 64*.

* I would not mind having 54* instead of 52*, except that for greenside bunker shots 56* is better than 54*.

[sg91]

Luke Donald from memory uses a set PW (stock MP-20 is 46*, not sure if his is bent weak), 54*, 60*. It's not particularly unusual and really it just comes down to practicing how to take spin off, flight the ball down etc to control distance.

[J.Bex]

Tiger's more "traditional" lofts are closer to 4-GW these days.  Just a number on the sole.  A 29° 5 iron and 45° 9 iron are more commonly 6 and PW lofts now, unless you bend really weak or buy older clubs or Tiger Spec P7TWs:

 

49° PW vs 50° set GW - pretty close, not like jumping from a 46° PW.  Lots of players in the pro WITB posts using 50° GW to 56° and 60°.  And with Tiger skills and variety of shots.... the gap is all good.

 

Personally I carry a 5W, 3I, PW, GW and like having the club/shot options at the top and bottom.

Edited October 27, 2021 by joostin

[iNeedMoreGolf]

I go 46 pw... 52 as like a approach wedge and standard short game shots into and around the green... 56 pm2 grind for sand and other around green shots or coming in from 50. Then 64 for fun and when i have some trouble that i need a high soft landing or really short sided... sometimes i can kinda pitch with it too but dont really mess with that. I use the pw when i want to make the ball run to a back flag instead of fly it there. Tiger and few pros have so many spins and shots in the bag for short game shots that they only really need a pw and then 2 other wedges... i dont really blame them. When u have too many choices sometimes you force the most difficult one and mess it up.

[Ger21]

When I had my VR Pro's, I played the tiger set. 47° PW, 56-60.

Since I switched to irons with stronger lofts, I now go 45° PW, 51-56. And I dropped the 5W for a 2 hybrid, to keep the flight lower.

Yes, I would occasionally need to take a little off of the PW, but I always try to lay up to my 56° distance.

[cav5]

i love this topic but wish PW were still 49/50 to just make it easier

[bobbyclampett!!]

1 hour ago, joostin said:

Tiger's more "traditional" lofts are closer to 4-GW these days.  Just a number on the sole.  A 29° 5 iron and 45° 9 iron are more commonly 6 and PW lofts now, unless you bend really weak or buy older clubs or Tiger Spec P7TWs:

 

49° PW vs 50° set GW - pretty close, not like jumping from a 46° PW.  Lots of players in the pro WITB posts using 50° GW to 56° and 60°.  And with Tiger skills and variety of shots.... the gap is all good.

 

Personally I carry a 5W, 3I, PW, GW and like having the club/shot options at the top and bottom.

Ahh, this makes a lot of sense. Makes me feel more comfortable keeping with my 4i at top of set irons (closer to Tiger’s 3i) and set PW (closer to TW’s 9i )with 51 gap wedge (closer to TW’s PW) and 56-60. Question for me has always been what goes between 3w and 4i. What a mystical quest. I think I will try a 5w. Been a long time since I tried that solution. 

[MountainKing]

If you take away the number on the bottom of my clubs, my lofts through the set are very similar to Tigers.  My 4 iron lost matches his 3 and my 50 would be close to his PW.   I think most people play sets close to what Tiger has in his bag if you just look at the lofts rather than what's on the bottom of the club. 

[Cactus Jack]

Titleist T100s has a set gap wedge which is 48*.  You need to ignore the stamping on the bottom of the club, but the 48 wedge creates a perfect bridge into a traditional 52/56/60 setup or a similar Tiger style wedge system. 

[EDT501]

My PW is at 50° followed by 55° and 60°. I find the gapping to work quite well. As others have said, the numbers on the bottom of the club don’t matter so long as you have your gaps covered. The set I keep at my parents house is 47°, 53°, 59° and that works fine too.

[rsballer10]

13 minutes ago, Cactus Jack said:

Titleist T100s has a set gap wedge which is 48*.  You need to ignore the stamping on the bottom of the club, but the 48 wedge creates a perfect bridge into a traditional 52/56/60 setup or a similar Tiger style wedge system. 

Not quite - this is 1 more wedge than tiger carries. 4-GW,52,56,60 is 11 clubs. Tiger uses 3-PW, 56,60 which is 10 clubs. What I've done in the past is either bend my PW to 48 (from 46ish) and play 54/60 or bend the 4 iron strong and remove the 3i. Not a huge deal, but I'd like to see modern iron sets cover the range of 22 to 50 degrees loft with 8 clubs.

[kasting333]

I use 47, 50, 55, 60

 

50 and 55 are my go to clubs.

I started trying my 50 on shorter shots after watching the last minute of this vid with Morikawa and it’s helped my scoring a ton. 

 

It’s amazing how much more consistent you can become by using a lower lofted wedge on half shots 30-80 yds. it is much easier to get good contact and you learn how to spin it enough to stop. 
 I try to use my 50 as much as possible but that of course depends on the lie and the firmness of the greens. 

 

 

[ChipNRun]

10 hours ago, bobbyclampett!! said:

I suppose Tiger likes no GW because he grew up in an era before GWs were popular, and his butter blade Mizunos and Titleists were probably 48 degree PWs, which made the gap smaller between PW and SW.

 

The loft of the PW is a big factor here. In my bag from four years ago, I had a set PW at 46*, and Cleveland CG14s at 50-54-58. Made for a pretty good wedge matrix for partial distances.

 

But, when I changed wedges to Callaways, I chose a 48* instead of both 46* and 50*. Splitting the difference came because of duplicate distance cells between the two, and the fact I could use either for certain greenside pitches. (And, I included the half and 3/4 9i shots in my matrix for certain bridge distances.)

 

I played for a year with 48*, 54* and a MD-PM U-grind 60*. But, the 60* was hard to control for other than greenside, so I went to the current 58*. 

 

And a couple of weeks ago, my new Mavrik MAX irons finally arrived. Set PW is 43*, so I'm now back to four wedges. Longest iron is a 23* 5i, just one degree more than my former 22* 4i.The PW works as both a 10i, and a traditional wedge.

 

View from the Mini-Tour. A Big Break and mini-tour veteran who plays out of my home course has an interesting take on wedge mix. He said that on mini-tour, the long hitters tend to go with four wedges so they have more yardage fine-tuning inside 100 yards. The medium hitters often have three wedges so they can work in an extra club at the 210-220 yard range.

 

For everyday golfers, a three-wedge mix means you have fewer wedges to practice.

[cav5]

the cally apex mbs actually have a set matching 50* gap wedge. Considering actually soft stepping my set. should work perfect since they're already 1/2in long.

 

the dilemma with set vs specialty gap wedges is ball speed.

[Abh159]

I have...

 

Driver, 3 wood, 19* hybrid at the top

3 iron - 9 iron in the middle

PW (47*), 54*, and 60* at the bottom

 

I've considered getting rid of the 3 iron and going 47*, 51*, 55*, 60* but I just can't get myself to do it. I like my 3 iron too much to lose it, and I usually end up hitting it off the tee or into a par 5 at least 2-3 times a round. 

[dlygrisse]

All these loft gapping concerns are easily overcome with a little bit of common sense when buying wedges and simply learning one shot where you can take about 5-10 yards off of a wedge.  Which you need to do anyway when you have less than a full swing with your LW.  Just keep the gaps at less than 8 degrees and you will be fine.  

[FarmerJake]

I have played the 718cb irons for a couple years. I wanted to get a little more distance so I got a set of power spec i210. The lofts are almost the same just one club different. In the i210 power spec I play 5-U with an i500 4 iron at 21 degrees. With 718cb I play 4-9 with a 21 degree x forged utility and 48 degree vokey for pw. I play 54-60 with both sets. The distances match up almost exactly from one set to the other just one club different. I think I hit the cb closer on good shots but the i210 I can get away with a bad swing. I hit the 7 iron i210 around 180 yards compared to the 6 iron cb about the same. The shafts are just a little longer with the cb. That doesn’t bother me. The CB do spin more for the loft. I think that comes down to the shaft being different more than anything and it makes up for the loft being about 1 degree stronger in a couple of the match ups. 

[bobbyclampett!!]

Thanks everyone. This eases my mind about my current set up. I am completely sold on 13 of my 14 clubs: D, 3W, 4i-PW(46*), 51, 56, 60, Putter. Only question remains what goes in that elusive final spot between 4i and 3W, possibilities being set 3i, some kind of driving or utility iron, a crossover, hybrid, fairway wood, and now a "utility" wood. All have their pros and cons. I think maybe the way to go is have one of each you like and rotate it through depending on the course you are playing and conditions or which you are feeling most confident with. I think I'm going to get a set 3i and a 5w to add to my collection of driving irons and hybrids. Might even try the Callaway UW.

[EDT501]

3 minutes ago, bobbyclampett!! said:

 I think maybe the way to go is have one of each you like and rotate it through depending on the course you are playing and conditions or which you are feeling most confident with. I think I'm going to get a set 3i and a 5w to add to my collection of driving irons and hybrids. Might even try the Callaway UW.

Best plan if you ask me. I cycle between a 3 iron / hybrid and 5 wood / 2 driving iron depending on the course and prevailing conditions.  Most of the time the hybrid and 5 wood are in the bag, but sometimes a lot of wind leads me to the driving iron / 3 iron.

[CUBuffaloes]

Current play 50, 55 and 60 wedges after my PW. I want to drop the gap to allow an extra club at the top end. I'll probably drop the set PW and weaken my 9 iron and put in a 48, 54 and 60.

Edited October 27, 2021 by CUBuffaloes