Gap wedge

In the sport of golf, a gap wedge, also known as an approach wedge, is a wedge used to hit a shot with higher and shorter trajectory than a pitching wedge and lower and longer trajectory than a sand wedge. The name derives from the club's design to fill the "gap" between sand and pitching wedges.

History

Over time the loft angle on irons in matched sets has been reduced for multiple reasons. Manufacturers, always wanting to advertise longer distances than their competitors, sometimes "cheat" by de-lofting their iron sets by a degree or two compared to their competitor's set, producing between 2-5 yards of extra distance per degree of "strengthening". In addition, several significant advances in clubhead design, most notably the development of investment-cast "cavity-back" designs and the development of clubfaces that increased backspin to improve "bite", resulted in clubs with higher launch angles and flight paths than their predecessors. Clubmakers then compensated for this in both cases by de-lofting, to translate that higher launch into greater distance. Currently, the pitching wedge of a matched set, which follows the normal loft progression of the numbered irons, has a loft just slightly higher than an 8-iron from the 1960s, at about 48 degrees (with some as low as 46 degrees).

However, sand wedges generally have not received this same reduction in loft, even as they were designed with similar weight-distribution and backspin-improving features. This is because their eponymous purpose requires their traditional 55-56° loft angle in order to dig into the soft sand surrounding the ball and lift it out; the sand wedge's nominal loft and "bounce" angles have not changed appreciably from Gene Sarazen's original concept based on the niblick. This leaves a "gap" in loft angle between the pitching and sand wedges of up to 10 degrees, causing a distance difference with a full swing of up to 30 yards, both of which are differences normally seen between irons two or more numbers apart (e.g. between a 7 and 9 iron) instead of "adjacent" lofts.

As a result, some players who had upgraded to these newer de-lofted iron sets began carrying the pitching wedge of an older set, lofted around 50-52°, to "fill the gap". This additional wedge, with a full swing, fell between the average distances of a sand and pitching wedge, allowing the player to fine-tune their approach shot's distance without needing excessive variations in swing speed. Clubmakers, sensing an opportunity, began to offer a purpose-built wedge in this general loft range starting in the early to middle 1990s. These have become known colloquially as "gap wedges" due to their origin, despite various different proprietary names applied to the wedge by their manufacturers.

Design

Gap wedges are loosely defined, but typically have the loft between that of a pitching wedge and sand wedge, between 50 and 54 degrees,. At the extremes there is redundancy with either the pitching wedge (typically 48°) or the sand wedge (typically 56°), however some players will "fine-tune" the lofts of these other wedges to their play style, leading to alternate loft choices for a gap wedge. Most players look for a separation of 4 degrees between clubs, and so with the standard pitching and sand wedge lofts, the complimentary gap wedge would be 52°.

Within the range of lofts seen in gap wedges, the angle that the sole makes to the ground at address, also known as the club's "bounce angle", varies from 0° up to 12° or more. Lower lofts typically benefit from a lower bounce angle, suiting their use as effectively an "11-iron" for shots from firmer lies such as grass. Higher lofts, generally used from softer lies where the ball may have dug itself in more, require a higher bounce similar to the sand wedge to dig in and then lift back out of the ground. The most common 52° wedge is sold in a wide range of bounce angles; 8° is a common "medium bounce" choice.

The relation between actual loft and bounce can change based on how the player addresses the ball; the more forward the ball, and the more open the clubface, the higher the effective loft and bounce angles. Some clubmakers will vary the amount of bounce that the sole has from toe to heel, allowing the player to fine-tune the club to the specific situation by opening. When square at address, the club behaves more like a lower-bounce pitching wedge, while when opened, the club behaves more like a sand wedge. A few manufacturers call attention to this by labelling the wedge "D" for "dual wedge", indicating it can be used as either a pitching or sand wedge (or anything in between).

There is little consistency in labeling gap wedges; most manufacturers simply label the wedge with its angle, optionally including additional information about the amount of bounce (sometimes the angle measure, more often a series of one to three dots indicating "low", "medium" and "high" bounce). Some manufacturers call it an "Approach", "Attack" or "All" wedge, labelling it in all cases with "A". The Karsten Manufacturing Company, maker of the Ping brand of golf clubs, favored the use of "U" for "utility wedge", but currently only uses this label on wedges sold in matched sets; individual Ping wedges are currently labelled with their angle. It is actually uncommon to find a gap wedge labeled "G"; Adams Golf, Cobra and Wilson are among the few manufacturers that do so.

Controversy

The necessity of the gap wedge is contested by some golfers and clubfitters, who assert that the gap wedge would not be necessary if clubmakers had not de-lofted the clubs in the first place to attract amateurs looking for more distance. In addition, many matched sets do not include a gap wedge, when clubmakers have included the pitching wedge since irons first began to be offered in matched sets. This is another cause for contention as the de-lofting makes the "long" irons such as the 3 and 4 as hard to hit as older 1 and 2 irons, thus requiring golfers to buy clubs they will likely never end up using (either replacing the 3 and 4 with hybrids or omitting them altogether in favor of higher-loft fairway woods), while not getting a club that they almost certainly will find useful (the gap wedge).

For their part, clubmakers contest that the modern golfer demands customization; wedges are available in many angles allowing the player to choose exactly the loft and bounce angle they find most useful. Including a 52-degree mid-bounce wedge in a matched set may prove useless to a golfer who prefers a different loft or bounce than this standard offering. They also contend that, adjusting for inflation ($1 in 1970 would have the same buying power as $5.44 today), the price of a matched iron set has decreased over this period, even as design and manufacturing advances have genuinely increased the distance and accuracy that the average golfer can expect, as compared to a club of an older design but similar launch angle. Lastly, some manufacturers do in fact include a gap wedge as part of a matched iron set, often removing the 3 iron to provide the same overall number of clubs (and in response to the concern about including such a difficult-to-use club).