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Gap? ...but my wife shops thereJan 14 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Sport and Outdoor
The Bottom Line Just keep in mind that you want your lofts to be 3-5 degrees apart. Have them evaluated/adjusted by a clubmaker. May the force be with you.
Gap wedges are fairly new clubs in the bags of golfers. Their introduction is interesting as well as logical. About 30 years ago, the average loft of most 5 irons was about 32-33 degrees. Now, it is about 28 degrees. The reason is that club manufacturers realized that if they made the lofts on their golf clubs stronger, people would gain distance. For example, pretend you're currently playing brand X golf clubs and you hit your 7 iron 150 yards. Then, you visit your favorite golf shop and see the new brand X irons. And you seem to hit the new brand X design 7 iron 155-160 yards. While companies continue to mislead consumers, all they did/do was strengthen lofts. The bottom line here is that what is now a 3 iron used to be a 1 or 2 iron. While companies sold a lot of golf clubs by making the lofts stronger, they also created a gap in people's sets. Most sets come 3 iron through pitching wedge. A recent pitching wedge typically has 46-48 degrees of loft. Next comes a sand wedge. Sand wedges are almost always 56 degrees. when sets were strengthened, sand wedges were excluded. So, the PWs got stronger, and SWs remained the same. According to experts in the industry (Ralph Maltby and Tom Wishon) it is ideal to have 3-5 degrees between irons, no more and no less. Clearly a jump from 48 to 56 does not jive with that. So, the gap wedge was created. The most common loft for a gap wedge is 52 degrees. So, the bottom line is that the logical result of lofts getting stronger over time was a new club. And, it can be dually noted that with the addition of the new club, many golfers drop a long iron.  |
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