If you’re a high handicapper, chances are there’s plenty of room for improvement in your game.
But one way to save some strokes right off the bat can be found in your golf bag. Or rather, it should not be found in your golf bag.
“A high handicapper needs to learn how to use a regular sand wedge,” Top 100 Teacher Tina Tombs told me at GOLF’s Top 100 Teacher Summit at Pinehurst. “They do not need to use a 60-degree wedge.”
The loft on a typical sand wedge varies from 54 to 58 degrees. Tombs acknowledged that loft can be a helpful tool for players with high handicaps, but utilizing an ultra-lofted wedge can result in trying too much too soon.
“When the high handicapper can use the loft on the sand wedge and see the clubface looking straight up at the sky and not try to add loft through impact, then I think it’s okay to introduce the 60-degree,” she said.
Tombs also noted that there are so many loft choices available for purchase that players often feel the need to max-out their club count at 14. Typical wedge lofts start at around 42 degrees and go all the way into the low 60s, leaving plenty of room for players to carry multiple wedges. But most high handicappers would often be better off with less.
“If a high handicapper carries 10 clubs, I think they’re going to score much better than they would having all these choices,” she said.
For guidance on how to hit high, soft wedges, check out the video below.
