[JPsuff]

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About a week or so ago I posted that I didn't see the need to carry an arsenal of wedges when for years I played my best golf using just "One Wedge" other than my PW, which is essentially a 10-iron anyway.

The last three rounds I've played have been with more or less my "old" setup which is a Driver, 3-wood, 2-PW, SW and a putter. (My "official old setup" used to include a 1-iron, but now I have a hybrid instead).
I can't believe how much simpler things seem now. In the "olden days", I'd use my Sand Wedge for everything short of making coffee and I had a quite formidable short game. After my six-year layoff which ended in 2003, the "New World Order" consisted of three to four wedges and I (like an idiot) bought into the hype and started carrying several of my own and my short game shortly went south.

Now, just playing with the one wedge (a 51 degree with a stock 6 degree bounce custom ground to my liking by me), I feel as if I have freedom again. With the multiple wedge setup, when faced with, say, an 82 yard shot, I'd spend more time thinking about the club than the shot; "Hmm, do I hit a full 55, a strong 60 or do I just back off on a 51?" (My "stock" 80% 51 is around 105 to 110 yards).

Now, I just dial-in something like a "5/8ths" backswing and then just hit the shot. Also, just like in the old days, if I need to make the ball do something like stop short, or run, or just land softly with a "bounce-check", I just manipulate the face or alter the attack or shorten the grip with ONE club rather than adding all of that into the multiple wedge equation along with which club to hit in the first place.

The one wedge setup is definitely "old school" but like they say, "There's no school like the old school" and I'm very happy to have made this change and now be able to focus once again on driving the nail into the board instead of wasting time trying to decide which hammer to use.


Keep it simple, keep it fun.


-JP