Wedge Blocks: Bounce for the Ground You Actually Play
Wedges are fitted to turf and sand, not to a distance chart. The right bounce in Michigan is the wrong bounce here in July.
A Setting, Not a Grade
Bounce is often described as though higher is more forgiving and lower is more skilled. It is neither. Bounce is the angle that decides how hard the sole resists digging, and the correct amount is entirely a function of two things: how steeply you deliver the club, and how much the ground gives way when you do.
Around El Paso the ground gives way very little for much of the year. Summer Bermuda over a dry base is firm enough that a high-bounce wedge can bounce the leading edge straight into the equator of the ball on a tight lie. But the same golfer playing an overseeded fairway in February, or digging out of a soft bunker, wants that bounce back. Fitting the whole wedge set to a single condition is how people end up with one wedge they trust and two they avoid.
What the Ground Does Here
- June to SeptemberFirm, tight
- October to NovemberTransitional
- December to MarchThin, overseeded
- Common bunker sandCoarse, shallow
- Typical green firmnessAbove average
Where Material Has Been Removed From the Sole
Grind is what lets a wedge behave like two different bounce values depending on how you set the face. It is the least understood spec on the wedge and one of the most useful.
Heel Relief
Material taken off the heel lets you open the face without lifting the leading edge away from the ball. Essential for anyone who plays a lot of open-faced shots around a firm green, which describes most short games in this valley.
Trailing Edge Relief
Rounding the back of the sole reduces how much the club is stood up when it lands on a firm surface. Helps a steep delivery keep the leading edge low without needing to drop bounce outright.
Full Sole
Untouched, wide, maximum resistance to digging. The right answer for a genuinely steep player who mostly plays square-faced shots and spends real time in soft sand.
Full Swings Are the Least Important Numbers Here
Most wedge gapping charts are built from full-swing carries, which is odd given how rarely anyone hits a full lob wedge on purpose. We measure the full swing because it sets the outer edge of the range, then spend more of the block on partial swings: clock positions, three-quarter shots, and the stock shot you actually reach for from ninety yards.
The output is a small card listing each wedge and the carry it produces at three swing lengths, measured here at our elevation. Customers tell us this card gets used more than anything else we hand out.
- Loft spacing across the wedge set, checked against the pitching wedge you already own
- Carry at full, three-quarter, and half swing for each wedge
- Shaft weight matched to the iron set so the transition does not feel abrupt
- Groove condition on any wedge you are keeping, since worn grooves change spin more than loft does
One Customer's Wedge Carries
- 48° full / three-quarter112 / 96 yd
- 52° full / three-quarter101 / 84 yd
- 56° full / three-quarter88 / 71 yd
- 60° full / three-quarter74 / 58 yd
Measured on our lane. Add roughly five percent versus the same swing at sea level.