Lob wedge

Last updated

A lob wedge, also known as a lofted wedge or an L-Wedge, is a wedge used in the sport of golf, known for being one of the shortest-hitting clubs and providing the most loft on a shot. Lob wedges are used to produce shots with a very high arc, and are most often used for shots over hazards and other obstructions. Due to the high arc of the shot the lob wedge, like the other wedges in the set of irons, produces little roll after landing on the putting green and can even be used to produce backspin if necessary. Lob wedges are one of the newest additions to the modern collection of golf clubs and, along with the sand wedge and gap wedge, were not included prior to 1931.

Contents

Design

Lob wedges are part of the iron family of golf clubs and are designed for short, high arc shots. [1] Lob wedges and ultra lob wedges are designed with the shortest shafts and the highest loft of all golf clubs. [2] Regular lob wedges may come in a variety of lofts, usually starting around 56 degrees and approaching 60. While those above 60 degrees are rare, often up to 64 degrees, they do exist and are referred to as "x-wedges", extreme lob wedges, or ultra lob wedges. [1] [3] Other differences between the lob wedge and the rest of the wedge family include the less pronounced flange on the sole allowing the club to slide under the ball more easily and less degrees of bounce (often between 0–10 degrees). [4] The low bounce was designed out of the necessity of professionals who found that the higher bounce sand wedge was making it difficult to produce the spin they desired, especially out of tight lies. [5]

Use

Lob wedges can be used for a variety of shots including pitch and runs and pitching over an obstacle, particularly shots requiring a very high arc, a large amount of backspin or both. [1] [6] Pitching over an obstacle is used in situations where a hazard of some sort, usually a water hazard, bunker or tree, is located in the line of the shot between the ball's current location and the target (often on the putting green). By utilizing a lob wedge for these short shots, the ball is carried much higher in the air than with a standard iron causing significantly less roll on the landing surface. This is most often important for short shots into difficult pin placements. [7] Before the invention of the lob wedge, or to create a shot similar to the lob wedge, the golfer was required to perform the shot with a sand wedge or pitching wedge and to modify the shot by cutting across the ball making a glancing blow, a much riskier shot. [5]

History

Traditional sets of golf irons did not always include the lob wedge. Before 1931, golfers used a single wedge, known as a "jigger", similar to the modern day pitching wedge. After 1931, additional wedges entered the golf bag starting with the sand wedge. [3] The lob wedge was first envisioned by Dave Pelz, a former physicist for NASA, who recognized the need for higher loft wedges (at the time 60 degrees) due to the increasing complexity of the putting greens being designed at the time. This concept was taken up by the professional golfer Tom Kite, who began using the lob wedge professionally on tour spurring other professionals to follow his lead. [3] The mainstream lob wedge was invented by Karsten Solheim, the founder of the PING line of golf products, possibly after experimenting by gluing a potato chip to a straw. [8] Solheim was also responsible for naming the club the "L Wedge" or the "Lob Wedge", as it is currently known today. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sand wedge</span> Type of golf club

A sand wedge, or sand iron, is a type of golf club, an open-faced wedge primarily designed for getting out of sand bunkers. It has the widest sole of any wedge, which provides the greatest amount of bounce, allowing the club head to glide through sand and avoid digging in. After Gene Sarazen had success in 1932 with a new club that he had invented for sand play, its popularity quickly grew. The club can be advantageous in other soft lies—such as thick rough, soggy ground, or mud—and is also used from firmer grass lies for lobs or chips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf course</span> Series of holes designed for the game of golf

A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14.

A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots; hybrids that combine design elements of woods and irons are becoming increasingly popular; putters are used mainly on the green to roll the ball into the hole. A set of clubs is limited by the rules of golf to a maximum of 14 golf clubs, and while there are traditional combinations sold at retail as matched sets, players are free to use any combination of legal clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf ball</span> Ball used in the sport of golf

A golf ball is a ball designed to be used in golf. Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than 1.620 oz (45.93 g), has a diameter not less than 1.680 inches (42.67 mm), and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like golf clubs, golf balls are subject to testing and approval by The R&A and the United States Golf Association, and those that do not conform with regulations may not be used in competitions (Rule 5–1).

The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedge (golf)</span> Type of golf club used in special situations

In the sport of golf, a wedge is a subset of the iron family of golf clubs designed for special use situations. As a class, wedges have the highest lofts, the shortest shafts, and the heaviest clubheads of the irons. These features generally aid the player in making accurate short-distance "lob" shots, to get the ball onto the green or out of a hazard or other tricky spot. In addition, wedges are designed with modified soles that aid the player in moving the clubhead through soft lies, such as sand, mud, and thick grass, to extract a ball that is embedded or even buried. Wedges come in a variety of configurations, and are generally grouped into four categories: pitching wedges, sand wedges, gap/approach wedges and lob wedges.

In 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.

A pitching wedge is a wedge used to hit a shot with higher and shorter trajectory than a 9-iron and a lower and longer trajectory than a gap wedge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Topspin</span> Property of a rotating ball

In ball sports, topspin or overspin is a property of a ball that rotates forwards as it is moving. Topspin on a ball propelled through the air imparts a downward force that causes the ball to drop, due to its interaction with the air. Topspin is the opposite of backspin.

Ping, Inc. is an American sports equipment manufacturing company based in Phoenix, Arizona. It focuses on golf equipment, producing golf clubs and golf bags. The company was founded by Karsten Solheim, following a career as an engineer at the General Electric company. In 1959, he started making putters in his garage in Redwood City, California. In 1967, he resigned from his job at General Electric to develop the PING company.

In golf, bounce or bounce angle is the angle inscribed by the leading edge of a golfing iron, the sole of the club, and the ground. In plainer terms, bounce angle is an indication of how much the sole, or bottom-most part, of the club head lifts the leading edge. A high bounce angle indicates a sole which lifts the leading edge significantly, whereas a club with little or no bounce allows the leading edge to contact the ground without interference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf equipment</span> Items used to play the sport of golf

Golf equipment encompasses the various items that are used to play the sport of golf. Types of equipment include the golf ball, golf clubs, and devices that aid in the sport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood (golf)</span> Type of golf club

A wood is a type of club used in the sport of golf. Woods have longer shafts and larger, rounder heads than other club types, and are used to hit the ball longer distances than other types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron (golf)</span> Type of golf club

An iron is a type of club used in the sport of golf to propel the ball towards the hole. Irons typically have shorter shafts and smaller clubheads than woods, the head is made of solid iron or steel, and the head's primary feature is a large, flat, angled face, usually scored with grooves. Irons are used in a wide variety of situations, typically from the teeing ground on shorter holes, from the fairway or rough as the player approaches the green, and to extract the ball from hazards, such as bunkers or even shallow water hazards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid (golf)</span> Type of golf club

A hybrid is a type of club used in the sport of golf with a design borrowing from both irons and woods while differing from both. The name "hybrid" comes from genetics to denote a mixture of two different species with desirable characteristics of both, and the term here has been generalized, combining the familiar swing mechanics of an iron with the more forgiving nature and better distance of a wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Putter</span> Type of golf club

A putter is a club used in the sport of golf to make relatively short and low-speed strokes with the intention of rolling the ball into the hole from a short distance away. It is differentiated from the other clubs by a clubhead with a very flat, low-profile, low-loft striking face, and by other features which are only allowed on putters, such as bent shafts, non-circular grips, and positional guides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf</span> Club-and-ball sport

Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golf swing</span> Action of a golf player hitting the ball with a golf club

The golf swing is the action by which players hit the ball in the sport of golf. The golf swing is a complex motion involving the whole body; the technicalities of the swing are known as golf stroke mechanics.

David T. Pelz is an American golf coach, known for his expertise and published writing on the art of the short game, particularly putting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of golf</span> Overview of and topical guide to golf

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to golf:

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Wedges" . Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  2. ↑ Kelley, Brent. "Meet the Wedges" . Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  3. 1 2 3 Moffatt, Jim. "History of the Three-Wedges" . Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  4. ↑ Lee, Schecter. "Several design traits help a lob wedge behave differently from a sand wedge". golf.com. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  5. 1 2 Floyd, Ray; Diaz, Jaime; Couples, Fred (2000). The Elements of Scoring (Illustrated ed.). Simon and Schuster. p. 107. ISBN   978-0-684-86402-0 . Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  6. ↑ "Golf Wedges". Archived from the original on 2009-04-18. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  7. ↑ St. Pierre, Denise (2004). Golf fundamentals (illustrated ed.). Human Kinetics. pp.  57–58. ISBN   978-0-7360-5431-7 . Retrieved 2009-05-04. lob wedge.
  8. ↑ McGrath, Charles; McCormick, David; Garrity, John (2006). The ultimate golf book. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 54. ISBN   978-0-618-71025-6 . Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  9. ↑ Brown, Clifton (18 February 2000). "Karsten Solheim, 88, Is Dead; Creator of the Ping Golf Club". New York Times . Retrieved 2009-05-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.