Should You Hit a High or Low Lofted Club Around the Green

If you've been following the short game series by Me And My Golf, you should be on your way to excel in bunker shots and have a solid base for executing chip shots without chunking or skulling. 

Golf is a sport full of choices; after all, there are 14 clubs in your bag, each allowing you to hit different shots. Just because you’re in the sand, doesn’t mean you should always pull out the sand wedge.  Consider the age-old dilemma: when faced with a narrow tee shot, would you opt for a driver or a 3-wood? Similarly, when maneuvering around the green, should you choose a longer iron or a wedge? Well… sometimes it depends. 

Based on an analysis of over 850 million shots recorded by Arccos though, we discovered that when a 10-handicap player confronts a 20-yard shot from the rough, they typically land it 3 feet closer using a pitching wedge (PW) than with a lob wedge (LW).

Me And My Golf’s Piers Ward wisely noted, "Having a variety of clubs for short shots enhances your options around the green."

Higher lofted clubs, like a LW or Sand Wedge (SW), can be useful when you have less green to work with or if you’re nestled in thicker rough, but with that comes a little less wiggle room for error when executing the shot. 

While lesser lofted clubs like a 9-iron or PW, might be a better more consistent option for a more straightforward shot, as it gets on the ground running quicker than a LW or SW. 

Me And My Golf dig deeper into how you can determine the optimal times to use a club with less loft near the green with the third part of their short game series “When to Chip with a Short Iron.” 

Be sure to also check out your Arccos short-game stats to see how your proximity stacks up.