COMMUNITY

Actually, Corey, the only reason I have it in my bag is because I have room for it. I don't carry any hybrids yet. And I've never practiced with it enough to hit shots beyond 30 or so yards to get accurate with it. I use my SW or AW for those 30 - 100 yard shots. And for those shots where you really need to get it up and down around the green, like in match, it can really come in handy. And every once in a while, it's fun to pull off one of those great type of shots like Tiger and Phil do. Once in a great while.

I personally prefer less bounce on my lob wedge. It lets me open the club up and hit super high lob and flop shots. It is usually my go to club for anything 95yds and in but I can still use my other wedges inside that distance if needed for situational shots.

Been carrying mine for a year now after having left it out for a couple of years. Honestly, I'm gonna take the LW out because I seldom if ever find myself in a position that seems to require it. I can make any short shot I need to make with one of my other three wedges.
But, it is kinda cool to hit a high lofted shot about 30 yds and have it drop and roll about 2 inches. Problem with that is, you can usually get closer to the pin with a different kind of shot using a SW or PW. Let's face it, the greens most of us play on are not like what the pro's are used to and need to stop a shot on a dime or have it roll forever on super fast greens.

My current 60 has 10 degrees of bounce, and there's no doubt that much bounce helps. My older 60 has 4 or 6 degrees of bounce, and it's real, real tough to handle off hard lies.

if there is a gap between your 3 wood and the next long club, then you should fill the gap.
Otherwise, I'd add one more club which might be easier to hit, depending on YOUR game.

I have different golf clubs rotating in and out of the bag. Sometines because of the different golf course and sometimes just because I feel like it.

Totally understandable. I hit my 3W about 240 each time. My hybrid was 220 if I could ever hit it. That is the only club I have any issues with, because it really isn't set for me and the flight I want. So that makes a gap between my 3W and 4i about 40 yards, which in most courses around here you can get away with.

But, I may just keep it in the bag, and get a different hybrid that fits me, or I will take it out, because I use it maybe 1 or 2 times a round now days, when I can just use my SW and get away with it anyway.

Forget about the swing weight on the hybrid, try a heavier shaft in the hybrid and hit it like a long iron.

This brings up an important point about club lofts and the need for us to have hybrids in the first place. In the past, iron sets were lofted from "green to tee," meaning the short irons were set to useful lofts into the green, and the clubs became gradually longer from there. Over the years, clubmakers competing with each other made claims of how their irons were longer than the other companies'. Know how they made their irons longer? By tweaking the lofts while keeping the same number on the bottom. This in turn presented an interesting money-making situation for companies, which I'll explain in a minute.

Standard lofts, 1965:
1 iron = 16 degrees
2 iron = 20 degrees
3 iron = 23 degrees
4 iron = 27 degrees
5 iron = 31 degrees
6 iron = 35 degrees
7 iron = 39 degrees
8 iron = 43 degrees
9 iron = 47 degrees
PW = 51 degrees
SW = 55 degrees

Okay, now those lofts make sense...on average, a 4-degree spacing. And notice that even the 3 iron had some loft on it, about the loft of today's 4 hybrid! Keep in mind, LOFT is arguably the biggest factor that determines how easy it is to hit a certain club. An old 3-iron is much easier to hit than a modern 3-iron (check the lofts of the Burner set below in a minute), simply because it has more loft to help the ball up in the air. More loft also means it's easier to hit straight, but that's a discussion for another day.

Now, look at standard lofts from a typical set around the year 2000.

1 iron = 16 degrees
2 iron = 19 degrees
3 iron = 22 degrees
4 iron = 25 degrees
5 iron = 27 degrees
6 iron = 31 degrees
7 iron = 34 degrees
8 iron = 38 degrees
9 iron = 42 degrees
PW = 46 degrees
SW = 56 degrees

Now look at that for a second. Notice how, by making the long clubs just a little stronger and stepping everything down from that, there is now a gap of 10 degrees between the PW and SW that was never there before. What to do? Oh, well, we have this fancy new GAP wedge that's 50 degrees...it fits right in there! See how they did that? You have to buy an extra club, just because they've tweaked the lofts on you! (Or more realistically, they just changed the number on the bottom of the club). They're getting more money off of you right there. But wait...

Here's the lofts of a Burner set from 2010.

3 iron = 19 degrees
4 iron = 21 degrees
5 iron = 23 degrees
6 iron = 26 degrees
7 iron = 30 degrees
8 iron = 34 degrees
9 iron = 39 degrees
PW = 44 degrees
GW = 49 degrees

Okay, so now they're including that GW in the set. But look at the lofts at the top end of the set. The 3 iron is 19 degrees, which is STRONGER than the loft of an old 2 iron. A 2 iron was pretty hard to hit even back in the day, and now your 3 iron is basically a 2 iron. But hey, we've got a solution for that. Take that 3 iron out once you get tired of not being able to hit it, and buy our nice new hybrid to replace it!

Now, I'm not knocking hybrids, because they are cool clubs and easy to hit. But we need to realize that in the distance era, club companies have taken full advantage of the weekender by making them buy extra clubs that were never necessary before lofts began creeping up.

I know that didn't have much to do with the LW, but the discussion of "what club would I replace it with" got me going here.

I use my 60 degree wedge for almost every shot inside 100 yds. Around the greens I will use my 52 or PW if I have some greet to work with for a bump and run. Love my 60 Vokey though.

Took my LW out today and it was a mistake. I really needed it playing Texas Star golf course today. I had a lot of short shots I really needed a 30-50 yd high lofted, soft landing shot. Made do with SW but regretted taking the LW out of the bag. Lesson learned, if a LW makes 14 clubs, go with 14, NOT 13. :)

I've actually been using the Lob Wedge quite a lot again.