Check out Golfweek’s list of the best golf wedges available to purchase in 2024.
Wedges are the most confusing and intimidating golf club category because there are so many options to choose from and many players don’t really understand how to properly use wedges to hit chip shots, bunker shots, flop shops and pitch shots. They hear terms like bounce, sole grind, heel and toe relief and camber and nod, but in the back of their minds they are thinking, “What the hell does that mean?”
To make matters worse, iron lofts have become stronger over the last decade, with many game-improvement sets coming with a 9-iron that has a loft of around 38 degrees and a pitching wedge at 42 degrees. If a recreational golfer has a 56-degree sand wedge, which is typical, that’s a 14-degree gap between wedges, which can put you in between clubs on lots of short game shots.
To reduce the intimidation factor and help golfers find the right wedges more easily, many manufacturers have developed online fitting tools. With just a few clicks to tell these systems about your game and the conditions you encounter on the course, they can provide you with club, loft and sole grind recommendations.
Of course, the best way to discover your ideal wedges is to work in-person with a custom fitter who can evaluate your performance with several different wedges.
The list below is intended to act as an educational starting point and help you get familiar with the most popular wedges and the clubs you will likely see in pro shops and golf specialty stores right now.
Ping s159 wedges offer more spin, sole grind options and versatility.
Gear: Ping s159 wedges Price: $197 each with Z-Z115 steel shafts and Dylawedge grips. $212 each with Alta CB Black graphite shaft. Specs: Cast 8620 carbon stainless steel with water-repellant coating and vibration-absorbing polymer. Available in even lofts from 46 to 62 degrees in Chrome and Midnight finishes. Available: February 22
Who It’s For: Golfers who want variety around the green and spin retention in wet conditions.
The Skinny: Taking feedback from PGA Tour players, Ping adjusted the look of its wedges while updating their spin-producing qualities, especially in wet conditions, to help golfers maintain control and feel around the greens.
The Deep Dive: From 100 yards and in, the name of the game is control and consistency. Practicing the proper technique is critical, but so is having wedges in your bag that can help you from various locations, whether that means a tight lie in the fairway or an awkward shot in a bunker.
With the release of the new s159 wedge family, Ping is attacking shortgame challenges on two fronts: spin retention and sole grinds.
Looking down at the s159 wedges in the address position, golfers will see they have a more square leading edge and an updated hosel transition area, so they look straighter than Ping’s recent Glide 4.0 wedges.
The s159 wedges have a soft feel at impact thanks to the use of 8620 carbon steel and an elastomer piece on the back of each head that rests against the face. It soaks up excess vibrations.
The Ping s159 wedges has a vibration-absorbing elastomer piece behind the hitting area. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The 46 to 52-degree wedges have iron-style grooves because golfers use those clubs approximately 70 percent of the time from the fairway as an extension of their iron set. However, to enhance spin in the sand and lob wedges (54 to 62 degrees), Ping designed the clubs with its Micromax grooves. They are wider and shallower to help remove water, sand and debris from the hitting surface more efficiently. Ping designers also bunched the grooves more tightly together, allowing for the addition of three more grooves to each face to help increase grabbing power and spin.
In addition to machining the faces to make them absolutely flat before the main grooves are cut into the hitting area, Ping adds a face-blast treatment that increases the roughness of the face.
The hydrophobic finish encourages water to bead up on the metal and fall away to increase spin retention on wet turf and in the rain. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Finally, a Hydropearl 2.0 finish has been applied to the Chrome version of the s159 wedges. It is hydrophobic, which means that water tends to bead up on the metal and fall away easily, leading to increased spin retention on wet turf and in the rain.
So, while most wedges tend to lose a few hundred rpm of spin and launch the ball on a higher angle in wet conditions, the s159 wedges do something interesting. The combination of the grooves, surface-roughening treatment and the Hydropearl 2.0 finish in the Chrome wedges works so well that Ping’s internal studies showed that on 50-yard pitch shots, the Chrome s159 wedge created about 200 rpm more spin and launched on a slightly-lower lower angle in wet conditions than dry conditions.
The glare-reducing Midnight finish does not have the water-repelling Hydropeal 2.0 finish, so golfers will see it does not maintain spin in wet conditions as the Chrome-finished s159 wedges. However, Ping is confident that among the dark-finished wedges on the market, the Midnight version of the s159 retains spin in wet conditions as well or better than other offerings.
Looking down at the s159 wedges in the address position, golfers will see they have a more square leading edge and an updated hosel transition area. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
With spin retention address, Ping set its sights on offering more sole grinds to allow golfers and fitters more options based on a golfer’s game and the conditions they face.
S Grind – With a straight sole and available in lofts from 46-60 degrees, the S grind is designed to work in a wide variety of situations in the fairway and around the green.
B Grind – A new offering at retail, the B grind is designed for golfers to tend to sweep the ball off the turf and keep the face square at impact. It has a wide sole, low bounce and is offered in 58 and 60-degree versions.
H Grind – The “Half Moon” grind is another new offering and comes in lofts from 54-60 degrees. It is ideally suited to players with a steep angle of attack or who play in soft conditions.
T Grind – Touted as Ping’s most versatile option, the T grind is available as a 58, 60 and 62-degree lob wedge and has significant heel and toe relief.
W Grind – Available in lofts from 54-60 degrees, the W grind has a wide sole, 14 degrees of bounce and is meant for golfers who play in soft conditions and have a steep attack angle. Most players will find it more forgiving than the low-bounce B grind.
E Grind – An homage to the classic Eye2 wedge, the E grind has a signature hight-toe design and a scallop in the wide sole that makes it appealing to golfers who struggle in greenside bunkers. It comes in lofts from 54-60 degrees.
Below are several close-up images of the new Ping s159 wedges.
Specs: Cast 8620 carbon steel with an elastomer insert. Available in four sole grind options and even lofts from 46 to 60 degrees.
Who they’re for: Golfers who want softer-feel wedges and a variety of sole grinds.
The Skinny: There are 17 combinations of lofts and grinds in the Glide 4.0 wedge lineup to ensure you can find the ideal combination to fill your distance gaps and match up clubs with your swing type and the conditions in which you play most often.
The deep dive: One of the biggest things that separate elite golfers from weekend hackers is the ability to turn three into two. When a pro misses the green, he or she usually can chip, pitch or hit a bunker shot close enough to the hole to save par. Amateurs, on the other hand, struggle to get up and down.
There is no substitute for good technique, but there is also no substitute for sharp grooves and versatile wedges. With the release of the Glide 4.0 family of wedges, Ping is trying to provide golfers with the tools they need for better short-game performance.
The fourth generation of the Glide wedges has new grooves and a hitting area that varies with the loft.
“We have two different groove spacings on Glide 4.0,” said Ryan Stokke, Ping’s director of product design.
The grooves in the Ping Glide 4.0 wedges vary by loft. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Stokke said that on higher-lofted wedges (54 degrees to 60 degrees), the grooves are wider and shallower to remove water and debris from the face. On the pitching and gap wedges (46 degrees to 52 degrees), Ping designed a deeper, narrower groove that mimics the grooves found in most irons.
“There are also tighter-spaced grooves on the higher lofts and wider spacing on the lower lofts, which really helps with maximizing spin and creating different trajectories,” Stokke said.
Ping also added a new emery-blast treatment to the hitting area, increasing friction and boosting spin rates. It is complemented by the HydroPearl 2.0 finish, which repels water and helps ensure consistent performance in dew-covered fairways and wet rough.
“One of the big things that we were trying to accomplish with these wedges is better feel,” Stokke said. “So we focused on the 8620 carbon steel material and added an activated elastomer in the back cavity.”
The elastomer insert in the back of the Glide 4.0 wedges enhances feel. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The elastomer piece, positioned on the back of the hitting area, is so soft you can press it down with your thumb. It soaks up excessive vibrations and, along with the 8620 carbon steel, enhances the sensation a player feels when the ball hits the face.
Based on how steep or shallow your swing is and the turf conditions where you play most often, the amount of bounce and the width of the sole of your wedges can make a big difference in your ability to hit different shots.
The S grind (46 to 60 degrees) is more traditional and has a relatively straight sole width. There is trailing edge relief, so you can open the face when you want to add loft and go upstairs, along with a rounded leading edge to help you get under the ball when you play it from a square stance.
For golfers who have a steep swing or who live in areas where the ground is soft, Ping offers the W grind (54 to 60 degrees). It has the widest sole, some relief in the toe area and a rounded leading edge.
If you tend to sweep the ball off the turf or play in regions where the ground is hard (think the desert Southwest), the T grind (58 and 60 degrees) has the lowest bounce and thinnest sole with significant material removed in both the heel and the toe areas.
The Ping Glide 4.0 E Grind wedge (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Finally, the E grind (54 degrees to 60 degrees) is based on Ping’s iconic Eye2 design, with a signature high toe and angular appearance. This club is designed to be especially effective in bunkers, where the high-toe design adds more hitting area when the face is open. The wide sole has a scallop taken out of the center to help it avoid digging.
Ping’s newest wedges are designed to increase spin and versatility around the greens.
Gear: Ping Glide Forged Pro wedges Price: $217.50 each with Ping Z-Z115 steel shaft and Golf Pride Arccos Lite Tour Velvet 360 grip. $232.50 per club with UST Recoil 760 ES graphite shafts (From $197 at carlsgolfland.com and $199 at dickssportinggoods.com) Specs: Forged 8620 carbon-steel with milled face and grooves and water-repellant finish. Two sole grinds with even lofts between 50 and 62 degrees, with special options available through a custom program and a special 59-degree club Available: August 24, 2021
Drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and many modern irons are designed to maximize distance and power, but when it comes to wedges, it’s all about feel, precision and accuracy. Good wedges instill confidence because they offer versatility from awkward lies and conditions, and they can help golfers generate more spin on chips, pitches and greenside bunker shots.
Ping’s newest wedge, the Glide Forged Pro, comes in a wide variety of lofts and has been designed with spin-enhancing features to let golfers get the ball close to the hole more often.
