One of the most important elements of optimizing your scoring range performance is to get consistent and reliable distance gapping in your prime scoring clubs. For this discussion, I’m referring to all your clubs of about 37-38 degrees of loft and higher.

The first challenge is to determine exactly which club in your set has that loft. If you have recently purchased a new set of irons, it could be very different from your last set. When I was a teenager in the 1960s, playing Hogan blade irons, that club would have had a “6” on the bottom. As iron technologies led to the constant strengthening of lofts, that migrated to a “7”, then to an “8”. But in many of the iron sets on the market today, that loft falls between the “8” and “9” irons.

The fact is, regardless of the number on the bottom of the club, when you get in range to hit shots with an iron of this loft or higher, you should consider yourself in prime scoring position. With those clubs, you should be hitting shots with a repeating, penetrating trajectory, reasonably consistent carry distance, and enough spin to hold the greens. And that’s where I see many of the modern irons being deficient.
As I explained in an earlier post, the “launch monitor wars” have inspired iron brands to create ever higher launching and lower spinning 6-irons and 7-irons. And with few exceptions, that thin face, low CG, higher launch, lower spinning design is then applied all the way through the set. But that doesn’t produce the shot trajectories, consistent distance and spin characteristics you want in your prime scoring clubs.

I guess that takes us to the recurring question of, “How many wedges should I carry?”

The correct answer is different for every golfer, of course, but it is always the same:

“Carry as many wedges as it takes to give you consistent and controllable distance differentials from that first scoring iron all the way down to your shortest ‘full swing’ wedge.”

I put “full swing” in quotes, because a full swing with a wedge should be throttled back to about 85 percent of what you consider a full swing with a 6- or 7-iron. That will give you more penetrating trajectory, more consistent impact, and therefore, more consistent distance and spin.

Back to the gapping question, there are two ways to arrive at what is best for you and your game. And you should be regularly re-visiting and evaluating your gapping as you get new irons or work on improving your technique.

If you have access to a quality launch monitor, you can work through the higher-loft end of your bag to get accurate and repeatable carry distances and spin rates for each of your prime scoring clubs. I highly recommend you do this outdoors with your regular game ball. You should be seeking 10- to 12-yard differentials in that range, so that you can reliably select the iron or wedge that will fly the desired distance without much swing manipulation.

The other method requires you to have access to a relatively level hole on the golf course or a vacant field that is large enough for the exercise. If on the golf course, set up in the middle of a par 5 or par-4 hole, and hit down the fairway, NOT to the green.

Start out by hitting a half-dozen shots with your 8-iron, then take your 9-iron and wedges and walk down to the short center of the pattern of balls. To determine that actual distance, you can take your laser range finder and shoot the distance back to your bag from that pattern, or you can step off the distance. Make a note of the distance.

Then hit shots back toward your starting point with your 9-iron and note the distance difference to the center of the pattern from your starting point. Repeat this back-and-forth process, making your notes until you have worked through all your wedges.

If you see gaps that are excessively smaller or larger than that ideal ten to twelve yards, you can adjust your loft gapping and/or shaft length slightly to open or close them to your goal.

The key to better scoring is, in prime conditions, to know your distances to the letter with all your high-loft clubs, whether they be wedges or short irons. And this exercise is well worth the investment of time.