You might have asked yourself, “Is a wedge and iron the same type of swing?”
It’s a good question, since the clubs are so much different from one another. Irons are longer and harder to hit while wedges are shorter, heavier, and used for close range. But do you really need to change your entire swing?
The short answer is no but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t change a few things at address position. Keep reading to learn about the fundamentals of each type of shot so you have more confidence with every club in your bag.
Wedges Swing vs. Iron Swing – The Fundamentals
If you’re ready to play your best golf, let’s get into the fundamentals of hitting irons and wedges consistently. Basic golf swing fundamentals apply to both. Before getting into the differences between the two, let’s address some of the things the two types of clubs have in common.
Grip and Grip Pressure
The first thing these clubs share is your grip and grip pressure.
Nothing should change in your grip from shot to shot, whether you’re hitting a driver, 7 iron, or gap wedge. Build the foundation of a solid grip and keep it the same with every club in your bag.
You don’t need a weak grip with irons and a strong grip with wedges. Stick with your normal grip to keep as many variables the exact same which should give you more confidence when standing over the ball.
Shallow the Club
Whether you’re hitting a sand wedge or 6 iron, one core move of the swing needs to happen – shallow the golf club. This is where you swing from under the plane to compress the golf ball to hit down and through it.
Learning to shallow the club is a fundamental of great ball strikers.A perfect example of someone who does this is Sergio Garcia.
The insane amount of lag he produces allows him to make incredible contact with the golf ball, especially with irons and wedges. But the good news is that you don’t need to be Sergio to get these types of results. One of the most effective ways to shallow the club is by using the PlaneMate swing trainer by Tour Striker.
This is one of the best training aids on the market! Why?
Because it teaches you how to take the club more outside on the backswing, so you can shallow and create lag in the downswing. Not to mention, you can use it at home or on the driving range with wedges, irons, and even your driver.
To learn more about this incredibly effective tool, make sure to read our full review here.
Now, let’s get into the differences between hitting wedges vs. hitting irons.
Difference #1: Ball Position
The first major difference between wedges and irons is ball position.
With your wedges, it’s pretty much the same position for every wedge in your bag – the middle of your stance. Whether you’re hitting a 46 degree PW or a 58 degree LW (this is for a full golf swing wedge shot, not chipping/pitching) it should be directly underneath the buttons on your shirt.
However, if you want to hit the ball extra high, you might move the ball up in your stance. In my own experience shifting the ball position up and moving more weight forward makes it easier to hit it higher and land softer.
Conversely, you might want to move it an inch back in your stance for a lower ball flight. But an easier way to hit it low with less spin is to maintain a middle ball position and have a shorter follow through. This will help flight the ball down lower and reduce the total spin and distance.
Read our full post on how to hit a flighted wedge shot.
But with irons, you want the ball positioned more in the front of your stance. The longer the iron, the more forward you should shift the ball toward your front foot. But never go more than the logo on your left pec as it will make you bottom out at the wrong spot in the swing.
Save the ball position off your left foot for fairway woods and driver only.
Difference #2: Width of Stance
The second thing that will change from your irons vs. wedges is your stance.
Since wedges are meant for short range distances, you don’t need as wide of stance at address compared to hitting a mid to long iron. Setup with your feet closer together as your golf swing won’t be as long or as fast.
But that doesn’t mean your feet should be too close together either. A lot of amateur golfers set up too narrow and it makes it hard to rotate their shoulders and transfer their weight properly.
With wedges, your feet should be less than shoulder width apart.
With irons, they should be shoulder width apart (slightly bigger stance with mid-long irons). And a driver should be more than shoulder width apart to build a wide stance that helps create maximum distance.
Difference #3: Weight Distribution
The third thing to change at setup is your weight position.
Since you need to hit down on your wedges more so than your irons, it’s beneficial with shorter clubs to have more weight forward. Having more weight forward (about 60 percent on your lead leg), it should yield better results with a shorter swing for optimal contact.
With irons, you want your weight more neutral between both feet, especially with longer irons. This will allow you to get plenty of shoulder turn and maintain the proper weight distribution during the downswing.
Difference #4: Swing Length
Once you have the three adjustments above made at setup, let’s talk about the swing itself. You should have the same swing with both wedges and irons, don’t think you need a separate one for each. This will leave you feeling confused and overwhelmed.
Instead, the only thing about the swing itself should be the total swing length. Remember, the goal with wedges is to hit a controlled shot on the green, hopefully close to the pin. It’s not about trying to hit a wedge as far as it can go.
You want maximum control with wedges so the leading edge makes impact with the turf in the right spot. To do that, you don’t need a swing as long as your driver, woods, or irons. You don’t need to take it back to parallel length at the top of your backswing and is actually counterproductive.
Think about it like this; with shorter clubs that have higher loft, the shorter backswing is required. To hit it close and consistent, take the club back short of parallel position. This will help provide maximum control and likely better wedge shots.
Remember, the longer the club, the longer the backswing.
Difference #5: Swing Speed
While your swing length shouldn’t be as long, your swing speed should change as well. With irons, you need to hit it 130-230 yards (depending on your swing speed and club that is used). To do that, you need more speed because speed equals distance!
That’s why you see the best guys in the world swing their driver at 110+ mph and their wedges a fraction of that. In fact, take a look at how swing speed changes with different clubs in the bag for PGA Tour players according to Trackman:
- Driver = 113 mph
- 5 iron = 94 mph
- 8 iron = 87 mph
- PW = 83 mph
As you can see on the PGA Tour, the total swing speed decreases as the club gets shorter. While having a faster swing speed is crucial with woods and longer irons, it’s not as important with shorter clubs.
Instead, you want to develop a consistent tempo for maximum control when hitting shorter clubs in the bag.
Read our article on how far you should hit your wedges.
Hitting Wedges Consistently
Great wedge players have a few things in common, let’s take a look at them below to help you become a wedge wizard.
Play the Right Wedges
First things first, to become a great wedge player you need to play the right clubs for your swing. One of the biggest mistakes amateur golfers make is playing wedges that are suited for someone who has a more consistent swing.
For example, a lot of golfers play lightweight, cavity back irons from 4-PW. But then they add in hard to hit, heavy wedges like the Titleist Vokey because they think it’s the key to a better short game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a phenomenal wedge, but it’s not going to help a high handicap golfer.
Instead, you should play clubs that are similar to your irons. If you play cavity back irons, play with cavity back wedges. This will add some extra forgiveness and distance to your wedges and make it an easier transition with shorter clubs.
Remember to always find what degree pitching wedge comes with your full iron set before you start adding additional wedges. Degree of loft spacing is critical to being a good wedge player.
Don’t forget about the shafts in your wedges too. Another mistake that so many golfers make is playing a shaft that is far too heavy in their wedges compared to other clubs in the bag.
Instead, try to use wedge shafts that match or slightly heavier than the rest of your game. If you play a 100 gram shaft with irons, use 100-115 gram wedge shafts… not a standard 130 gram shaft which might be too heavy to swing consistently.
It’s the little things like playing the right equipment that can make a massive difference in your ball striking.
Here is a list of our favorite wedges if you don’t carry a tour card!
Have A Variety of Bounce
While having the right type of wedges is important, it’s also vital that you have different amounts of bounce too. As you face different types of shots throughout the round, you might need to use different wedges with more/less bounce to make the shot easier.
For example, if you have a tight lie, you wouldn’t want to use a wedge with 12 or 14 degrees of bounce. This would cause the leading edge to not make proper contact with the turf and ball. Instead, you would want to use your wedge with less bounce as it’ll make the shot easier.
Conversely, you might need to use more bounce when hitting from soft, fluffy sand. That’s why it’s a good idea to carry a wedge with low bounce, mid bounce, and high bounce. This wedge setup will make it easier to hit any type of shot in any condition.
Hit More Distance Control Wedges
If you watch some of the best wedge players in the world like Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, you’ll notice they love to hit controlled distance shots. They rarely hit hard wedges as they spin too much and don’t lead to consistent results.
Instead, these guys and other greats like Lee Trevino hit flighted, controlled, half swing shots. By choking up and hitting more than enough club, it’s easier to make a smooth, controlled, consistent swing. Plus, it’ll likely lead to better results as you know that you have enough club to get close to the green.
Know Your Distances
To play golf well on the course, you need to know your carry distance with each club. This will make it so much easier to make solid contact on full swings, with irons and wedges. By knowing your carry distance with every club in the bag (don’t forget your long game too), you won’t try to over swing, know exactly your lay up distances or have any doubts on the golf course.
This will help you start the ball on the right line, slow down, and find the center of the club face more often than not. Plus, better distance control in your golf swing so you have better misses that aren’t as difficult when you do miss the green.
Practice Their Wedge Game
To have better wedge play and short iron shots, you need to work on them more. Most golfers prefer to hit shots with longer clubs and tee shots on the driving range. But the secret to better contact and lower scores in your own game is by working more on the short game.
You need to get comfortable hitting different types of shots off the ground, at the driving range. Nothing can replace hard work and testing
FAQs About Wedges vs. Irons
Do you have additional questions to make the best contact with your irons, wedges, and driver? If so, we have answers.
Should you hit wedges full swing?
This is more of a personal preference than anything else. Some players are confident taking a full swing with wedges while others prefer to hit a knockdown wedge instead.
In general, I think taking a full swing with a wedge is fine but you should never try to “kill it” with a short club. It’s not your driver, there’s no need to try and swing out of your shoes. If you watch golf on TV, you will notice those guys are super smooth and don’t have an overly aggressive wedge swing.
The better approach is to hit a shot that is comfortable, not aggressive. Here’s why…
If you swing really hard at a wedge and hit it great, it might spin too much. The shot might hit close to the flag but then suck back off the green. When a three quarter knockdown shot would have hit and stopped without much backspin.
On the other hand, if you swing hard and hit it badly, you can easily thin it over the green or chunk it well short. Either scenario will lead to big numbers on the scorecard that could have easily been avoided.
Always swing a wedge that is comfortable to get you to the flag, not one that you have hit perfectly to get to the flag. It’s easy course management choices like this that will make a huge impact on your total score.
Further Reading: Go here to learn how to hit the 50 to 75 yard wedge shot.
Do you hit a pitching wedge like an iron?
The PW is kind of in between the wedges and short irons as it’s a little bit of both. Most players use a pitching wedge that matches the rest of their irons, while some elite players might play a harder to hit PW for maximum shot shaping.
So, what should you do?
Play it more like an iron than a wedge since it’s a longer, more of a full swing type shot. Assuming you want to hit it your max distance, you need the proper setup like you would with an iron to make it happen. But make sure to still take a smooth, controlled swing so you keep your swing length and tempo in check.
Should your driver swing be the same as your iron swing?
No, your driver swing is very different from your irons for a variety of reasons.
The first reason is that your driver is only hit off a tee (unless you’re one of the few people who can successfully hit it off the deck). Since the ball is teed up quite high, this changes your swing entirely.
With a driver, you want to hit up on the ball to promote launch and spin. But with irons and wedges, you hit down and through the shot (even if the ball is teed up).
The other change is your setup when hitting driver vs. wedges or irons. Since you want to hit up on the golf ball with a driver, your setup is very different. Your back shoulder should be under your lead shoulder to promote an upward swing and weight should be 50/50.
With irons and wedges, you want your shoulders level (unless you’re hitting from an uphill or downhill lie) to compress the ball. The more golf you play, the more you will make these changes with each club subconsciously.
But if you’re just starting out, you might need to remind yourself as setup and weight position both play a big role in helping you make consistent contact with any club in the bag. This video from Mr. Short Game Golf on YouTube does a great job illustrating the setup changes from wedges and irons.
What are some good drills?
Want more options to improve your practice sessions? No problem, we got you covered.
This video from Me and My Golf has a great drill to help any type of golfer. Using a launch monitor, hit different distance shots to understand the feel with each wedge.
Here’s how to do it even if you don’t have a Trackman launch monitor.
- Grab your wedges and warm up for about ten minutes.
- Then, make it a goal to not hit the same shot twice but instead, try to hit random distances that are in between clubs. For example, let’s say you hit your LW 75 yards and your SW 90 yards.
- For the first ball, try to hit a shot 80 yards. Before you look at the numbers on the launch monitor, take a guess to see how accurate you were.
- Then, see how close it was to your original distance on the launch monitor.
- Next, find a distance between your SW and GW and repeat the process.
Keep hitting shots that are in between wedge distances so you have to hit different shots on the range. This will help you feel different types of swing that should translate to better golf on the course and hopefully get you closer to the hole.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you have a much better understanding of what it takes to hit approach shots well with both wedges and irons.
Remember, the swing itself doesn’t change as much as the setup, which ultimately impacts some of the swing. But you shouldn’t have a “wedge swing” and an “iron swing” but instead, set up differently at address position. This will do all the heavy lifting so you don’t have to think about mechanics on the golf course.
Keep your grip the same and instead change some things at setup to hit the ball correctly with irons and wedges. With irons, you need to hit longer shots so focus on a wider setup and longer swing. With wedges, you want to focus on distance control not total distance. So make sure to take a less than 100% swing and focus on smooth tempo.
Also, don’t forget that the right equipment and plenty of practice will turn you from a pretty good player to a great one.
