Golf Equipment Choices Can Be Influenced by Course Conditions

Course conditions can influence the specifications of a golfer's equipment. This isn't a secret. We often hear of Tour players choosing wedges with more or less bounce, from week to week, to meet changing conditions in bunkers, for example.

Wedges are the clubs most likely to be altered or swapped out for different specs in response to a golf course's condition.

Do recreational golfers need to be worried about whether their clubs are right for the course conditions? In most cases, no, because most recreational golfers don't play often enough to have such worries, nor are most recreational golfers good enough to be concerned about the issue. Besides, unlike Tour pros, most of us don't have access to multiple versions of wedges or irons that we can call on when needed. Simply put, most recreational golfers have bigger things to worry about.

But there are exceptions. For example, what if 90-percent of your play takes place on one course? Well, it would certainly help to have your wedges tuned for that course's conditions, wouldn't it? Just as it would to have your game tuned to that course's layout and conditions.

Matching wedges to course conditions is all about how you use each wedge, and about each wedge's bounce angle.

Let's say your home course has bunkers with soft, fluffy sand. You don't want your club digging down into that loose sand, so you need a sand wedge with a higher bounce angle to lessen the digging. Conversely, bunkers with heavy, compacted sand do require more digging to pull off a good sand shot, so you need less bounce to allow the leading edge of the club to do that digging.

On a course with lush fairways and noticeable rough, more bounce is likely to help. No rough and tight fairways (or even hardpan) means less bounce is desirable.

What about turfgrasses? Can the type of grass used at golf course influence a golfer's choice of club? In clubs beyond just the wedges?

We heard from a golfer recently whose club had switched to bermudagrass, and following that switch the golfer started experiencing a rash of fat shots. He was digging up huge chunks of turf like he never had until the course went to bermudagrass.

Could it be the grass itself? It's always preferable to take a look at your swing first when something like this happens. But it turns out that the type of grass used on a course can have some influence on iron specs.

Michael Lamanna, director of instruction at The Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., responded to this golfer's question about bermudagrass and irons:

Bermudagrass has a very different texture than rye, bluegrass or bent. It grows with a great deal of grain and the blades of grass are "prickly" and more dense. Players with steep swings sometimes get the blade of the club stuck in the ground. This is particularly true with blade irons with thin soles with very little camber. Thicker soles, more camber and bounce are features that make shots from bermudagrass slightly easier for steep swingers.

So a golfer who has a steep approach to impact might benefit from wide soles and higher bounce even on his long, mid- and short irons.

Of course, the other way to approach the issue is to learn how to make your downswing shallower when need be.

Lamanna says:

I would advise the student to make his downswing angle of approach shallower. He should work on making a shallow divot. A perfect divot should be approximately four to five inches long and it should be the same width as the clubhead and it should angle towards the target or slightly left of target.

The divot should descend into the crown of the turf (where the roots transition into blades of grass) and it will therefore be golden in color, not dark brown or black.

And finally, Lamanna offers a practice technique that golfers can use to learn a more shallow angle of approach to impact:

1. In a practice bunker, tee up six balls in a row. The head of the tee should be just barely above the sand.

2. Using an 8-iron, make several practice swings and make very little contact with the sand. No deep divots, just brush the sand with the sole of the club.

3. Proceed to hit the balls and try to make the same ground contact. Between shots, make practice swings, rehearsing this shallow ground contact in the sand.