Tip Tuesday: Using Tape to Find the Right Bounce Angle for Your Wedges

In this installment of our Tip Tuesday video series, Steve Dresser of the Steve Dresser Golf Academy at True Blue Golf Club in Pawleys Island, S.C. talks about bounce angle for your wedges – how to find it, and how to read the markings on training tape to make necessary adjustments.

 

You see the markings on the bottom of this golf club? A lot of people will put tape on the bottom for determining lie angle, for whether we’re bottoming out on the toe or the heel.

In this case I’ve got a sand wedge, and I’m looking to see if the markings are more toward the leading edge or the trailing edge of the club. In this case they’re right in the middle of the bottom of the club, maybe even favoring the back of it a little bit, which is perfect. That tells me I have the correct bounce angle, which simply put means the trailing edge is sitting a little lower than the leading edge. On this wedge it’s seven degrees, so that’s the right bounce angle for me.

Had I bottomed out a little closer to the leading edge, I might go to maybe 10 or 11 degrees of bounce. Just the opposite if I’d bottomed out closer to the trailing edge, maybe I’d need a little bit less bounce.

That may sound complicated and not really necessary for you, but remember you use your wedges a lot when you play golf. Don’t ignore them. Show them the love they deserve, and you’re going to be a lot better short game player if you have the right golf equipment.