Wedges are commonly called scoring clubs for their heavy use approaching the green. They help you hit shots close to the pin with precision, lowering your score. After a while though, wedges (like all golf clubs) lose their effectiveness, leading to frustratingly higher scores. When do you know when it’s time to replace your wedges?

The answer to this is two-fold, visually and time. The following takes a closer look at each part to answer the question of replacing your wedges.

Replace Your Wedges: The Eye Test

The easiest way to tell if your wedges need replacing is to look at them. Grooves will be noticeably worn down, even completely smooth in extreme cases (like the picture below). 

You can also run your finger over the grooves to confirm what your eyes have told you. The grooves won’t have the same sharpness and therefore won’t grab onto the golf ball’s cover.

Besides the feel of the grooves, notice how wedge shots roll out. If shots are rolling farther than they used to or what you’re expecting, it’s time to consider new wedges.

Timing of Replacing Wedges

The other factor to consider in replacing your wedges is timing. This factor varies for everyone, as we don’t all play and practice the same amount.

A good judge of replacement time is golf rounds played. Check out this video from Titleist on the performance differences of their Vokey wedges based on the number of rounds played. Titleist’s Groove Wear and Spin Performance article goes into a bit more detail as well.

If you happen to lose track of how much golf you’ve played with your wedges, you’re either playing a lot or a little. Playing a lot of golf may require you to change out wedges more than once per season. Throw in a lot of practice time and you could be looking at switching out every couple months. This is usually only the case with competitive golfers who put a premium on their scoring.

Most of us fall under the “not-enough golf” umbrella and therefore don’t need to change out wedges that often. In fact, you may only need to get new wedges every season or 2.

What Fresh Wedges Give You

New wedges in the bag give you a couple performance benefits. First and foremost, they produce stopping power into and around the green. This helps you hold greens that are firm on approach shots and knock it close to the pin on chip shots. As you know, all this leads to lower scores.

The second thing fresh wedges do is control the ball flight. Grooves add spin, keeping shots on their line and in the air. This helps you take dead aim at the pin, leaving shorter putts (ideally for eagle or birdie).

Is It Time For New Wedges?

Use this simple guide to determine if you need to replace your wedges or if you can wait a little longer.  Got more questions? Reach out to our PGA Professionals for their expert guidance. They’re here for you!