If you’re a high handicapper, there are several points in any round where you feel The Fear. The Fear of getting it wrong, of blowing a good opportunity to get ahead and make progress.
The moments when you need a wedge are among the most trying. When you need a wedge, often something’s already gone wrong – or at the very least, not quite right. That’s why you need the best wedges to get you back on track
But which exactly are the best wedges for high handicappers? Let’s find out.
In a hurry? Here’s our top pick.
Top 5 Best Wedges for High Handicappers
OUR TOP PICK
EDITORS CHOICE
C3i Wedge – Premium Sand Wedge, Lob Wedge
BEST VALUE
Cleveland Golf 2018 Men’s CBX Wedge
OUR TOP PICK
Pinemeadow Wedge
If you’re a high handicapper, you need wedges that add to your ability to play a round in smaller stroke numbers.
The Pinemeadow Wedge will give you a good sense of control, especially within a hundred yards of the green, when its spin will hardly be noticeable.
What are we dealing with in terms of the club?
The Pinemeadow wedge has a wide sole and a large sweet spot, and it comes in 52-degree, 56-degree, and 60-degree models, which should get you out of most trouble.
That wide sole adds pizzazz to the wedge, giving you solid, crisp contacts to boost your loft and distance. That crispness of contact is one of the reasons the Pinemeadow chips its way to the top of our list of the best wedges for high handicappers.
High handicappers need reliability of contact, and the Pinemeadow wedge specializes in giving you that repeatable, trustworthy contact.
While it’s mostly a gap wedge, you can use the Pinemeadow to pitch and chip from near the green if you need to. And one of the best holistic features of the Pinemeadow wedge is its combination of versatility and price. It comes in three different loft options, and you could probably pick them all up for the price of a single more fancy-pants wedge.
The range of options, the Swiss Army knife versatility of the wedge, the regular crisp contact, the combination of a wide sole and a big sweet spot, and the extremely pocket-friendly price point all lift the Pinemeadow wedge to the top of our list.
Pros:
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Crisp contact through a wide sole
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A large sweet spot
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Range of loft angle options
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Versatility of wedge action
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Powerful flight and a straight run over shorter distances
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Golfer-friendly pricing
Cons:
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Light on technological design
EDITORS CHOICE
C3i Wedge – Premium Sand Wedge, Lob Wedge
When things on a golf course get seriously troubling – when you’re lost in deep rough or trapped in a bunker – you’ll wish you’d thought to pack a C3i Wedge.
It’s available in three loft options – the 55-degree, 60-degree, and 65-degree versions. Why three versions? To give you options – the 55-degree wedge is best used for bunker work, whereas the higher-degree versions work better in the rough as lob wedges.
The sole on the C3i is extra wide, meaning it will cut through the obstacles of terrain without much by way of snagging and let you loft your ball out of danger, onto either the fairway or the green, depending on your lie.
The C3i also brings good balance from hosel to toe, meaning it can help high handicappers with their consistency through the short game. Understanding the weight, the loft, the certainty of crisp contact, can give you wedge-confidence when you need it most.
One of the best things about the C3i is that as a wide-soled wedge, you don’t need to do any spread-legged mating dance of hope when you swing your club. Because the sole is wide, you can just stand square to your target spot, and take your shot as normal.
Is the C3i the only wedge you need in your golf bag? No, it’s not a skeleton key to all the wedge-shots you’ll need to play.
But for the particular times when you need a crisp and lofty exit strategy from the sand or rough, the C3i is a simple, effective tool to have at your disposal.
Pros:
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Three loft options
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Good balance from hosel to toe means you can stand square to your shot
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The wide sole means it cuts through obstacles with little drag
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Great rescue club
Cons:
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Non-adjustable
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Some other wedges give you a wider range of usage-options
BEST VALUE
Cleveland Golf 2018 Men’s CBX Wedge
Seriously? A 2018 club still makes it onto this list?
We know, life is full of surprises, isn’t it? You should have seen our faces when we realized the CBX wedge still cut it with the new pups.
Here’s the thing. The CBX wedge is not your standard blade wedge, but a cavity back wedge. Big whoop, you say, and rightly so.
But. When it built the CBX wedge, Cleveland was having a very good day on the golf-brain front. It realized that if it shifted around 70 grams of weight (that’s about 0.15 pounds, which is why we didn’t write it that way), and redistributed it around the clubhead, it could add a comparatively huge amount of forgiveness into the wedge.
We started out by mentioning the sweaty-palmed pressure of wedge shots for high handicappers. Forgiveness is gooood. Forgiveness is great. Forgiveness is one of the main reasons the CBX wedge still plays with the big boys when it comes to the best wedges for high handicappers.
You need some spin out of your difficult lies? The CBX has Rotex Face Tour Zip Grooves to give you all the spin you need in a tight spot.
As with many of the best wedges on our list, there are various loft options in the CBX. In fact, the CBX has eight options, giving the club a wider range than many on the market, and each has things to which they’re better suited.
Full, straight shots? Keep it on the down-low with the 46 and 48-degree versions. Want more spin to get you up, out, and landing confidently? Aim higher, try the 60-degree CBX. It’ll do right by you when times are tough.
It might not look like a traditional wedge, but the cavity back design frees the CBX to offer you more variation than many other wedges on the market.
That, and all the sweet, sweet forgiveness it brings to your golf bag, are what let the 2018 CBX play all day long among the best wedges for high handicappers – even today.
Pros:
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8 loft options mean the CBX is almost a range of wedges in itself
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Redistributed weight means extra forgiveness
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Gives you spin when you need it, and straight shots when you don’t
Cons:
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It lacks some of the more technological elements of more recent clubs
RUNNER UP
Wilson Harmonized Wedge
When it comes to wedges, the further you can open up the clubface, the more options you have in terms of loft, placement, and ultimately, getting the shot you want.
That’s where the Wilson harmonized wedge comes into its own as a tool for high handicappers.
Wilson rarely does a thing unless it can put its own clever spin on it, and the harmonized wedge is no different. Here it brings the ‘sole grind’ to your wedge-party, allowing you to open up the clubface more than many competitor wedges.
That means you get more loft, more placement, and ultimately – wait, is this starting to sound familiar to anyone?
The sole grind is one of the perks of using the Wilson wedge – it gives you those extra options. As with most other wedges on our list, it’s available in three loft options – the 52, 56, and 60-degree versions. That gives you a range of uses to which you can put the Wilson wedge.
As you’d expect, the harmonized wedge also has some good balance through the swing, and a large sweet spot to increase the likelihood of hitting the shot you want.
There are some sleek aesthetics at play in the Wilson harmonized wedge too. It looks like the wedge the Men in Black would use, and adds a system of grooves to boost the friction on the ball, giving you higher spin if and when you need it.
The Wilson harmonized wedge brings a good amount of technical design to your golf bag, and while it only has the three variants, it punches above its weight as a wedge for high handicappers.
Pros:
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Three loft variants
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Sole grind opens up the clubface
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Forgiving wedge
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Stylish design
Cons:
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Unique technologies do not encourage transferable play skills
RUNNER UP
Cleveland Golf Men’s RTX 4 Wedge
More Cleveland cleverness, more cavity back wedge play, but the RTX 4 wedge has a thing or two that make it best suited to high handicappers aspiring to their mid-level era. As such, while it’s a great wedge, it scores lower on our list than its stablemate in terms of pure high handicapper helpfulness.
As with most of the other wedges on our list, the RTX 4 comes in three loft variants. Here though, the cavity back is less pronounced than in the CBX, meaning the RTX looks more like the traditional blade wedge.
Cleveland has still shifted some of the weight around the clubhead, to give you a more confident, more forgiving wedge than many, while focusing the center of gravity in the impact zone. That makes for satisfying, confidence-boosting contacts, wherever your ball is lying.
It’s not quite as forgiving as the CBX though, which pushes it towards its natural home along the high/mid-handicap border. If you’re pushing down towards mid-handicap, it can give you a useful intermediate wedge, neither too hard to handle nor too simplistic for your needs.
It’s this level of usage that sees it bring up the rear of our list, but bear in mind – these are the best wedges for high handicappers. Any one of them will give you good service. It’s just that some will give you better service than others.
Pros:
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Shaped more like a traditional blade wedge
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Three loft options
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Weight redistribution makes for a confident wedge
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Delivers useful forgiveness in wedge shots
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Acts as an intermediate wedge for high/mid-handicappers
Cons:
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Less forgiving than some other wedges on the market – including Cleveland’s own CBX wedge
Best Wedges For High Handicappers Buying Guide
When you’re buying a wedge to use during your high handicap period, there are some things to think about before you commit.
Exercise The Golfer’s Right To Choose
You’re going to need a range of wedges to fully master the challenges of your high handicap years.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that one wedge will rule them all. You need a sand wedge, a lob wedge, and probably a separate pitching wedge too.
Expecting one wedge to do everything is like trying to cut steak with a butter knife. Choose the best wedges for each job.
Loyalty’s For Suckers
Not really – if you find a particular brand that meets your needs across the range of wedges you need, by all means, stick with them.
But don’t feel you have to stick with them. It’s rare to find a series of wedges that only work if you buy them all. If one company has a better lob wedge – get it. If a different company has a sand wedge you want – get that too.
The wedges won’t be offended, and your gold will improve twice as fast.
Spend According To Your Need
If you’re a high handicapper, the chances are you won’t want to funnel half your annual salary into your golf bag.
Choose your wedges firstly for the advantages they bring to your game and your confidence. But keep an eye on the cost, and don’t be tempted to pay for gizmos that might be cool, but won’t help you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a great wedge for high handicappers?
That depends on the high handicapper. Forgiveness is a universal constant, though – any club that can help you get the shot you intended to play has to be worth investing in.
Versatility – in terms of effects and loft options particularly, is also a great quality in a high handicap wedge.
Why do I need a range of wedges?
If you have one wedge, you have no option but to use it for everything.
A range of wedges help you do more, and do it with more ease.
What should I spend on wedges as a high handicapper?
Just enough. Wedges are usually escape clubs, to get you out of trouble, or give you loft options on approach to the green.
Don’t overspend on them at the expense of other clubs, but build a small, effective collection dependent on your particular style of play.
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