A sand wedge , or sand iron , is a kind of golf club, an open-faced wedge designed to break out of a sand bunker. It has the widest of every slice, which gives the largest amount of bounce, allowing the club head to glide through the sand and avoid excavation. After Gene Sarazen was successful in 1935 with a new club he found to play sand, popularity quickly grew. Clubs can be profitable in other soft lies - such as thick and damp soil, or mud - and are also used from stronger grasses for lobs or chips.
Video Sand wedge
History
Gene Sarazen started winning the tournament in 1935 with a new club that he found special for sand play. He is hailed as the inventor of sand wedges, though his history runs about 3 years farther from it. Spoon club offers different levels of attic and allows players to scoop their balls out of sand traps and very rough. As manufacturers become more and more innovative with club designs, new types of wedges appear. Some have concave faces, others feature highly grooved faces, but not all of these designs comply with USGA and R & amp; A, and many are forbidden. With a sunken-faced wedge banned in 1931, Sarazen designed sand slices with a straight face. Another modification he made was to add extra lead to the front edge of the club's face, allowing it to cut the sand more smoothly. After he won 1932 England and US Open with the help of his new club, his popularity quickly grew.
Maps Sand wedge
Design
Modern sand wedges often become the heaviest iron in a player's bag, with a maximum weight of nearly 40 ounces (1.1 kg). Traditionally it also has the highest attic at 56 degrees (55-56 the most common), although the difference now goes to the wedge lob, which often has a loft of 60 degrees or more. It usually has one of the shortest shafts, between 33 inches (84 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm), although in some sets the sand wedge has a longer shaft than the pitching slice.
Bounce
The main difference that differentiates clubs from most others is a feature called bounce. In most of the other iron, the club's foot is perpendicular to the axis, which means it is approximately parallel to the ground when the club is resting, allowing the forefront to get between the ball and the ground easier. However, sandblades are designed with the club's palm at an angle to the ground in the same position, lifting the club's leading edge off the ground. This design completes three things:
Firstly, this design generally requires more material, which increases the club's head weight for more momentum and places that weigh low and advance in the head of the club for higher launch.
Second, the sloped sole lifts the leading edge of the ground at the bottom of the swing, preventing the club from digging in a softer direction - for example, sand, muddy soil, and thick grass - instead of tipping over the surface. This in turn allows players more flexibility when addressing the ball; players can outline the ball in the middle of their position and take a normal swing where the club will pull over on the grass before contact with the ball, or alternatively they can move the ball back in their position (towards the right leg for the left-handed player) and hit the ball earlier in the swing. The natural consequence of a shot done right is that the club face has fewer loops on the contact, so the ball is launched at a lower angle for longer distances. Without bouncing, such shots usually will cause the club to dig the ground after touching the ball, even if executed correctly. With a very high club, players are prevented from participating in their swings and can be injured.
Lastly, when playing from a bunker, the ball may have buried itself into the sand (depending on the consistency of the sand and the impact level, the ball may be completely submerged). To lift it, the club's head should contact the ball from below, which means the club's leading edge sometimes must be 1 or 2 inches (3 or 5 cm) below the sand surface touching. A single angle nullifies the natural pressure of club faces that dig deeper into the sand, making it easier to swing the club beneath the sand surface and then lift the club - and the ball - back away again.
Other clubs, especially short irons and other wedges, now combine a bit of reflection to aid in the game of coarse or other lies, but sand wedges will usually have the highest number of bounces from each club in the player's bag. But there are exceptions; Callaway Golf for example markets the "Big Bertha" line where lob slices have a significantly higher leap than sand wedges.
Usage
As the name implies, sand slices are most often used to extract balls from sand bunker. However, the features that make it useful for this purpose are beneficial in other soft lies such as rough, misty, or thick mud. It's also used from more powerful grass lies for lobs or chips, generally to green. It can also be used like any other short iron; with full swing, a skilled golfer can usually hit a sand wedge between 80-100 yards (70-90 m). Tourists often use lob wedge (60 à ° wedge) to exit the bunker with controlled trajectories and many laps.
Source of the article : Wikipedia