Wedge Wizardry: What Wedges Do PGA Pros Use? (2024)

The march of golf technology has led to ever-increasing amount of specialist and highly customized clubs and nowhere has that been more evident than golf wedges. The number of loft, grind, bounce, and finish options seem almost infinite.

And the pros are always at the forefront of the latest and best wedges. So to see what we can learn from the best Golfing Focus has taken its yearly look at the wedges PGA players use.

Titleist are the most used wedges by the top 100 PGA Tour pros with 51% of the 390 wedges being played one of their models. PING and Callaway each account for 13% of the wedges chosen with Cleveland wedges next making up 12%. Titleist’s Vokey Design SM10 model is the most popular wedge and an astonishing 51% of all the wedges used by the top 100 are Vokey wedges.

That breakdown only gives us part of the picture however. And after examining in detail the wedges chosen by the best players on the PGA Tour it is fascinating to see the choices and the trends that emerge such as the rise of the specialist pitching wedge.

Also, not only have we examined whether the equipment choices of the equipment ‘free agents’ differ from those of their sponsored colleagues, but we also looked at what has changed over the years through our studies of what wedges most PGA players use.

The Most Popular Wedge on The PGA Tour? Vokey Rules Across the Board!

When it comes to the question of what are the most used wedges on the PGA Tour Titleist’s dominance is huge.

Of the 390 different wedges used by the top 100 pros on Tour, from 44º pitching wedges through to 64º lob wedges, nine different manufacturers are represented. But with Titleist models over half of all the wedges used it seems obvious which wedges the best pros on Tour consider to be the best.

And that overwhelming dominance is made even more apparent when you focus solely on the ‘specialist’ wedges used by this select group and strip out the pitching wedges that some players use that match their iron set.

Of that 390 total wedges number – including all pitching, gap, sand and lob wedges – 332 are specialist wedges and Titleist models account for 57% of those. And when we are discussing Titleist wedges we are in reality only talking about ‘Vokey Design’ wedges.

[Editor’s note – For this study, we classed a ‘specialty wedge’ as a wedge that isn’t sold as part of an iron set. Speciality wedge examples include Titleist’s Vokey, PING’s Glide, Callaway’s Jaws, & Cleveland’s RTX ranges.]

Golfing Focus uncovered nine different models of Vokey Design wedges used by the top 100 including older versions like the SM7 to various Wedgeworks models such as the Wedgeworks Proto 10 model used by top players including Rory McIlroy and Robert MacIntyre.

While the Vokey Design models are used almost exclusively by players choosing Titleist pitching, gap and sand wedges the Wedgeworks models find favour more when it comes to lob wedges where they are used more than the Design models.

Titleist’s overall dominance when it comes to the wedges used by the PGA Tour pros is clearly significant and as part of Golfing Focus’ detailed look at all the most used clubs on the PGA Tour we have not found any other club type where this dominant usage of one single manufacturer’s clubs was matched.

When we did this same in-depth study three years back Titleist wedges accounted for 44% of all the ones played by the top 100 PGA Tour pros. This percentage rose to 46% last year and now stands at 51% so their dominance appears only to be growing as time passes.

And over those years all that has happened is that the most popular model has been an upgrade of the latest Vokey Design SM version – SM8 to SM9 to SM10 today.

Ah, but this is only because so many of the pros are sponsored by Titleist and therefore have to use their wedge models.

Astonishingly though when we looked at the wedge choices of the equipment ‘free agents’ – in other words those players who are not tied to any sponsorship contracts and have the flexibility to use whatever clubs they want – Titleist’s hold on the crown of the most popular wedge appears even more definite.

Because of the fifteen ‘free agents’ Golfing Focus analysed, including Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay and Aaron Rai, only Justin Rose’s use of a Cleveland RTX6 Zipcore lob wedge broke Titleist’s stranglehold on the 54 specialist wedges this subset of pros use.

All the other free agents use a Vokey wedge across their specialist pitching, gap, sand and lob wedges with the Vokey Design 10 model again being the most used among them.

Jason Day admittedly has also been seen to be testing out a Cleveland RTX6 Zipcore gap wedge but at the moment he too is still currently going with a Titleist wedge.

So while sponsorship undoubtedly plays a part in the equipment choices of the pros the evidence seems clear that the majority of pros believe Titleist Vokey wedges to be better than the rest.

[Editor’s note – Do you always go with Vokey wedges too or do you think they are overhyped? Let us know what you think in the comments below!]

But What ‘Other’ Wedges Do PGA Pros Use?

There are of course other wedges and as we have already noted eight other manufacturers are represented among the wedges used by the top PGA Tour pros.

Callaway, PING and Cleveland/Srixon wedges make up the best of the rest but other more niche wedge brands, including Fourteen and Cobra, have a small selection of PGA pros using them.

TaylorMade stable players such as Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood put their Milled Grind wedge models into play. It is again noticeable however that McIlroy and Fleetwood switch to Vokey Design Wedgeworks models for their lob wedges.

World No. 1 and TaylorMade stable mate Scottie Scheffler however chooses not to use any TaylorMade specialist wedges and sticks with his trusty old Vokey Design SM8 gap and sand wedges, and Vokey Design WedgeWorks BV Proto 7 lob wedge.

Viktor Hovland and Tony Finau meanwhile count themselves as PING wedge users where the s159 is their most popular wedge model and indeed accounts for 6% of all the wedges used by the top PGA Tour pros.

Shane Lowry’s gap and sand wedge of choice, and Cleveland’s most used model on Tour, the RTX6 Zipcore Tour Rack is the fourth most used wedge overall by the top 100 making up 5% of all the wedges played.

Callway’s Jaws Raw wedges then sit fifth on the list of the most used wedges on Tour.

Overall we found 30 different specialist wedge models in total being used by this group across all the different wedge types – pitching, gap, sand, and lob wedges – with a large number of the wedges being listed as ‘prototypes’ or even having a specific grind attributed to a particular player.

It won’t surprise many to know also for example that Taylor Made’s Milled Grind 4 wedges are available with Tiger Woods’ chosen grind.

Every player is clearly different and although different golfers may have the same model of wedge it is never one size fits all as many of the pros have their own unique requirements when it comes to bounce, grind, loft, and finish on that model.

BRAND OF WEDGES	% OF ALL WEDGES USED BY TOP 100 PGA TOUR PROS (Equipment free agents in italics)	MOST USED WEDGE MODEL
Titleist	51% (including Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa, Justin Rose (GW, SW), Jordan Speith, Ludvig Åberg, Brian Harman, Cameron Young, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Will Zalatoris, Ben Kohles, Robert MacIntyre, Adam Scott, Cam Davis, Davis Thompson, Tom Kim, Denny McCarthy, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Rodgers, Adam Schenk, Jason Day, Stephan Jaeger, Brendon Todd, Mark Hubbard, Aaron Rai, Rory McIlroy (LW), Tommy Fleetwood (LW)	Titleist Vokey SM10 Check eBay
PING	13% (inc. Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Sahith Theegala, Harris English, Taylor Moore, Seamus Power)	s159 Check eBay
Callaway	12% (inc. Xander Schauffele, Sam Burns, Emiliano Grillo, Adam Svensson, Adam Hadwin, Harry Hall)	Jaws Raw View at PGA Superstore
Srixon / Cleveland	11% (inc. Shane Lowry, Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley, Sepp Straka, Matt Kuchar, Taylor Pendrith)	RTX6 Zipcore Tour Rack View at PGA Superstore
TaylorMade	4% (inc. Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy (GW, SW), Tommy Fleetwood (GW, SW))	Milled Grind 4 Check eBay
PXG	3% (Inc. Justin Lower, David Lipsky)	0311 Sugar Daddy II Milled Check eBay
Cobra	3% (Inc. Rickie Fowler)	Snakebite View at PGA Superstore
Mizuno	2% (Inc. Ben Griffin, Keith Mitchell)	T22 View at PGA Superstore
Fourteen	1%	RM-4

[Note – Just so you know, and we are upfront as an affiliate program participant, Golfing Focus, at no cost to you, earns from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.]

How Many Wedges Do Pros Carry? Note the Specialists

The pros tend to tinker with their golf club set up depending on where they are playing and the conditions they will be up against in any particular week.

But when we looked in detail at how many wedges pros carry on the PGA Tour there were some clear indicators in terms of what they consider to be the best wedge set up.

90% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros carry 4 wedges including Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. Adam Scott and Tommy Fleetwood are among the minority 10% that carry 3. The most common wedge set up, chosen by 50%, is a pitching wedge that matches their irons and 3 specialist wedges – a gap wedge ranging from 49º to 54º, a sand wedge from 53º to 59º and a lob wedge from 57º to 64º.

Players such as Phil Mickelson have been known in the past to occasionally carry a 5th wedge to give them more options for shots inside 125 yards, but that is a very rare occurrence and indeed we found none of the current top 100 PGA Tour with 5 wedges in their bag.

The increasing trend Golfing noticed when we did this study a couple of years ago is for the top pros to choose a specialty pitching wedge instead of a standard wedge that comes as part of their iron set.

And this group now stands at 40% strong, up from 36% last year across the top 100 and compared to 28% in 2021.

Aaron Rai, Shane Lowry, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas, Jordan Speith, and Robert MacIntyre are just a selection of the top 100 that opt for the specialty wedge approach across all their wedges.

The arguments for doing this are that the narrower and deeper milled grooves give a more penetrating ball flight and more consistent spin while the increased grind and bounce options allow for increased shot creativity.

Commentators note that this trend is appearing across the younger generation of PGA Tour stars with the older guard sticking with their iron set matching pitching wedge. That also seems to be changing however with Rory McIlroy for example now joining the four specialist wedge camp including a 47º MG4 wedge in his bag.

Irrespective of age however the trend of using specialty wedges exclusively is one we clearly saw again in our analysis this time with other notable names such as Hideki Matsuyama and Max Homa also following it.

Within the clear minority – 10% of the top 100 – opting to put only 3 wedges in their bag there are some of the world’s best players, such as Tommy Fleetwood, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott (as well as the great Tiger Woods!), in that group.

But these golfers are definitely among the few to choose that wedge set up on Tour.

It was interesting to note however that it tended to be the traditional 56º sand wedge that was the club that made way with those players using only 3 wedges typically opting for a gap wedge from between 50 to 54 degrees combined with a very lofted 58º sand or 60º lob wedge.

Within another definite minority also was Sam Burns who was in a group all of his own in the top 100 using a non-specialist gap wedge – his Callaway Apex TCB ‘Approach’ wedge – that matched his iron set.

Given Burns has been sitting comfortably in the top 20 on Tour for a number of years now clearly shows however that there is more than one way to go about choosing your wedges and you don’t need a bag full of specialty wedges to be successful.

Before you go …

Ever wondered how far the pros hit their wedges compared to amateurs, and how your wedge distances stack up against other amateurs?

Read our next articles to find out how far the top players hit their wedges compared to how far you should hit your own!

How Far Do Pro Golfers Hit Each Club?

How Far Should You Hit Your Wedges? Be Sure to Fill the Gaps!

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• Gear Up: Uncovering The Most Used Clubs On The PGA Tour
• Exploring The Fairway Woods The Best PGA Tour Pros Use
• Hybrid Power: The Most Used Hybrids on the PGA Tour
• Do Pros Carry a Driving Iron?
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