Ping Glide 4 wedges (David Dusek/Golfweek)
WEDGES: Ping Glide 4.0 (50 degrees adjusted to 49, 56 degrees adjusted to 54.5), Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees), with KBS Tour V 130 X shafts
Strokes Gained: Around the Green: 0.037 (93rd)
Price: From $169.98 each
Last season, Hovland ended the year ranked 191st in Strokes Gained: Around the Green with an average of -0.651, which means he was giving away more than 2.6 shots over 72 holes to the field because of poor chipping, pitching and course management. As Hovland has worked to improve his short game and make better shot choices, he has made a few changes to his wedges. At the 2022 BMW Championship, he switched to a 58-degree Ping Glide 2.0 TS (thin sole) lob wedge that was bent to 60 degrees. Adding loft also adds bounce, so that low-bounce wedge went from having 6 degrees of bounce to a slightly more forgiving 8 degrees of bounce.
“Then, right before Augusta, he came up to me and said, ‘My short game is better, let me try to the 60 degrees at 60,’” Oates said. Ping’s 60-degree Glide 2.0 TS has 6 degrees of bounce, but with his improved technique, Hovland is now able to play greenside chips and pitches using the club.
Before the start of the Tour Championship, Hovland added a new Ping Glide 2.0 lob wedge to his bag. According to Oates, Hovland now gets a fresh lob wedge about once a month and he had planned to swap lob wedges last week before the start of the BMW Championship. However, the course was soft and he worried that fresh wedges could put too much spin on the ball and make shots grab too much, so he waited until he arrived at East Lake to make the change.
Hovland’s 50 and 56-degree Glide 4.0 wedges have been delofted slightly for gapping purposes. Hovland liked the smaller head of the Ping Forged Pro wedges and used those until the 2022 British Open, but the wider sole of the Glide 4.0 made the transition from Hovland’s irons into his wedges on full-swing shots smoother.
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