The Curious Reason Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros Used 56-Degree Instead of 60-Degree Wedge

When it concerns mastering the brief video game, Tiger Woods has couple of equates to. The late Spanish legend Seve Ballesteros was another wizard around the greens. What if their luster shared a typical trick? Both golf enthusiasts favoured a 56-degree wedge over a 60-degree choice. What made the less-lofted club their weapon of option? Mark Allen of the Talk Birdie To Me Podcast has a description.

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“Tiger Woods has constantly had a 56 in his bag,” Allen stated on his podcast“… He stated he does the majority of his cracking with the 56. Anything that requires to increase and stop rapidly is a 60, however he’ll open the 56, which puts more bounce on the club. And he utilizes that for most of his cracking, is the manner in which I keep in mind that episode, which was intriguing to me since many simply got the 60 and off they go.”

Allen isn’t the only one who found this quality about Woods. In an April 2025 report, Golfcom’s Johnny Wunder declared Woods sees his 60-degree wedge mostly as an escape tool instead of his go-to club around the greens. Whether playing from the bunkers or dealing with fragile shots near the putting surface area, he is most likely to grab his 56-degree wedge. The factor is easy: it provides higher forgiveness.

There’s more to the factor. Throughout a TaylorMade educational session, Tiger Woods exposed that he favours a 56-degree wedge since he matured playing without a 60-degree wedge and ended up being familiar with opening the clubface of his 56-degree wedge to play various shots. Woods discussed that when the sand is much heavier, his 60-degree wedge tends to dig too deep.

This makes the shot harder to carry out. Which’s the primary factor behind his choice for the 56-degree wedge. Even when Tiger Woods made devices modifications, the wedge would remain in focus. He made a noteworthy devices modification ahead of the 2019 Open Championship, changing to a model TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 56-degree wedge while maintaining his existing 60-degree lob wedge.

The modification was especially notable due to the fact that Woods had actually utilized basically the very same specs for his 56-degree wedge for more than 17 years. In any case, Woods went on to miss out on the cut at the 2019 Open Championship. It was likewise the very same year he won his last significant at the 2019 Masters. Regardless, Tiger Woods isn’t the only one to utilize a 56-degree wedge.

“And the exact same with Seve,” Allen included the podcast. “Seve Ballesteros never ever had a 60 ° wedge. He had a 56[-degree wedge] bent to 57-degree, which was his cracking club.”

Even for Ballesteros, the 56-degree wedge did marvels.

Seve Ballesteros carried out marvels with a 56-degree wedge

While sharing ideas on utilizing wedges, Dormy Wold of Golf’s specialist Daniel Hansson particularly mentioned Seve Ballesteros’ choice to utilize a 56-degree wedge, highlighting, “you do not require 60 ° to be innovative and expert around the greens.” And this appears from the important things the late legend handled to attain in his profession.

Throughout the 1983 Masters, Ballesteros broke the ball into the 18th hole. By that point, he had actually currently protected the Green Jacket and was set to win by 4 strokes. The shot did not identify the result, it showcased his remarkable touch and ability around the greens.

At the 1988 Open Championship at Royal Lytham, Ballesteros as soon as again showed how his choice assisted his brief video game. Playing the last round on Monday, he managed an amazing healing from a relatively difficult position, assisting him card a closing 65 and end up 2 shots clear of Nick Price to raise his 3rd Claret Jug.

Significantly, Ballesteros was so dedicated to his 56-degree wedge that he declined to bring a 60-degree in his bag. Ultimately, famous wedge designer Bob Vokey needed to press him to consist of one. Why was the Spaniard so unwilling? Ballesteros chose his wedges to have a flatter lie angle, which implied flexing the club 2 degrees flatter than requirement.

This change apparently assisted him move the club underneath the ball with higher ease, providing him the control and accuracy that made his brief video game so extraordinary.