Demystifying Golf Club Bounce and Grind

If you watch as much golf as I do, which some would describe as “too much,” and to which I would reply, “impossible,” you likely hear a bit of talk regarding club “bounce” and/or “grind.”  Unfortunately, the majority of golf commentators only seem to offer such in-depth analysis as, “He really used the bounce well there.”  Thanks, guy. That tells me nothing about anything.

But never fear, golf friends, for I am here to remove the shroud of mystery that blankets this so-called “bounce!”  To clear the dense fog that envelopes “grind” like that of an early morning range session!  Okay, okay, I’ll get on with it already.

A quick disclaimer, I’m not going to get into which degree of bounce or what type of grind is best for a certain type of swing, or firmness of lie, or geography in which you play.  I’m just going to tell you what bounce and grind is and what it does.

A quick Googling of “golf club bounce” tells me bounce is “the angle inscribed by the leading edge of a golfing iron (particularly a wedge), the sole of the club, and the ground.”  Huh?

Maybe a picture will help (see right).

In English, bounce is the angle between the bottom of the club and the leading edge of the club.  It’s measured in degrees and we aren’t talking about very much of an angle.  At most, we’re talking about 10 to 15 degrees between the bottom and leading edge on a wedge (15 degrees is a lot).  Each iron actually has degrees of bounce built into it.  A seven-iron has about four degrees of bounce.

Personally, it was difficult for me to understand bounce because I couldn’t see it.  Obviously, when I’m addressing a golf ball, not only am I looking down at the club, but the grass and ground also hide any space between the bottom of the club and the leading edge.  Then I realized that a shovel has bounce!  Take any shovel and lay it on the ground. The bottom of the shovel sits on the ground while the edge of the shovel is well off the ground.  That’s bounce!

Now, hopefully at this point you understand what bounce is, but what does it do?

What if, instead of calling it “bounce,” it was called “slide.”  Because that’s really what it does.  It allows the club to slide across the ground or through the sand and not dig-deep or get stuck into the ground.  Go back to that shovel for a second. When we stick a shovel into the ground, it slides itself through the ground and back up.  The same thing happens with bounce on a wedge.  When we’re trying to get a golf ball out of a bunker, we are hitting the sand first.  Without the bounce, that wedge would never get through the sand.  It would continue to dig down at the spot where it first hit the sand.

Okay, we understand what bounce is and what it does.  Question for the class, what role does bounce play when we are using our wedge outside of a bunker?  Anyone…anyone…Bueller?

The answer is the always annoying, “it depends.”  What’s your lie like?  If it’s soft and fluffy, not a huge deal.  But if it’s a tight or firm lie, the bounce of a wedge can work against you.

Unless you have the right…wait for it…grind.

Now, we aren’t talking about using your wedge with a full swing in which your hands lead the club face.  Bounce will work as it’s intended to in that case.  What we’re talking about is when you start opening the club face or when your hands are equal to the club face on impact.  With no grind on your wedge, when you open the club face you increase the degree of bounce.  In other words, on a firm lie, with an open club face, and no grind, the leading edge of your club could be at the equator of the golf ball.  Can you say “bladed shot?”  That’s right!  Sometimes it really is the club’s fault!

Now, if you have the correct grind (there are several different grinds, again, not getting into that today) on your wedge, when you open the club face, the bounce angle will stay the same or actually lessen.  This, in theory, makes it much easier to get under the golf ball and pop that bad boy into the air and land softly onto the green.

So there you have it.  Bounce and grind.  And for those super-low handicappers or know-it-all commenters, I realize this is an incredibly simplistic explanation of both.  But for the majority of us, just having basic knowledge of what each is and does can go long way when purchasing or playing these clubs.

Cover photo by SteFou on Flickr