Off to try the super lob wedge at La Costa Resort & Spa

Last week, during a visit with short-game expert Dave Pelz, I asked him if amateurs should carry a 64-degree wedge like Phil Mickelson does. His feeling on the topic? If you can hit a 60-degree wedge, you can use a 64-degree.

In either case, you have to accelerate, and the 64-degree wedge makes the hard shots (pitches inside 50 yards) easier. So today, I’ll be employing a 64-degree wedge in my round at the La Costa Resort & Spa, which is where the LPGA’s inaugural Kia Classic will be played in two weeks.

I’m told the course will be set up pretty tough today, so I’ll be anxious to see how much the 64 helps my score.

In any event, we just published a Q&A I did with Dave Pelz on WorldGolf.com. Pelz has probably had more influence on the short game than anyone else in the past 20 years.

His early putter designs were behind Odyssey Golf’s highly successful 2-Ball putter (Pelz recently signed on as brand ambassador for Odyssey putters). His straight-back and straight-through putting method has been adopted by millions. It was Pelz and his team, through painstaking statistical analysis, that determined that the optimal pace to make putts would put the ball 17 inches past the hole (if there was no hole) no matter what the green speed is. And it’s been Pelz’s influence that has changed the bag makeup of the best players in the world, who generally carry more wedges than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

Bottom line is if Phil Mickelson heeds Pelz’s advice, who am I not to give it a whirl? Time to go fall in love with my super lob wedge.