[westhoff]

Wow, I have so much I want to say on this subject I don't know where to start.

OP, what's your handicap? And what kind of conditions do you play on? Fast or slow greens? Deep rough around greens or chipping/collection areas?

For what it's worth, I use my 56* wedge for 90% of my shots for inside 100 yards and my PW for the other 10%. I think having one club that you like and know how to use (which sounds like what you have now) is the way to go if you have any talent at all. Unless I'm playing a course with really slow greens, I rarely have a shot around the green where I can chip and run with a 6 or 7iron. I think a lot of older professionals teach getting the ball on the green as soon as possible and letting it roll the rest of the way are wrong. Because they don't consider how much the playing conditions have changed in the last twenty years. Greens are so much smoother and faster, and fringes are so much smoother and tighter, that you have to have a lofted club with some bounce on it that gets the ball it the air and stops it fairly quickly.

I think writing down how far you hit each type of shot is great. 1/2 swing=40yards, 3/4=50yards, etc. I think every pro can tell you an exact number if you ask them: In benign conditions, how far do you hit your lob wedge if you take it back to "9 o'clock" and swing full? Obviously, you'll be between yardages sometimes and have to adjust somehow, but when you get that "perfect" yardage you'll have the confidence to stiff it.

With regards to people saying you have less margin of error with a lob wedge I disagree somewhat. If you're good enough to make consistent contact with a higher lofted club you should actually have more margin of error. If you hit a full lob wedge 60 yards and hit a "3/4" one 45 yards, you can swing anywhere in between and be within 15 yards. If you have a 100 foot chip and have 90 feet of green to work with, there's nothing wrong with flying it halfway there and letting it roll from there. When I hit this shot with a 7iron I'm all over the place because you have to be so precise with how fast the club moves through the ball. If you just barely hit the ball harder than it goes way past. With a wedge, you can make a bigger, more relaxed swing and not worry because the ball basically lands and rolls the same everytime.

If you need to write down yardages for different types of shots, then do it. And if you like using your lob wedge and are fairly good at it, then use it for the majority of your shots. Don't try and complicate things by trying to use different clubs all the time. Having one club that you're confident with and that you know will perform well is what you need.