9 Iron Vs Pitching Wedge – Which Club Is Better & When To Use It 

Picking the right club can be very important when it comes to approaching the green.

Choosing the wrong club can put you in some unwanted positions like a bunker, water hazard, short or over the green. Choosing the right club will give you the best opportunity at making par or birdie.

In this article we will be discussing the difference between a 9 iron and pitching wedge, and when you should use them.

Key Differences Between Pitching Wedge vs 9 Iron

There are two main differences between a 9 iron and pitching wedge. The first one is the length.

Your 9 iron is going to be half an inch longer than your pitching wedge, the main reason why is to hit the ball longer, the extra length creates extra speed, making the ball go further.

The second difference is the loft, your 9 iron will have around 4 degrees less off than your pitching wedge, this will do two things, make you hit the ball further and hit the ball slightly lower.

When To Use A Pitching Wedge – Perfect Example

Knowing when to use your pitching wedge, like every other iron is important when playing golf.

You need to know how far to hit your pitching wedge, this will indicate when you will need to use it. The best way to do this is by going to the range. If you hit your pitching wedge 120 yards, you should use it when you are 120 yards from the flag.

Be careful if you are playing into or down wind, if you are 120 yards and down wind you need to take less club as the ball will fly further, and when you are into the wind you need to take more club as the ball will go shorter.

Other Times To Use

The pitching wedge also comes in handy when you need to play a bump and run shot.

The bump and run is used when you are around the green with very little to hit over, like a bunker or water, preferably with lots of green to work with. This shot takes all the risk out.

You set up with your feet close together and the ball back in your stance, from there you make a putting style stroke on the ball. The ball will come out low and start rolling. This shot is much easier than using a more lofted club.

When To Use A 9 Iron – Perfect Example

Exactly the same as the pitching wedge, knowing when to use your 9 iron is important when playing golf.

You need to know how far to hit your 9 iron, this will tell when you will need to use it. The best way to do this is to go to the range. If you hit your 9 iron 130 yards, you should use it when you are 130 yards from the flag.

Similar to the pitching wedge you need to be careful if you are playing into or down wind, you will need to take more club when playing into the wind, and less club when playing down wind.

Other Times To Use

You can also use your 9 iron like your pitching wedge for a bump and run shot. The bump and run is used when you are around the green with very little to hit over, especially when there is lots of green to work with.

You will need to set up with your feet close together and the ball back in your stance, from there you make a putting style stroke on the ball. The ball will come out low and start to roll.

What’s Better Off The Fairway

The 9 iron and pitching wedge are both easy to hit off the fairway. They are both short in length making them easier to hit compared to 4 or 5 iron.

The 9 iron will go longer because the loft is stronger and length is slightly longer. Other than that you shouldn’t have much difficulty with them from the fairway.

What’s Better From The Rough

The pitching wedge and 9 iron are both easy to play from the rough, they both have a lot of loft compared to your longer irons like the 4 and 5 iron, this makes it easy for the ball to get out of the long grass.

If we had to choose one we would say the pitching wedge, just because it has more loft.

Which Club Is More Accurate?

Technically the pitching wedge should be more accurate because the length of the club is slightly shorter than the 9 iron, but saying that they are both short clubs compared to the rest of your set, making them just as accurate as each other.

How To Hit Your 9 Iron Or Pitching Wedge Perfectly?

Being able to hit your 9 iron or pitching wedge perfectly is incredibly important, these clubs are considered your scoring clubs.

This means that when you have either your 9 iron or pitching wedge into the green you should be getting it onto the green or at least very close to the green, giving yourself a good chance at birdie or par.

There are two extremely important things that you need to do when hitting a 9 iron or pitching wedge perfectly.

The first thing is transfer your weighting onto your left side (right handed player) when striking the ball, or in other words do not hit off your back foot, this will improve strike and consistency, this leads to the second aspect and that is to hit down on the ball, or in other words take a divot, this does a few things, it improves strike and consistency as well as increase distance, when hitting down on the ball you compress the ball, this increases ball speed and therefore distance.

Pros And Cons & Characteristics Of A 9 Iron Over A 8 Iron

These are very similar irons in terms of how you must hit them, like the 9 iron you need to transfer your weight onto your left side (right handed player) and hit down on the ball when hitting a 8 iron, this will help your distance, strike and consistency.

Pros

• Your 9 iron will be slightly easier to hit as it is slightly shorter
• A 9 iron will go higher compared to an 8 iron
• The 9 iron will have more spin, making it easier to stop on the greens

Cons

• It goes higher, so into the wind that could be an issue
• The 9 iron goes shorter compared to the 8 iron, because it has left loff and a shorter shaft

Favorite Iron sets For Average Players – TaylorMade M2 2020

This might be a bit controversial to some, but we believe that the TaylorMade M2 iron set is perfect for average players, it comes from 4 – SW.

It is an improvement from the first generation set that came out in 2017. The TaylorMade M2 iron set provides distance and forgiveness to any player, while still offering a head size and shape that gives you confidence at address position.

The has TaylorMade’s famous SpeedPocket technology which improves miss hits. It also has ultra low CG and Geocoustic engineering, for enhanced forgiveness and sound.

Pros

• Well priced
• Incredible forgiveness
• Great distance
• SpeedPocket technology to help with miss hits

Cons

• Not packed with all the technology from their latest models
• Might feel light to some players
• No custom shaft options

Check Out More Reviews Here:

Favorite Iron Sets For Better Players – Mizuno 223

The Mizuno 223 irons are incredible, when we first got our hands on them we did not even want to hit them. They looked so good, but when we eventually did, we did not want to put them down.

They felt buttery off the face. The consistency was like nothing else. The head shape is small but not unplayable, obviously being a forged players cavity iron you lose some forgiveness, but we were pleasantly surprised with how good our miss hits went, this is due to Mizuno repositioning the weight in the head into more beneficial positions.

Pro

• The look is incredible in your bag and at address position
• They are reasonably priced compared to their competitors
• Soft feel off the face
• Much more forgiving than you would expect
• One-piece Grain Flow Forged

Cons

• Honestly none, expect if you are a mid to high handicap player you might struggle with distance and forgiveness with these irons, they are built for the better player

Check Out More Reviews Here:

Conclusion

The 9 iron and pitching wedge are very similar in many ways, however they can produce very different shots.

Naturally your 9 iron will go lower and further compared to your pitching wedge, because it has less loft and a longer shaft. That also makes it slightly harder to hit.

Knowing your distance for both clubs is very important, these could be considered scoring clubs, meaning you should hit your shot on or near the green when on the fairway. This will give you a good chance to make a par or birdie.

They are both easy to use out of the rough, and are great to use as a chipping alternative called a bump and run, this shot takes out the risk of using a high lofted club.

Transferring your weight to your left side (right handed player) and hitting down on the ball is imperative to hitting your 9 iron and pitching wedge perfectly.