Who Is the Best Wedge Player on Tour So Far This Season?
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Today
In modern golf, power off the tee may dominate the highlight reels, but the game is still won — and often lost — inside 125 yards. The world’s best players separate themselves not just with drivers, but with their ability to control flight, spin, and distance using wedges and short irons. While there’s no single public metric that perfectly isolates “wedge play,” analysis from PGA Tour statistics and Data Golf provides a convincing picture of who’s excelling this season.
Understanding the Data Behind Wedge Play
Wedge performance can be split into two broad categories: approach play (roughly 50–125 yards) and short game (shots from inside about 50 yards, including sand and rough). The PGA Tour’s “Approaches from 50–125 yards” stat highlights players who consistently hit their wedges close, while the “Around the Green” and “Scrambling from Sand” metrics show who performs best when missing greens. Combined with Data Golf’s Skill Rankings for Approach and Short Game, they paint a nuanced picture of true wedge mastery.
Hideki Matsuyama: Precision and Touch Around the Greens
Hideki Matsuyama’s short game has been nothing short of world-class in 2025. He currently leads the PGA Tour in scrambling from the sand, converting roughly 74 percent of bunker saves — a remarkable rate even by tour standards. Matsuyama’s unique blend of shallow-angle strikes and extraordinary tempo allows him to produce consistent spin and trajectory control from a variety of lies.
Beyond the bunkers, his overall Strokes Gained: Around the Green numbers remain among the best on tour. Matsuyama’s creativity and confidence near the greens make him one of the toughest players to beat in tight scoring situations, where a single delicate flop or bump-and-run can determine momentum for an entire round.
Scottie Scheffler: The Complete Approach Technician
If Matsuyama reigns supreme within 50 yards, Scottie Scheffler dominates from the wedge-to-short-iron range. The world No. 1 leads the PGA Tour in approaches from 50–125 yards, averaging a proximity that routinely gives him realistic birdie chances.
Data Golf’s Approach Skill tool — breaking performance into yardage buckets — confirms Scheffler’s consistency in these scoring zones. His precise control of spin, launch, and trajectory allows him to attack tucked pins without over-spinning the ball. In the “Short Game Skill” category on Data Golf, Scheffler ranks among the top performers with a score near +0.89, reinforcing just how balanced his wedge-and-short-iron play has been.
Scheffler’s dominance tee-to-green is well documented, but these wedge numbers reveal why he converts so many opportunities. When the driver puts him in position, it’s his precision from 75 to 125 yards that turns rounds from good to great.
Another player quietly excelling in 2025 is Shane Lowry, whose deft hands and natural feel for distance control have long been admired. Though not leading in raw proximity statistics, Lowry remains one of the most reliable wedge players in the game. His trajectory management in windy conditions — particularly links-style setups — shows a mastery few can replicate. Lowry’s touch and creativity continue to make him a fixture near the top of leaderboards when scoring depends on precision rather than power.
Verdict: Scheffler and Matsuyama Set the Standard
Taken together, the numbers suggest a shared crown. Hideki Matsuyama stands out as the best short-game wedge player — elite from the sand and around the greens — while Scottie Scheffler leads in approach-wedge performance from 50–125 yards. Both display a level of control that transforms birdie chances into near-certainties and rescues pars when others would struggle.
If there were a single title for the best wedge player so far this season, the nod likely goes to Scottie Scheffler — for pairing world-class precision with unmatched consistency across every wedge distance. But Matsuyama and Lowry deserve every bit of recognition for keeping artistry and finesse alive in an era defined by speed and distance.
