A friend is taking up golf and was loaned a wedge of some type to practice with. I know it’s a wedge based on teh angle, but instead of saying SW or PW on the club head, it says “E”. Anyone have an idea on what that means? The guy who owns the club didn’t know. I’ve never seen that term before.
The Ben Hogan Apex Plus club set has E F S and L wedges. They have different loft angles (E is closest to the 9-iron). I don’t know what E stands for, tho.
E = ??
F = ??
S = sand
L = long
Ack, following my own post. Oh, well.
According to http://www.benhogan.com, F = fairway wedge and L = Lob wedge. They don’t mention the E wedge at that site, although they do at this site: http://www.iwantgolf.com/iwantgolf/iniho100-apex-plus-st.html. Go figure.
waitaminute… on this site http://www.golf4golfer.com/customer/category/Ben_Hogan_Mens_1147.html they call it the Equalizer wedge.
I’m not sure which is which, but either the “E” or “F” wedge is the so-called “gap” wedge, intended to bridge the distance gap between the pitching wedge and the more lofted sand and lob wedges.
In my own case, there is about a 30yd difference in my distance with a full pitching wedge and a full sand wedge, whereas my other clubs fall at roughly 10yd intervals. So you can see the utility of a “'tweener” club.
In my inherited bag of clubs, there is an iron clearly labelled “8.”
Everyone who has ever seen the clubs loft has assured me that it is a sand wedge. 
sdimbert, there is no standards that specific clubs must be a certain loft. In other words, the loft on my 8-iron may be very different than yours. Lately, the practice by golf club manufacturers is to reduce the loft of their clubs. This way people can brag that they hit their 8-iron 190 yards when in fact the loft may be like a 6-iron.
What you may have is an old set that had higher lofted clubs.
There is a lot of truth to that, especially if you compare modern clubs with clubs that are quite a bit older. I myself have a 9 iron from a ca. 1950s set of clubs that I carry for flop shots around the green. It is more lofted and has a sharper leading edge than the wedges of my newer set.
sdimbert, might be able to tell for sure by looking at the sole of your “8” club. If it looks pretty much like the other clubs in your set, and seems the right loft when compared to your 7 and 9, it probably is indeed an 8 iron with more loft than newer clubs. If, however, it has a rounded leading edge and a distinct “bounce” to it (in other words, a very rounded sole, intended to help the club skip off of sand rather than digging in) it may in fact be a mis-labeled sand iron.
I recommend using the Lob wedge for learning - it’s very heavy, so it’s a good one to learn the weight of the club through the swing, and across the board the degree of loft does not change for the Lob wedge. Once you’re comfortable with that one, I’d recommend moving to the 7-iron, then the 5-iron.
As for the OP, I always called that the “Edge club”, used for shots where the ball rests right at the edge of the apron and fringe - pros will also use their fairway 3 wood for those types of shots.
I seem to recall that the E is a desgnation of some makers for a standard Pitching Wedge, but don’t hold me to it. At one time you had woods, irons and a wedge. Now there are what, a dozen or so types of wedges available? My second favorite club in my bag is an old 11 iron I found in a trade store for 2 bucks. I rarely miss with it, and it does draw some strange looks 
It’s just a wedge before they were called wedges I’m guessing cuz I can’t find anything written about 11 irons.
Thanks for the info Samclem! My 11 is a McGregor and is stamped “Pitching Duty”. Comparing it to my cheap Acculine sand wedge (60 degree), it looks to be about a 50 degree angle. As was mentioned though, clubs tend to range in loft about 8 degrees depending on who made them and when.
I don’t know. The most common [sub](from lowest to highest loft angle)[/sub] are:
PW - Pitching wedge.
SW - Sand Wedge
LB - Lob Wedge/Loft Wedge
I’ve also seen:
AW - Approach Wedge
My suggestion would be to take the club into a pro shop and get the loft/lie/bounce angle checked out then you won’t have to worry about what the hell the E means. It could just be a hybrid of two clubs. FI, a SW with a lower bounce angle to make it easier to hit from the fairway.