NEWPORT BEACH – Some people call it a lob wedge. Some call it an L-wedge. Some simply call it a 60-degree wedge.

If you have one in your bag, it’s probably one of your favorite clubs, because it’s ideal for short high-lofted shots that land softly and stop quickly on the green.

And if your lob wedge saves you a lot of strokes, and helps you win more than your share of skins or other golf bets against your buddies, you should come out to the Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club this weekend and thank Tom Kite.

That’s because Kite, a 2004 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, was the first known tour golfer to regularly use a lob wedge and carry three wedges in his bag. He says he got the idea from short-game guru Dave Pelz, a former NASA physicist who is credited with coming up with the concept of higher-loft sand wedges.

“In the late ’70s, Pelz recommended I put a 60-degree wedge in my bag,” Kite said Tuesday at the Balboa Bay Club, where he was the featured speaker at the annual “Breakfast With a Champion” event that kicks off Toshiba Classic week. “It changed my game and revolutionized the way the game is played, to some extent.”

Kite said he put the 60-degree wedge in his bag during the summer of 1980, back when the most-lofted club in anyone’s bag was a 56-degree wedge.

He was already an accomplished player. He led the Texas Longhorns to NCAA championships in 1971 and 1972 – Kite and teammate Ben Crenshaw were co-NCAA individual champions in ’72 – before turning pro and winning his first two PGA Tour events in 1976 and 1978.

But his career took off after he added the lob wedge to his arsenal. Call it four degrees of separation.

“That one club allowed me to go from a pretty good player to . . . a much better player,” Kite said modestly.

In truth, the 60-degree wedge helped make him a star, separating himself from the talented tour pack, almost overnight.

In 1981, Kite won the PGA Tour money title, the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average and Player of the Year honors from the Golf Writers Association. In 1982, he won the Vardon again and finished third on the money list.

He was also the only player to win at least one tournament title every year from 1981-87. And in 1989, he won three tour events and another money title. He did everything except win a major, but that would come.

“I never finished out of the top 10 (on the money list) for quite a few years,” Kite said. And when his fellow pros saw how much success he was having with his wedge game, many of them also started carrying three wedges, including the 60-degree wedge that turned into his magic wand.

“When somebody out here on tour does something that works, it’s amazing how many people start taking notice,” Kite said. “We’re all copycats. . . . Now you don’t see anybody that’s not using at least a 60-degree wedge and Phil Mickelson and a few others have 64- or 65-degree wedges.

“It just shows you how important the short game is, at all levels, on tour or the amateur level. If you can chip and putt, you (can be successful). As Harvey Penick (his former coach and mentor) used to tell us, ‘If you’ve got a really good short game, it doesn’t matter how good you hit it. And if you don’t have a really good short game, it doesn’t matter how you hit it.’ “

Kite got a another chance to flaunt his short game – and his lob wedge — in the final round of the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, when howling winds clocked as high as 47 mph turned Sunday into a train wreck for a lot of players. The final-round scoring average was 78.3, but Kite got up and down from everywhere en route to an even-par 72 to capture his first major by two shots.

His most famous shot was holing a lob wedge for birdie on No. 7, where swirling gale-force winds turned the 105-yard, downhill par-3 into an adventure. Only one of the last 30 players that day hit that green with their tee shots. Kite tried to punch a 6-iron into the wind, missed the green left and long, but pulled out his favorite weapon and found the bottom of the cup. It was one of nine times he used his lob wedge that day.

Now Kite, 61, uses his wedges on the Champions Tour, where he has won 10 times, to go along with his 19 PGA Tour victories. So don’t forget to thank him this weekend if you can’t live without your lob wedge.

Pro-am tee times: Kite and Lee Trevino go off No. 1 at 7 a.m. in today’s morning shotgun pro-am, Corey Pavin on No.11 and Crenshaw on No. 18. In today’s 12:30 pro-am, Ian Baker-Finch goes off on No. 4.

In Thursday’s 7 a.m. pro-am, defending champon Fred Couples and Mark O’Meara go off No. 1, Nick Price and Trevino on No. 10 and Baker-Finch on No. 14. In Thursday’s 12:30 p.m pro-am, Tom Watson and Bernhard Langer go off No. 1, John Cook on No. 6, Jay Haas on No. 10, Tom Lehman on No. 11 and Mark Calcavecchia on No. 17.

Contact the writer: ryoungman@ocregister.com