attacking pins with the wedge

[garyinderry]

played with a 3 handicaper the other day. what impressed me most about his game (apart from hitting every fairway up the middle) was his approach shots using a wedge. now im fairly handy with a wedge myself but what i noticed was i hit my wedges twice as high as this fella. his seemed to zip towords the flag no higher (maybe a bit) than a lamp post, where as i hit my shots into the sky which leaves them at the mercy of the wind. if i could work out how to do this then i would be more birdie opportunities that were makable rather than being outside chances.


open to some suggestions. will attempt to control the heights of the shots at the range tonight out to the 100 yard marker.


:mmm::angry:oo:

 

[bobmac]

When you hit your full wedges hard, they go high.
Learn to hit a smooth, half swing wedge and maybe back an inch in your stance and you will control them better.

 

[garyinderry]

ah yes. more power = more backspin = more height! will give it a go. your right, his looked very smooth and easy. might well be the key my man. thanks

 

[Junior]

When you hit your full wedges hard, they go high.
Learn to hit a smooth, half swing wedge and maybe back an inch in your stance and you will control them better.

Controlling your "traj" as the yanks would say

 

[garyinderry]

worked at this tonight at the range. hitting out to the 100yard marker.

i started by hitting my usual pitching wedg. this went out to the 100 very high. changed to the 9 with a nice controlled 3/4 swing and was just clipping them nicely to the marker at about half the height of the pitching wedge. this looked a lot like the approaches of the 3handicaper mentioned above.

did more experimenting by forcing very high 52 wedges out to the 100. far too high.
back to my old pitching wedge method. again very high.
then spent a good while clipping the 9iron to it the marker at a very controlled trajectory.


well pleased with tonights work. going out tomoro for a game. will try to encorporate this into my game. ill use it when on flat holes. it will take a bit of getting used to but it seems like it will be better for me in the long run. i really enjoy flying them way up there and landing them at the pin but this seems like it will be more economical in the long run.

cheers bob, simple is best!

 

[garyinderry]

time to give this some course practice. control is the aim of today. this will certainly help when i play the handful of links courses i normally play over the summer.

 

[bladeplayer]

Were you chipping off the mats or the ground Gary ? i find chipping/pitching of the mats is off very off putting as you cant take a divot as you would on the course ,so you cant realy replicate the conditions , there was a great piece in last months mag regarding wedge play etc, im hitting my wedge lower trajectory & sharper, geting better check on them & a few are even spinning back a bit ,, i feel im geting better control from 80 yards in .. be good to hear how you got on

 

[garyinderry]

it was mats last night. i dont mind hitting off them as i strike down on the ball quite a bit and you can do this as much as you want with mats without hitting it fat.

today i played a round with a fella and told him what i was looking to work on. we both tried when the occasion arose. short par 3 135yards into wind i hit a very controlled 7 iron. kept it nice and low and ended up pin high. i have been hitting high 8's into this recently so was pleased with the result. tried a few more during the round. it will take a little time to work out the distances for these shots.

after the round i headed down to the 10th. stood 115 out into a small wind and clipped controlled 8 irons at the flag. did this with 6 balls. collected them and repeated. tried the 9 as per usual for that shot and it rose high and was affected by the wind. sat doing this for a few reps with the 8 iron really enjoying the flights and accuracy.

played a drive up 11 which turns back with the wind and then stood at 120yards and clipped 4 8irons up onto the green in the controlled fashion.

so all and all left happy. this is something i want to weave into my game. us high handicappers make this game harder than it is. we ALL ask what the yardage is, then high the highest club at the maximum. this is wrong for control. ive had my eyes opened this week and this is something i will continue to work on. i think your sig sums it all up really well.

 

[SocketRocket]

I like to use the imagery of hitting the ball under a bar that is 3 yards infront of me a 1 yard high. It encourages you to stop trying to lift the ball up and hit down and through with good ball compression. This also helps to make a lower trajectory with good stop up spin.

 

[garyinderry]

ill try and think about that next time im at the range.

i would love to take straight divots. its either out to in or in to out. im never going to get the ball to suck back like that. i can get the ball to stop but thats it.

 

[m10johnson]

My mate off 2 has learnt what wedge at what clock angle (10 o'clock) travels certain distances. If he can he will use a lower degree wedge to keep the ball down with big spin to stop it dead.

Work on this on the range with a range finder and watch how each degree of wedge travels in the air, but going the same distance.

 

[garyinderry]

there you go then. this is what the low guys are doing and not letting us in on the big secret! i feel that this will push my game on to the next level. being able to do this and being able to fly them up opens up alot more shots in the locker. ive always told people that my game goes to pot when the wind gets up. not any more! before this ive had to aim 20 yards right or left of greens in big winds. this is the key.