Full wedge - how accurate are you?

Hi,

I visited our range today. It's not opened yet, but tomorrow the season starts:-)

I was given a drill for accuracy. Idea is to hit 10 balls with a wedge ( about 90 meters?) and add the distance from the first ball to the others. Idea is to get all balls as close as possible to each other.

I did not do the exercise today, but looked like my total could be about 70 meters.

Has anyone tried this? What would be a good size circle to get the balls in? (If it's 10 meters, that would make the total distance less than 50 meters.)

Hannu

Hannu,

Maybe a better way of thinking about this is to use Dave Pelz's PEI (percent error index) to guage yourself.

Hit 10 balls, then measure how far each was from the desired hole as a percentage. It takes math, but you can compare against tables in his Short Game Bible.

For your info:

Generally pros have PEI in the 8% range, until they get to the wedges. Then it doubles. This is why the men that originally discovered the short game (think Tom Kite) could dismantel their competition. Tom concentrated on lowering the short game PEI, which is the most important part (from a stats perspective) part of your game.

So, to be at a pro level, you should AVERAGE 10.5M from the hole at 70M. (15% PEI).

Theo

Theo

Hi Theo,

why is wedge not so accurate? Is the shot to a green and the ball rolls more?

Our practice area for short game is an old fairway. Balls do not roll so much and there is not an actual green on it.

I know it's a bit cheating, but I could use your idea about PEI by shooting 11 balls. First ball would be a marker for the hole. The stats would not be totally comparable, becouse I just neet to repeat 10 more shots like the first one:-) ... and balls do not roll so much.

Math can be solved by using excel:-) ... and it draws nice graph too.

Hannu

Hannu,

I love Pelz because I feel he applies science. Pelz said that when he first discovered this even he was surprised.

I will state Pelz's working assumptions:

1. If you are pro, you have good hit mechanics off of the fairway when trying to hit hard. This is called a power swing.
2. Pro's pretty much keep the same swing, but vary the club to get closer or farther shot.
3. Once you are inside 100 yards, suddenly, you find out that the "power swing" does not work. You can't hit 100%.
4. Therefore, even the pro's start to blow it when they try and swing at 50 or 60% of intensity.

So maybe I can help you some more:

1. Take your wedge and "power swing" it.
2. The PEI should be fairly close. (I would discounted the bladed balls that go 200 yards. )
3. This PEI should be low
4. Your PEI for shorter shots should be higher.

Your 11 ball idea is great, and/or simply pick a target.

Theo

Thanks Theo,
I just came back from the range.

The idea of 11 balls has one flaw. If the first ball misses, like I just pulled my first ball -> the target ball. After walking to the target area I noticed that my orange color ball was the one most in left. So calculating the distances from that gave my a PEI 17% with a Pitching wedge. (70 meters).

Next I toke a barrel as a target and got a PEI 13%. The balls were quite the same way as in the first, but know the target was more in the center and the total distance was much smaller.

PEI 13% with a wedge would be good in an actual competition and single shots. I think that it should be more like 7 - 9 % with a wedge, when shooting 10 balls from one place.

It was a good exercise. Made me concentrate more than otherwise I would have. I did not hit a powerswing, but maybe a 70% easy one. Something that comes quite natural for me.

Hannu

Now, to me, pulling the first ball is actually great. Now you've established a target to which you don't already have a feel for. You have to create this feel all by yourself.

At any rate, you're practicing something worthwhile. The next thing that Pelz talks about is the 3 different positions you get into to get 3 more repeatable distances with your wedges.

Lowpost,
do you mean like from full swing (4/4) to 2/4 halve swing?
Or full swing club at 3 o'clock, next step club at 1 o'clock and then 10 o'clock?

Or do you think the positions should be worked just with wrist angles?

OR is this something everyone has to work out for them self?
(Do your own scale for three positions?)

Hannu

For a RH golfer, Pelz uses the following times, based on the left arm:

7:30 - I've taken this one to mean hand at the thigh. The other thing that Pelz has you do for every position is set your wrist cock.

9:00 - Obviously this is arm horizontal, parallel to the ground.

10:30 - the distance from 7:30 to 9:00, but this time more swing.

For those that like angles, if the ball is 0° and your head is 180°:

7:30 = 45°
9:00 = 90°
10:30 = 135°

The other thing Pelz talks about is no coil. The hips and shoulders turn in sync.

It's all in the book by Dave Pelz: My Short Game Bible.

The only distance I've dialed in right now is my 60° wedge at 7:30. It's 28 yards for me (+/- 3 yards).

__________________
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A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

For me ... the 9:00 would be something to try. Maybe I will try it so that my club points straight up - or I have a 90 degree wrist cock. (Club might not be straight up, but a little pointing backwards.) This would be easy to control... I will dial it in tommorrow:-)

Thanks

I dialed in two positions for my Pitching wedge:
a) 70 meters - arm at 9:30 to 10:00 and wrist cocked 130 degrees. I let my hips coil to make a fluent swing. I am hitting with shoulder rotation. Little like chipping, but more action in hips.
Today PEI was 8% :-)

b) 50 meters - arm at 8:00 to 8:30 and wrist at the same angle as in address. again I let my hips coil to make a fluent swing. I am hitting with shoulder rotation. Little like chipping, but more action in hips. PEI was 11%.

I also realized that hitting from a mat gives a totally false feeling. If my ball would have been on the ground, I would have duffed it many times. I was hitting fat.

Hannu

Here's another wedge drill.

I have read about this in the monthly magazine I get Todays Golfer www.todaysgolfer.co.uk. There is a section where theres a celeb challenge and I think its a great way of becoming very accurate with your wedge. It like this

Take a golf umbrella and place it 50 yrds away from you openned up upside down and place it in the grass. Then hit 10 balls into the umbrella with the object of the balls you hit have to remain inside the the umbrella. Sounds easy dosent it have a go and see how many you get. Now this is a test for accuracy. By the way mine is 1 out of 10

Cheers
Mark