Alien Wedge

My wife just purchased an Alien Wedge for me from eBay. Can anyone tell me how to swing the damn thing? Can it be used in lieu of a sand and lob wedge?

Finally, is there a video that anyone is willing to part with?

Sorry you fell for that one. It is basically a very odd-looking paper weight. It's claim to fame is that is has the largest "bounce" on the market which means that leading edge of the club will never, ever, ever experience the feeling of going through dirt.

You can try, but you would have to hood the club so far closed that you would have to worry about decapitating you left knee.

But on a good note, you can use it as a sand, mud, lava and magma wedge to get the ball out...it just ain't going very far.

My suggestion is to learn to play with a regular sand wedge first. This way, you have control of the distance and the loft that this club gets you and you are not forced to have to play just the one shot the alien can do...a soft, short and fluffy shot.

Here are your key thoughts about sand:

* Hit behind the ball, never at it - this causes the sand to push the ball out softly.

* Distance can be regulated in different ways:
1) The further behind the ball you strike the sand, the shorter it will go. But error to far and the ball goes nowhere. Use the dollar bill rule. Never hit farther then a bill would be if the ball is resting on the front part.
2) The angle of the face at impact causes the ball to be hit higher or lower which pops the ball higher or lower up causing it to go shorter or longer and causing it to stop or run. The issue here is that you have to determine the distance you are from a landing zone and regulate the angle accordingly. You always want to have the least amount of angle on the face making it run the farthest, but landing it as close to you as possible.
3) Your setup affects the overall face angle at impact. Always set your feet, shoulders and swing path in the same line. Aim that line to the left (right-handers) of the target landing area. Always square your clubface AT THE TARGET. So what this does is that you will have to let the club slide "open" in your hands. Because you aim left, and have to keep the face square at the target like you would if you were playing a normal shot, the grip in your hands will have to be allowed to roll open. Do not grip the club first, then move the body open. You have to move the body and allow the club to spin in your hands so that the face stays pointing at the target. You will feel the grip slide in your hands. This is one of the biggest mistakes made. You will always end up returning back to the original gripped position (way too steep of an angle in sand and you won't ever get the club under the ball, your club's leading edge will start to dig into the sand and never "bounce" out...ah..where the alien is good, but bad in that you don't get to change the bounce angle if you want to play a longer bunker shot. Back to the angle that you point to the left of the target to regulate the distance you go....Start practicing at about 15 degrees tot he left. This is always a good base. You will start to see the resulting distances - where it lands with the amount of swing you put on it and the amount of run you get. Remember that the harder you hit anything, the more spin is put on it and the shorter it stops. So play with that angle and get that out first. After that you can start to move to 30, 45, even 60 degrees. These are harder because you have the clubface very open and you have to start to get closer and closer to the ball for you to make good contact and have the ball react the way you want. But when done right, you can get the ball to pop out very high and land very soft and even back up if you catch it just right....fun to see happen.

So, put the alien away, get out any regular sand wedge and play out of bunkers using these tips...you will be happy you have the options available to you.

Thanks for your post.

I've been practicing with the SW and getting somewhat better. I've also used my lob wedges from the sand with good results.

Thanks again.

Lob wedges are not the best choice out of the sand because they have little bounce and are prone to get stuck in the sand, digging in too deep. But if you are getting out, I guess that's all that really matters.

Greg:

Part of my problem is that the practice bunker has relatively little sand and is almost like hardpan. My SW bounces off the surface and I skull the ball. I have much better luck with the LW or XW. In the course's actual bunkers there is much more sand and I'm practicing from them as I play. After I hole out, if there are no golfers behing me, I drop some balls and try different wedges.