40-80 yard wedges

I have absolutely no problem hitting the ball clean when its a full swing but as soon as I'm hitting those 40-80 yard approach shots I hit it fat half the time. Any tips? I find if I swing slower and longer it helps but what else can I do?!

one thing that i have tried that works for me is that i try to focus on keeping my lead hand in front of the clubhead as i make contact with the ball. You will pinch the ball better and get more spin as a result.

Make sure your weight is slightly forward

During practice try to hit some pitches with just your left hand if your a right handed golfer. A lot of times miss hits happen when you try to do to much with your right hand on these shots.

John Daly practices this a lot. It's almost impossible not to have your hand in front of the ball and still hit it.

Thanks- although Im left handed- I know that causes problems with my putting. It's frustrating when at the range hitting off mats give you no idea how well your hitting it- Ill keep practicing!

As a Pelz fan, I'll offer the following advice:

Don't coil. You dont need, or want, power on these shots. These are finesse shots. Turn your hips and shoulders in sync, and let centrifugal force do the work. Beware of not turning your hips back in your takeaway. A lot of players trying to finesse the ball keep their hips square. Then they swing as they normally would - this leaves the hands behind in the grand scheme.

Easy back, easy through. Then get your putter out.

Hitting wedges fat can be a direct result of poor ball position. For distance wedges (i.e Pelzs 3x4 system) ball needs to just behind centre. This ensures you get a descending blow. Because its a distance wedge you still want to be shifting your weight properly ( rather than a 15-30 yard pitch which is mostly shoulders and wrists)

My guess is as the ball is too far back in your stance you have to really chop down on it to make sure the club hits down on it. The ball position for a wedge should be just behind where the swing will bottom out after you have shifted your weight

wedges should be in the front of the stance

Try hitting these shots with a bit shorter backswing than you are currently taking, and a bit more umph on the downswing (nothing extreme). I sometimes fall into the trap of decelerating a bit on those in-between shots and this helps me - YMMV.


dave

I've never heard of this methodology. I've heard that you always play the ball at your heart, and simply widen or narrow your stance for longer and shorter clubs, respectively. I've heard (for those that move the ball in the one stance) that you play wedges and short irons in the middle of your stance.

I've never read (or heard) of playing wedges in the front, though.

This problem can be fixed easily. The majority of fat shots are caused by deceleration. When the arms decelerate the shaft passes the hands and as a result you will hit it fat. KEEP YOUR HANDS AHEAD OF THE BALL(LEFT WRIST MUST BE FLAT OR SUPINATED). The backswing should be shorter than the follow through. Think of doubling the front. By this I mean take the club halfway back and finish with a full finish. This promotes acceleration. Dave Pelz talks about this in his short game bible. Ball position, the ball position may be too far forward. The club bottoms out too soon. Play the ball further back in your stance. Try playing the ball in the middle of your stnace. It should be placed in line with you sternum. Be cautious of placing weight on your left foot. make sure that you did not place the ball behind center and then place weight on your left foot, when you do this the ball is now positioned off of your right foot. Distance is deteremined by length of backswing and speed. The faster you swing th farther the ball will travel. the longer the backswing the more potential for speed. The shorter the backswing the less farther the ball will go because of lack of speed. Be sure that you are not rushing your downswing. Say to yourelf Tick-Tock or 1 and 2. The lower body provides support and should move in sync with the upper torso. Let the lower body do what it wants to. If you are moving your upper torso properly the lower body is a reaction fo what is going on with your upper body. Do not conciously think about this.

__________________
Jordy Scerbo
Golf Instructor

Dont agree. Ball position should be centre of your stance. Only move it up if you want a high cut or lob shot. Remember he's tallking distance wedges here, not pitches?

Some of the best advice i ever got for these sort of wedge shots was in tiger's book, "how i play golf." he talks alot about not hitting a full shot, which increases your accuracy dramatically. By this i'm talking alot about the same thing as the guy earlier who was saying you don't want or need power, so don't rotate your hips as far as you would on a full iron shot. just relax on the backswing, which should be between half and 3/4 of a normal shot, and accelerate your club through the ball. mastering these sort of shots can help your game tremendously: last year i probably averaged 3 to 3.5 shots from 40-80 yards from the green, making about the same number of birdies as bogeys, and i was shooting in the low-mid 80s. this season so far i'm probably averaging closer to 2.5 shots from this distance, making about half birdies and half pars, and very few bogeys. not that i've mastered it, but gaining control of your scoring clubs, wedges, driver, and putter, can take strokes off your game quicker than you could imagine.

If you put the ball further in front in the stance you can get it cleaner

Oh and in reply to all this about putting the wedge in the front of ur stance, it only helps if you really want to hit the ball fat. If your weight and swing plane are correct, and you're trying to hit the ball on the downswing, hitting the ball and then the grass, the only correct way to do this is to place the ball in the middle of the stance. Unless you have alot of lateral movement in your swing, which is bad, your swing will bottom out just past the center of your stance, so putting a ball very far forward with a wedge will produce a ton of fat shots. Hitting down through the ball produces a consistent trajectory and ball flight, with predictable distance and spin. And unless the pin is right on the front of the green, I even play the ball maybe half a ball to a full ball width back from the center of my stance, because the lower ball flight tends to work a little better when it's windy around here, which is 90% of the time.