"Everybody can get better on 15 minutes per day."
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Tom Tucker, Unrenowned Golf Coach 😄
Tom's Featured Tip: Problem: All Wedges Flying The Same Distance
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Problem: All Wedges Flying The Same Distance
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Problem: All Wedges Flying The Same Distance
I just did a lesson for a player who had the problem of his wedges all carrying about the same distance. We solved it with a ball striking lesson, which is all about compression.
Here are some thoughts why that distance problem could be happening.
Check your lofts
If you pull two wedges out of your bag and they’re only a degree or two apart in loft, that’s an equipment problem and not a technique one. A 54 and a 56 with similar bounce and grind will produce very similar distances on a full swing. Get your lofts checked and spread them out properly, usually four to six degrees apart through the set.
Equipment is the easy fix but most of the time it’s not the main problem.
When your lofts are properly gapped and the distances still can’t separate themselves, there’s a good chance you are scooping.
Wedges are built with enough loft to get the ball airborne on their own.
The loft does that work. Golfers who struggle with wedge distance control often don’t trust this. Instead, they try to help the ball in the air by releasing the wrists early and flipping the clubhead past their hands before impact. This process adds loft at a time when that is not necessary. The wedge handles the loft for you.
The early release causes your swing to bottom out before the ball instead of after it. Rather than trapping the ball between the clubface and the turf on a descending strike, you’re sweeping it or catching it thin, and the club is moving up through impact instead of down.
Once that happens, the loft difference between your wedges barely matters anymore, because you’re delivering a different, less efficient version at impact.
On full swings, scooping robs you of compression and distance so your longer wedges come up short of where they should land. On short, partial swings, the same fault makes distance control nearly impossible to repeat, because the amount of added loft changes shot to shot depending on how much you flip.
How to tell if this is you
Two or three quick checks on the range will confirm it.
- Divot check.
Hit a few full wedge shots and look at the divot. No divot at all or a divot that starts before the ball means your low point is happening too early. A proper strike takes the divot starting at the ball and pointing at the target.
- Tee check
Push a tee into the ground about two inches in front of your ball. On practice swings, try to clip it after the low point of your swing. If you catch the tee or miss it high, your swing is bottoming out early.
- The Two Ball Strike
If I'm hitting off a mat at the range, another thing I occasionally do is place another ball about two or three inches in front of the ball I'm going to hit. When I swing, both balls get airborne if I put a ball first - ground second compression strike on the first ball. Just be a little careful with this one if there's someone hitting balls to your right. Note that a safer option is to just put a Cheerio two or three inches in front of the ball, then observe that it disappeared after the strike. Personally, I like to see the two balls fly. 😄
How to correct a scooping strike
- Check the ball position.
Ball position too far forward encourages an early flip. Play it center or just behind center for wedge shots.
- Weaken your grip position
A grip that’s too strong makes it easier to flip the clubhead through impact. Weaken it slightly so the lead wrist stays neutral through the hitting area.- Test it: Make a few slow-motion swings and pause at impact. Your hands should be ahead of the clubhead and the shaft should lean slightly toward the target.
- The Inverted Praying Hands Drill
Doing this drill for two continuous minutes, three times per week, will train your hands and wrists positions for a compression strike
- Retrain -or refrain from - the release.
Keep the clubhead moving down the target line through impact instead of letting the trail hand take over and flip it past your hands.- Test it: Go back to the tee drill at full speed. Once you can clip the tee consistently on practice swings, the same feeling should show up as a divot starting at the ball on real shots.
Try it, you'll like it!
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Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer, The Stack and Tilt Swing
Love your practice, own your swing, own your health, and remember that golf is a game of discovery. Don't be afraid to experiment when you practice, it's good for your golfing brain.
Tom
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Buying a sponsored product through any of my affiliate links helps support this free newsletter, and I only affiliate with excellent products that I use myself. Thanks, Tom
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All the best,
Tom Tucker
Teaching Professional, Batavia Country Club
WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher"
USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional
IGPA Certified Golf Psychology Coach
Cell: (716) 474-3005
Email: TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
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"There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection1"
~ Ben Hogan