Squeezing a Few Extra Yards Out of a Wedge

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This distance wedge video is squeezing a few extra yards out of your distance

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wedge.

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So there will be times where you are in between clubs.

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I'm a big fan of training kind of your couple different length back swings.

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The majority of golfers, your best shots are going to be more of your kind of

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shoulder

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height or three quarter wedge shots.

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Rarely is it going to be the all the way full.

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And it's hard to get enough spin on the belly button height so that shoulder

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height swing

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is going to be the one where it typically gets kind of that one half, one hit

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and stop.

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So I recommend getting really good at the number for each of your wedges.

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So I have a 58, 54, 50 and I have my stock wedges for that one that I love to

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hit.

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But that doesn't mean that you're never going to hit a full swing distance

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wedge because

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there will be gaps.

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There will be times where the extra speed will give you more spin.

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So it's easier to get it to stop.

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And strategy wise, you know, potentially it's downwind and they need to try to

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get more

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spin.

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If I hit more of the lower, like the lower swing speed shot, then I'm not going

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to get

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enough spin and it might roll over the green.

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Well there are a few times where you need to squeeze a little extra yardage out

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of your

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distance wedge because you want to swing hard enough to get spin and you don't

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want to

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take the bigger club and swing smooth.

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I would say that this is definitely a more advanced skill.

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If you're a 10 handicapper above, try this only kind of in your fun casual

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rounds.

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This isn't something that I would recommend falling in love with.

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But if you need to squeeze a few extra yardage out of your distance wedge,

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there's two ways

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that I like to try to do it, neither of which is swinging harder.

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I want you to stick with your full length swing and full length tempo.

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But we're going to try to deloft the club a little bit to squeeze a few extra

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yards.

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So option one is we're going to hit more of a draw.

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Option two is we're going to hit more of a pull.

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Depending on your swing style or your swing path tendency, all we're really

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trying to

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do is get the club face to be a little bit more close.

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Now it takes a little getting used to because not A, especially if you're

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hitting the draw

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shot, not many people visualize curve when you're looking at your distance wed

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ges.

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We tend to aim more or less at the flag or at our intended spot near the flag.

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And so imagining it curving into the end with a distance wedge can sometimes

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feel a little

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bit more awkward.

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But the deal off thing in the club are getting a little bit more draw or a

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little bit more

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close club face is one viable way for giving you that five yards of extra

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distance.

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So we will go ahead and hit kind of our standard distance wedge more or less

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kind of like

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this.

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And you'll see fairly, fairly straight for my ball flight.

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If I want to squeeze a little bit extra, this is going to come out just a tiny

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bit lower.

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I'm going to change my alignment stick a little bit to the right.

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So I'm going to get my club, my stance a little bit more close and the club

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face a little

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bit more close and then I'm going to make sure that I continue to close it

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during the

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swing and that's got a lower flight, a little bit more draw and typically that

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will give

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me about five yards of extra carry.

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Now if you have more of a kind of upper body dominant pole pattern, then I

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would recommend

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aiming the same way and just playing more of a pole rather than playing more of

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the draw.

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If you have more of kind of a stock draw as your technique, then one way to

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squeeze out

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a few extra yards is to close the club face.

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The most common times when I'll use this is if it's downwind, but I need a

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little extra

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yards.

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So I need the full speed to get a lot of spin, but I need a couple extra yards

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out of it.

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Out of the rough, if you're trying to hit it over something like over a tree

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where it's

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an advantage to hit the shorter club rather than trying to open the face of a

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longer club.

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That's another time and sometimes if there's a big false front and I want to

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make sure that

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I can take a little spin off, make sure I get it past the pin, but the longer

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club like

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maybe there's trouble over the green.

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So definitely an advanced skill, but something you should consider if you're

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really trying

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to figure out how to fill in a few of those gaps with your distance wedges.