Finesse Wedge - Chipping and Pitching
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30 Yard Reference - Finesse Wedge
For a portion of my students, a 30-yard wedge shot can be a trouble spot; this can be due to poor technique, but it can also be attributed to a bit of misunderstanding. Thankfully though, we have been able to establish a very straightforward and useful backswing "reference point" using 3D data from a variety of touring professionals. Ultimately, this reference point can dramatically simplify things and provide players with the foundation to create reliable wedge shots from multiple distances.
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This wedge video is 30-yard reference.
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So I have a number of students who struggle with kind of that 30-40-yard shot and one thing
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that I found has helped a lot of golfers is having some idea of a reference of about
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how big of a swing you should take.
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So we'll go through, we'll look at a bunch of, or a handful of Torpro 3D files and what
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you'll see is that there's kind of this zone where most of these Torpro's have figured
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out they need to take their backswing back to about this far in order to hit a 30-yard.
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What I tend to see is that the amateurs who struggle with this area tend to be too short.
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I have seen a couple who will tend to take it a little bit too far, but most of the time these
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golfers will bring it back to about here and then try to really create speed and have kind
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of a big wild acceleration on the way through.
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In order to have more of a consistent acceleration on the way through, most golfers, most
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Tor golfers for this 30-yard shot are going to bring their hands to about belly button
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height or the shaft, somewhere kind of in this zone here somewhere around shaft about 45.
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That tends to give you enough speed to hit a 30-yard shot without having a massive acceleration.
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By being able to swing a little bit more in rhythm or feeling like you're swinging at
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kind of a more constant speed, you'll probably have a better chance of controlling your distance
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for these 30-yard shots because you won't have to manage how fast you're going to accelerate.
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You can just accelerate smoothly all the way through the shot.
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With the finesse wedges, I like to have a couple different swings just like we do in the distance wedge.
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So I'll have a lot of golfers do one more they bring it back to about the club head at about
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knee height, kind of right there, and then one to about hip height, and then that 30-yard shot
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at the hands coming to about belly button height. And as if you only had one reference other
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than your little green side chip shot, I would like to build that 30-yard reference
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because I think that you can always feel like you swing a little shorter or a little harder
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and once you get to about 50-yard 60-yards, usually it feels close enough to a mini full swing
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that it's no longer a problem. It's really for that kind of nebulous 30-40-yard shot that a lot
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of golfers struggle with, and I find that if you build a reference of about how far back you're
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going to take, keeping your tempo consistency, it really helps with dialing in your distance.
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Okay, so that 30-yard distance taking it back to about belly button height, kind of like that,
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and then just having a relatively smooth acceleration on the way through.
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The two, if you're looking at yourself on video, I'd recommend doing this one from a face-on camera,
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and what I want you to look for is if you're doing, if it's kind of a short shot,
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and then you're trying to speed it up, you'll see, I did that with a lot of leg or arm action
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or occasionally, for golfers you get really steep, they'll on this 30-yard shot pick it up,
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and almost do like a full swing, and then try to really flip it on the way down.
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So if you're going to have more of a smooth, consistent tempo, then as a reference, I'd recommend
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this kind of, this checkpoint here, of the club at about a 40-degree angle, 45-degree angle,
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with the hands at about belly button height.
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Little higher launch, but good distance.
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Last little point, this can be a great distance to coordinate with your tempo,
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of a one-two kind of smooth acceleration rate on the way through, and then training yourself to
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just to keep the tempo the same and just adjust your distance to hit it a little further or a little
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shorter.