Improve Your Wedge Game with the Towel Drill

The finesse wedge towel drill teaches you how to keep your body moving through impact instead of stalling and throwing the clubhead with your hands. That matters because many poor wedge shots—chunks, blades, and even the occasional double hit—come from a downswing where the chest stops and the arms take over too late. This drill gives you a simple way to train better connection, a more reliable low point, and cleaner contact on those touch shots around the green.

How the Drill Works

For this drill, place a towel high in your armpits and make short finesse wedge swings while keeping the towel in place. The goal is not to pin your elbows tightly to your sides. Instead, you want the towel supported up in the armpits so your arms stay connected to your torso while still allowing the club to move naturally.

That distinction is important. If you squeeze your elbows inward to hold the towel, your forearms can get too steep, which often makes wedge contact worse. You still want the trail arm to sit slightly underneath the lead arm in a natural, shallow delivery. In other words, stay connected without becoming rigid.

Once the towel is in place, the drill encourages your chest to keep turning through the shot. If your chest stalls, your arms will separate, your hands will race past your body, and the towel will be difficult to keep in position. So the towel gives you immediate feedback: if you keep rotating, the motion stays organized; if you stop, the swing becomes handsy and unstable.

This is especially useful on finesse wedges, where you want the club to coast through impact with control rather than snap past the ball from a late burst of arm speed. Your wrists can still be soft and responsive, but the body remains the engine that carries the motion through.

Step-by-Step

Set the towel high in your armpits. Place it high enough that your upper arms stay connected to your torso, but do not jam your elbows inward to hold it.
Take your normal finesse wedge setup. You can be slightly open with your stance if that is your preference, but avoid letting your shoulders get excessively open or tilted.
Keep your arms shallow and natural. Let the trail arm sit slightly underneath the lead arm rather than forcing both forearms into a steep, pinned position.
Make a short backswing. This is a touch-shot drill, so keep the motion compact and controlled.
Let the club fall from the arms in transition. You do not need to drag the handle or force the club down. Allow the club to drop naturally as you start down.
Keep your chest turning through impact. Feel as though your torso continues rotating so the club can move through the ball without a late hand flip.
Finish with connection intact. If the towel stays in place through the strike and into the follow-through, you likely kept your body moving well.
Start with small shots. Hit short pitches first, then gradually lengthen the motion only if you can maintain the same connected, turning-through feel.

What You Should Feel

When you do this drill correctly, you should feel that your chest carries the swing through the ball. The club is not being rescued by your hands at the last second. Instead, your body keeps moving, and the club follows.

You may also feel a slight sense of throwing the clubhead while staying connected. That is fine. The key is that the throw does not happen independently of your pivot. Your wrists remain free, but your chest continues rotating so the motion stays synchronized.

Here are the main checkpoints to look for:

The towel stays high and connected without excessive squeezing.
Your chest keeps turning through the strike instead of stopping at the ball.
Your upper body stays centered rather than diving downward into impact.
The club glides through the turf with the bounce working, not the leading edge digging.
Contact feels quieter and more predictable with less need for timing your hands.

Done well, the strike should feel more like a brushing, sliding motion through the turf than a stabbing hit at the ball.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Pinning the elbows too tightly. This often steepens the arms and defeats the purpose of the drill.
Stopping the chest through impact. If your torso stalls, your hands will take over and contact will become inconsistent.
Diving the upper body downward. This is a major cause of chunked wedges because it drives the leading edge into the ground.
Letting the lead shoulder get too low. If your left shoulder works down too much in the through-swing, the club can dig instead of using the bounce.
Getting too open with the shoulders at setup. A slightly open body can be fine, but if the shoulders follow too much, the motion can get steep and glancing.
Trying to hold the towel by tension alone. The towel should stay in place because your motion is connected, not because you are squeezing everything rigid.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is about more than just one wedge technique. It trains an important overall pattern: the body keeps moving so the club can bottom out in a predictable place. When your chest stalls, low point becomes erratic. Sometimes you catch the ball clean, but just as often you hit behind it, blade it, or add too much last-second hand action.

In your short game, that body stall is especially costly because finesse shots require precision more than power. You do not have enough speed to recover from poor sequencing. The towel drill helps you build a motion where the torso, arms, and club keep working together through impact.

It also helps you understand how solid contact is created. You are not trying to force the club into the ground. In fact, when your body stays more centered and keeps turning, the bounce of the wedge has a much better chance to interact with the turf correctly. That is what allows the club to slide under the ball rather than dig.

If you tend to hit wedge shots with too much hand action, too much flip, or a body that stops at impact, this drill gives you a clear correction. Use it to train a through-swing that feels connected, turning, and balanced. Over time, that will lead to more reliable contact, better distance control, and much more trust in your finesse wedge game.