Posts Tagged ‘wedge play’

How to Shoot 67

May 22nd, 2010

Here’s a picture of Jordan Spieth’s scorecard from today (Saturday, May 22, 2010):

Jordan Spieth's Stats for Saturday

Jordan Spieth's Stats for Saturday

Does this ball striking look familiar?  I see this type of ball striking stats in my own game and the game of some of my junior and tournament golfers.  The stat I don’t see often, with this type of ball striking, is the 24 putts needed.  This clearly shows how well he either, chipped/pitched and/or putted.  How many of you are capable of shooting 67 when hitting 4 fairways and 9 greens?

How many of you are disciplined enough to spend time away from the range and focus on your short game even after a day like this? All the time and preparation that wedge play and putting takes, shows it’s true benefits on days like this.  To be able to score well on our off days is the sign of a golfer that can win a four day tournament.

This is powerful reminder of where your practice needs to be focused at the higher levels.

As a reminder, this is from a high school golfer.  Youngest to have chance to win a PGA Tour event in a long time.

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Posted in Putting, Tournament Golf

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Golf Lessons – Good Lie / Bad Lie

March 21st, 2010

This Golf Lessons post will talk about good lies and bad lies.  What they are and how they affect shot selection around the green will also be discussed.  To accurately determine what shot to play, the first thing you have to do is determine what options you have available to you.  This begins with an assessment of the lie.  Here is an example of a good lie

Good Lie

Good Lie

and here’s an example of a bad lie

Bad Lie

Bad Lie

For me, I define a good lie as any lie where I know for sure that the club and ball will actually contact each other and a bad lie is when there is a good chance that some grass will get between the clubface and the ball.

A good lie allows for many more options is terms of club and shot selection and a good lie will also tend to be more predictable when it hits the ground. With good lies, you can use various shaft and face positions from a delofted front edge chip to an open faced flop shot.

A bad lie can make all the choices for you.  It can tell you what type of shot you have to do and what club you should use.  Granted, you can choose many options but you’ll learn from experience which ones work and which ones don’t.  Generally speaking, the worse the lie the more loft you should use.  Typically, you will also be restricted to an open clubface and vertical to lay back shaft positions.  Because the ball won’t spin as much(because of grass getting between the face and the ball), we use loft to try and gain control over how much the ball will roll after it lands.

Stay tuned for future posts where I talk about how to create these types of shots.

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Posted in Golf Lesson

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Bounce-How Much is Right for You?

August 24th, 2009
In a previous blog, I talked about what bounce is and how it is used. This one will discuss how much you should have.

In general, you should have one high bounce wedge and one low bounce wedge. It is best to have an option for all sand and turf types.

The wedge you use the most for chipping should be the one that fits your tendency. If you tend to be a front edge divot taking chipper, than your main wedge should be a higher bounce wedge. This will give you a little margin of error to prevent the chunk.

If you tend to sweep or hit the ground mid sole, than you would want your main wedge to be a low bounce wedge.

Generally, you’ll want to use your lower bounce wedge for high lofted shots so you can open the face with out the leading edge coming too far off the ground.

Keep up to date with wedge groove rules as they are a changing. The low spinning 40 yard shot will be gone soon.

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Posted in Teaching Techniques

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Bounce-What is it and why?

March 27th, 2009
Bounce is the name given to a condition about, most commonly, the sand wedge when the trailing edge is lower than the leading edge. (See picture below.) The bounce of a sand wedge is there to help prevent the club from digging when we don’t want it to. Is was originally designed for use out of the sand. When we rotate the face of our sand wedge open and swing it into the sand, the bounce will help keep the club near the surface of the sand. This allows the sand to travel faster thus helping the ball get out of the sand easier. Bounce can also be helpful in preventing fat shots when a person chips or pitches and when the turf is wet/soft.

As with anything, there is a time and place when bounce is helpful and when it is not. If you are hitting off very firm turf or shallow sand, the bounce can keep the leading edge too high off the ground/sand causing a skull or extremely thin shot that goes way too far. You have to be very careful when assesing the lie of the ball. If there is not very much air under the ball, either on turf or in the sand, you want to use a club with very little bounce. How do we know if there is air under the ball in the bunker? When we dig our feet in the sand, we will feel how much sand we are dealing with. The more you sink the more air under the ball.

Nowadays, most good sand wedges will say how much bounce they have. If your wedge is a little older or less expensive it may not say on there. When you look at the bottom of the wedge at eye level, you’ll get an idea of what you are dealing with.

How do you know how much is right for you? Well, it depends. I’ll go into that in another blog.

Bounce on Sandwedge

Bounce on Sandwedge

How Bounce is Measured

How Bounce is Measured

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Posted in Misc., Practicing

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