When your ball is 135 yards from the green, or 145 yards away, the club you'll use to get the ball on the green is pretty well determined. Take out the appropriate iron, hit the ball with your standard swing, and that's all you have to do. You don't have clubs specifically built for shorter distances, say 75 yards or 85 yards, though. You have several clubs that could carry the ball that far, and if you know how to use them, you can get the ball close every time.
Most people these days have three wedges in their bag, some carry four. For the wedge set to work in concert, it needs to have consistent variations in loft. Most pitching wedges are 48 degrees, and a set of wedges should include a 60-degree lob wedge. If you only want to carry one other wedge, make it a 54-degree wedge. This splits the 12-degree difference between the pitching wedge and the lob wedge in half. A four-wedge set would divide that total difference into three equal parts, which means a 52- and a 56-degree wedge are appropriate.
Our goal now is to find out how to use our set of three or four wedges to cover every distance between 50 and 100 yards. This is the range in which most golfers will be making less than a full swing; they'll be hitting a pitch.
Everyone has a short pitching stroke that feels just right to them, just like the natural thing to do. You can repeat this swing over and over again, because it's your swing. So take your wedges, three or four, and hit a half dozen balls with each one, using your personal pitching swing, and see how far they go. Try to do this in a place where you can go out and step off the distance to where the balls land (not to where they finally stop rolling). These are the baseline distances for each club.
We each have different speeds of movement that feel right to us, too. If we want to swing faster, there is one swing, and only one, that makes sense to us as "faster." It's the same for when we swing slower. We will move down consistently to just one slower speed.
Hit a half dozen pitches with each wedge, just like before, with the faster swing and with the slower swing, and step off the distances you get. You're writing this all down, too, aren't you? When you're finished, you'll have nine swing/club combinations that send the ball different distances, that will nicely cover any distance you could play from on the course in that 50-100 yard range.
Don't be surprised if you get some combinations that yield almost identical distances. That's OK. That's to your advantage. If you can hit the ball 63 yards with two different clubs, use the higher-lofted club if you need to stop the ball quickly, and the lower-lofted club if the ball needs to run after it lands.
One time, take only your wedges to the range and buy a big bucket of balls. Go to a deserted part of the range and do nothing but work out your wedge distances. You will be amazed at the scoring opportunities you'll open up for yourself.
Bob Jones is dedicated to showing recreational golfers the little things, that anyone can install in their swing and game, that make a big difference in how they play. See more at http://www.bettergolfbook.com
Most people these days have three wedges in their bag, some carry four. For the wedge set to work in concert, it needs to have consistent variations in loft. Most pitching wedges are 48 degrees, and a set of wedges should include a 60-degree lob wedge. If you only want to carry one other wedge, make it a 54-degree wedge. This splits the 12-degree difference between the pitching wedge and the lob wedge in half. A four-wedge set would divide that total difference into three equal parts, which means a 52- and a 56-degree wedge are appropriate.
Our goal now is to find out how to use our set of three or four wedges to cover every distance between 50 and 100 yards. This is the range in which most golfers will be making less than a full swing; they'll be hitting a pitch.
Everyone has a short pitching stroke that feels just right to them, just like the natural thing to do. You can repeat this swing over and over again, because it's your swing. So take your wedges, three or four, and hit a half dozen balls with each one, using your personal pitching swing, and see how far they go. Try to do this in a place where you can go out and step off the distance to where the balls land (not to where they finally stop rolling). These are the baseline distances for each club.
We each have different speeds of movement that feel right to us, too. If we want to swing faster, there is one swing, and only one, that makes sense to us as "faster." It's the same for when we swing slower. We will move down consistently to just one slower speed.
Hit a half dozen pitches with each wedge, just like before, with the faster swing and with the slower swing, and step off the distances you get. You're writing this all down, too, aren't you? When you're finished, you'll have nine swing/club combinations that send the ball different distances, that will nicely cover any distance you could play from on the course in that 50-100 yard range.
Don't be surprised if you get some combinations that yield almost identical distances. That's OK. That's to your advantage. If you can hit the ball 63 yards with two different clubs, use the higher-lofted club if you need to stop the ball quickly, and the lower-lofted club if the ball needs to run after it lands.
One time, take only your wedges to the range and buy a big bucket of balls. Go to a deserted part of the range and do nothing but work out your wedge distances. You will be amazed at the scoring opportunities you'll open up for yourself.
Bob Jones is dedicated to showing recreational golfers the little things, that anyone can install in their swing and game, that make a big difference in how they play. See more at http://www.bettergolfbook.com