Wedge practice at the range

Practice
#21

I have found success with finding my avg yardages for different “types” of swings. I have a specific yardage for each wedge in my bag for three swings.

  1. Full Swing
  2. “9:00 Swing”
  3. “Pocket Swing”

I started zeroing these distances in on the range, then once I had a general idea, I took a bag full of balls and my range finder to the course. After a nine hole “round” hitting lots of shots from various distances, making good notes, I have a very good idea how far everything goes. No matter how rusty my swing may be, these numbers don’t change.

Put in a little time, take some notes, and be confident.

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#22

This is great information. I’ve become that guy who brings a shag bag of the balls I play when I go for short game practice. I’m very much a feel player and I feel this has been a bit of a game changer in regard to my short game.
I suppose if you’re just mashing bucket after bucket on the range the balls you’re hitting won’t matter that much, but around the greens I have to be a bit of a snob.

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#23

I don’t spend much time hitting off mats at the range but when I do I more focus on form and alignment. I am fortunate to have a practice area at my course with a proper green area (close mown, solid surface with flags) that you are able to hit to from up to about 50 yards. Here I can focus on ball striking, distance, loft, etc.

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#24

I’m curious as to your wedge technique for hitting these shots… are you just trying to hit a “softer” version of a full swing? You mention chunking alot of them, is that for all distances?

I just finished Sieckmann’s Your Short Game Solution, and he talks about finesse vs power wedge shots… finesse being 40 yards and in, and power being 40-120… I think it makes sense to have different strategies for the different distances.

Short wedge shots he wants you to “throw” the club into the ball, this allows you to you the wedges bounce and basically helps eliminate fat shots.

40 yard plus is more focused on controlling the low point of your club and making a “regular” swing… he suggests a narrow stance and a more aggressive shaft lean (to hit low, high spin shots)… whether or not you want to learn that shot is a different question, but the technique does not allow you to ground the club early.

For me, when I’m hitting longer wedge shots, it’s easy for me to get my hands and arms ahead of my body, by focusing on a hip release and keeping my hands back, I hit down on the ball and HAVE to have good contact (even on mats) to succeed…

It’s somewhat challenging to get the two techniques mastered, as they are basically polar opposites, but I’ve enjoyed practicing them!

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#25

Got out on the range today and hit only my three wedges 50, 54, and 58. I was really working on control and tempo. I played my tour tempo beats in my headset and just went to town picking various targets and distances. It is probably the most control I have had to date with any club and any swing. It is a refreshing feeling to know all of the stuff I have worked on with my golf coach for the last year during this swing change is all there, if I don’t think about it and just work on my tempo. The highlight of my practice though was when I decided to take aim at the range cart 9nobody was in it and it was parked). I have no idea as to the distance it was because I didn’t have my laser with me and today was more about a repetitive feel than a distance game. I figured if i made a full swing with a club and it went whatever said distance, then I want to repeat it. Anyway, I digress, so back to the range cart. I am guessing it was about 85 yards away, so I figured instead of almost full 58 I would swing about a 75% 54. The ball launched beautifully and headed right for it, took one bounce and landed inside the back of the cart. I never felt more accomplished to date on the golf course, you would’ve thought I got a hole-in-one. I laughed, gave myself a high five (figuratively, because you know, COVID) and I went to the short game area. I am so happy with my progress over the last 90 days, now to bring it on the course.

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#26

Nice! I was having a ton of success with my new finesse technique around the greens… went to the course to see if it translated and was very happy with it… it’s really nice when this stuff clicks.

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#27

Two things that I totally realized today: 1) the looser I hold the handle (grip pressure) the faster and more control the swing is. 2) if I keep my head in it’s proper position until post impact, my body position and tempo stay together.

I mean sometimes you just have to get back to the basics. Although for me the hardest thing is the grip pressure, I know I always way over grip and think I can work through it, but that doesn’t allow the club to release. There have been some videos floating around lately of either Freddy Couples’ or Ernie Els’ hands at impact (can’t remember who) but after watching and seeing him nearly let go of the club, it all made sense to me.

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#28

I use what GH3ST Golfer suggests, in addition to setting up a towel a couple of inches behind the ball for chips/pitches.

I set up at near the ends of the range and use the stakes that anchor the netting as targets. My goal is to fly it to the stakes, since roll out is different from the course and the range. At other ranges, I try to fly it to the base of the poles. I laser the stakes/poles to get a general idea of distance.

#29

I feel your pain. I too have a decent range practice area for wedges and chipping. I play games, vary my practice, and do well. Then on course I get all weird over the ball and hit awful shots. Really been a round killer for me recently.

I have noticed at the public courses I play that the lie you get 10-20 yards off green isn’t always very good. It’s often sparse grass and dirt, not a true grassy rough. So hitting That shot after practicing on various fairway lies and rough lies isn’t helping.

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#30

My local club has no range but it also not very busy. We have a par 5 that has about 150yd section of fairway that is pretty flat. I will go out and hit to and from the yardage markers in the fairway. If I’m at the 250 I can hit to the 200, 150 and 100. If I need to work on a 40 yd shot I will just move 10 yds closer. A range finder helps but is not totally necessary. With that said, a range finder on the range is absolutely necessary. You can shoot distances to a lot of imperfections like hills, drains etc to give you some distances other than where there are flags.

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#31

I can’t wait for my PRGR (and hope it picks up my ball flight with wedges) to lock in on distances. I feel like I already have pretty good control from 50-100 but excited to see how good I am vs what I think I’m doing and how I can get better.

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#32

There are definitely variances - eg. you’re at a nice club hitting Titleist Practice vs ya gotta see it to believe it get outta here what they give you at Crab Meadow (my local muni)…

But in any case… it’s helpful and useful to pick out at a target on the ground at the range on your own and try hitting a few balls with a few different clubs to that same spot!

#33

Love it! That’s why I really like Par 3s for approach and wedge practice!!

And on the course one of my goals is just as @Gisclairj said - down in 3 from 150 and in … eg. hit the green and 2 putt, or get up & down👍

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#34

It’s such good practice. Not to mention, he always puts us in really difficult positions, so it’s never just easy straight up and down shots. Makes you really have to think about what we’re doing.

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#35

Was at the range today working on some wedge stuff. What I got to realizing is, see the shot, set-up, take a practice swing for the pace of said shot. The thinking is down, move immediately behind the ball, replicate the practice swing without thinking about it. Seemed to work really well. Instead of standing over the ball and thinking about how I am going to make the shot work, all of that was done prior. Seems to be a lot faster too.

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#36

Hi everybody. Through a newsletter that I get from TaylorMade I got a link to a YouTube video what Tiger, Rory, and Jason Day talking about wedge play and it’s about 35 minutes of fascinating chat about how each player approaches shots (to hear that they change wedges every week or two I didn’t want to hear). Some good insight to how 3 great wedge players think with a wedge in their hands and I hope you enjoy it.

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#37

Finally getting to put the Sieckmann midrange wedge swing into play… Really like it…

Basically, narrow stance and focus on “pulling” your hands through the ball to create a lower ball flight with a ton of spin… Still a mixed bag for me and I really have to continue to practice the technique… should be a good thing to practice in simulators this winter, really hoping to get it down… Right now miss seems to be a big pull left.

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#38

Utley is worth reading too. I read both and it opened my eyes to different approaches to the short game and while I’m still in the middle of the changes I’m trying to make, I think ultimately it will help me improve

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#39

I love Stockton’s advice in Unconscious Scoring about amateurs only really focusing on two types of shots to score around the greens…low or high…and when and how to hit both.

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#40

^^ Second that!

Early on I spent too much time thinking about all the different types of short game shots that could be applied in the situation I was looking at … but … none of which were applicable to me as I did not have the requisite short game skills to pull off any of them…

It really pays to have one - two, if you can - “stock” dependable short game shots that give you the best chance to get the ball into the green (and hopefully heading towards and stopping near to the flag :wink:).

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