4 Best Strategies That Can Help You Make Your Wedge Play Effective

Distance isn’t everything; if you want good scores on a regular basis, you need touch as well. A good short game and that means putting but also being able to regularly get close to the pins from fairway and rough just 10 or 15 yards away. It is important to be able to visualise the shot and then execute it so the ball lands where you intended.

While the chip and run from something as low as a 7 iron is a shot to have in your armoury, especially on dry links courses, it is important to be able to use execute shots that require loft; the pitching wedge, the sand wedge and even the lob wedge.

Practice is essential and practice grounds with distance signs will help you to put yourself at distances that you may face on the course itself.

• The hands are most important. It is often described as having a ‘feel’ for the shot which involves having soft hands that do not grip the club too tightly. You may well hold the club a little lower down the shaft.
• Your swing should be essentially the same as for longer shots because the principles of the game, back swing, striking the ball properly and follow through do not vary.
• You are holding the club lower down the shaft so you can stand an inch or two closer to the ball than you would with longer irons or fairway woods.
• Within the stance you should bend from the hips and flex your knees. You can be slightly open compared with longer shots.

The practice ground will help you find what is best for you. You may want to break your wrists but it should only be slightly. What you need to concentrate on is temp; you should try to repeat a smooth temp every time because you are likely to feel under pressure when you are so close to the pin, yet in one way so far away. If you can regularly get up and down, hitting the green and single putting you will regularly be able to compensate for a wayward shot earlier on the hole.

There are still some slight variations with a wedge shot to the green. You may want to carry the ball the majority of the way to the pin and have it land softly. Sometimes you may be more comfortable to land the ball hallway between where you are and the pin and get the ball to release forwards. You can be faced with a green that slopes towards you or alternatively slopes away. Whatever you face practice will help you handle it.