Golf Wedge Play Help: Controlling Trajectory is Crucial
It is pretty easy to hit your wedges sky high and watch them float down onto the green. So that is what you should do, right? Hit them as high as possible and bring in your ball from out of the sky to try and get it close to the hole ? No, not necessarily. Whenever possible, it is better to control the trajectory of your wedge shots and bring them in low for added control.
Distance Control is King
It all comes down to controlling how far the ball flies on your wedge shots. It isn’t too hard to get your wedge shots on line when you are coming in from 100 yards or so. The challenge is getting the right distance on your wedges so you can place the ball close to the hole and set up some birdie chances. Even if you hit a shot perfectly online but miss the yardage by 10 yards long or short, you will not have a realistic chance to make your putt very often.
Lower Flight = Distance Control
Sending the ball way up into the sky brings in more variables than you want to deal with on a given shot. If the ball is floating up into the sky, it has more time to be affected by the wind, it’s spin, and other factors. Contrary to that, a lower flighted shot will get to the target quicker and be less affected by any variables that might be in play. With some practice, you should be able to dial in your distance control with wedge shots so you can reliably come within a few yards of the number one way or the other.
Choke Down, Back in Stance
The easiest way to control your trajectories on wedge shots is simply to choke down on the grip of the club, and place the ball back a little bit in your stance. These two adjustments will naturally lead to a lower flight, but you are going to have to practice to make sure you are still striking the ball cleanly with this setup. Once you are comfortable with swinging this way, start to measure how far the ball flies with different clubs so you can know what to reach for when on the course. Controlling distance is something that professional golfers do really well, and something that amateurs can benefit from learning how to do better.
