00:00So let's get you better dialed in from inside 100 yards.
00:03We're gonna be looking at something really cool
00:05called the distance wedge triangle.
00:07Let's get into it.
00:20So the distance wedge triangle is made up of three aspects.
00:24The first is centeredness of strike.
00:26The second is making sure you've got
00:29a nice low dynamic loft at impact,
00:32usually less than 15 degrees.
00:34And then the third is altering your swing length
00:38to increase or decrease the amount of clubhead speed
00:41you've got at impact.
00:42All three of those aspects are absolutely critical
00:45to be accurate inside 100 yards.
00:48We've often looked at the third one, swing lengths,
00:50that's been well coached and well documented,
00:53but the first two have often been neglected.
00:55So we're gonna really focus on those.
01:00So number one, centeredness of strike.
01:03What we're trying to do here is make sure
01:05that we hit the ball out of the horizontal center,
01:09i.e. not out of the toe or the heel,
01:11but also out of the vertical center as well,
01:13which means not catching it fat or thin.
01:16In order to do that, we're gonna need to do
01:18a couple of quick things at setup.
01:21I like to see the ball just forward of center
01:23of your stance, left foot turned out,
01:26a little bit of weight favoring your left side,
01:29and maybe even invoke a little bit
01:30of forward shaft lean at address.
01:33We're gonna make a nice centered backswing.
01:35That means that we're not swaying our head way off it
01:38or moving our weight excessively over to the right,
01:41because that's gonna cause us real contact problems
01:44with where we hit the ground.
01:46We're trying to make sure that we hit the ground
01:48either level with or slightly after the golf ball,
01:52just like that.
01:53If we can do that, we're gonna get ball first,
01:56divot second, that nice compressed contact with the ball.
02:01Once we've learned to hit the ground in the right spot,
02:04what I like to do then is do the runway drill,
02:07which is all about trying to make sure
02:08that we land the club in the horizontal position correctly.
02:14So what I like to do is set up this little tram line,
02:17set up to the middle of it here,
02:19and I've given myself a little runway
02:21or a tramway there that I can swing down.
02:25You can see I just hit a little bit too close to me
02:27on that one.
02:28We'll have another go.
02:29Set up those tram lines again.
02:32Just go a little bit further back.
02:38On that one, I landed it a little bit too far away from me.
02:41So this third and final one now,
02:43I should be able to land it exactly on the correct spot.
02:49Perfect, right down the tram lines.
02:52That's gonna give me a really nice opportunity
02:55to hit it exactly out of the center
02:58and also out of the vertical center.
03:00Those are gonna give you really consistent ball speeds
03:03and it's gonna allow that ball to come off
03:05with a controlled amount of spin and launch
03:08to get the ball landing nice and close to the flag.
03:16So the second aspect of the triangle
03:18is having that nice low dynamic loft.
03:21The best players will probably de-loft their wedge shots
03:24around 15 degrees for a distance wedge shot
03:27in this region of 70 yards or so.
03:29What we're trying to do is make sure
03:30that we've got plenty of shaft lean through impact
03:33and that we're delivering that club,
03:35if it was a 58 degree lofted wedge,
03:37I would de-loft this to around 43 at impact.
03:40The reason we want that is it's gonna give us
03:42that nice low launch angle, high spin, plenty of friction.
03:47The ball will grab nice and low on the grooves
03:49and it'll come in and get that nice one hop
03:52and stop type effect when it lands.
03:55So how can we do that?
03:56Well, I like to use the alignment stick drill.
03:58So what you're gonna do is grip the club
04:00with the alignment stick
04:01about halfway down the alignment stick
04:03and just try and take your normal grip,
04:05try and fashion it up
04:06so that you're still holding the stick next to the grip.
04:10And you're gonna have the alignment stick
04:11just outside your left hip.
04:13And what it does is it invokes a nice amount
04:16of forward shaft lean even at address.
04:18We're not looking for that necessarily,
04:20but it helps certainly with the drill.
04:22But what I'm trying to do is make sure
04:23that when I swing through,
04:25I'm not allowing this stick to touch my left rib cage.
04:29If I do, I'm gonna get really bruised on my left rib cage.
04:32So making little shots back and through as a drill,
04:36trying to just brush the ground
04:38with that nice low dynamic loft.
04:41So let's give it a go.
04:42Let's try and hit a shot here.
04:44I've got GC Quad running,
04:46get into my normal setup position.
04:50Good centered backswing as I've said before.
04:53Ball just forward of center,
04:54little bit of weight on my left
04:56and I'm really trying to de-loft the club through impact.
05:03Nice low flying,
05:07distance wedge shot.
05:09GC Quad's there telling me,
05:11I actually de-lofted that there to,
05:14what's it coming up with?
05:15About 7,044 spin and it was de-lofted
05:19to 44 degrees of loft at impact.
05:21So a nice 14 degree de-loft.
05:24That's exactly what we're looking for.
05:25Low flying, a nice spin on the shot.
05:33So the third aspect is dealing with
05:35the different club head speeds
05:37that can control the ball speed
05:39and how far the shot carries.
05:41So how can we easily monitor that?
05:44Well, this is something that's been spoken about a lot
05:46by various different instructors over the years
05:48and it's how to use the clock system in your wedge game.
05:52What we can almost do is imagine
05:54where would our left arm swing to in the backswing?
05:57You could swing your arm, you know,
05:59from down here at address at six o'clock.
06:01We could swing it to sort of 8.30,
06:04maybe 9.30, 10 o'clock,
06:06or indeed all the way up to a full backswing.
06:08Those three different sized backswings
06:11will obviously give you three different club head speeds.
06:14Now, obviously when we're doing this,
06:17you can call it what you want.
06:18You can call it a small swing,
06:20a medium swing, a large swing.
06:22You can call it half, three quarter, full.
06:24It really doesn't matter.
06:25What's important is that it's individual to you
06:28and you know how far each of these shots goes for you.
06:32What I recommend to players is
06:34get the numbers written on the back of your wedge.
06:37Try and see if you can actually practice them at a range,
06:39a top tracer range or a trap man range,
06:42and put them down on the back of your wedge
06:44so that when you pull the club out of your golf bag,
06:47you know exactly what your three swings are.
06:49So I've got a 50 yard shot here.
06:51I know my small 8.30 swing
06:55goes about 46 yards carry.
06:58So let's give it a try.
07:00Again, as I've mentioned,
07:02monitoring my setup,
07:04ball just forward of center,
07:06little bit of weight on my left
07:08and a nice 8.30 backswing.
07:16Little bit left of the pin,
07:17but it's gone the right distance.
07:20So give those three aspects
07:21of the distance wedge triangle a go.
07:24Make sure that you're focusing on centered strikes,
07:26on a nice minus 15 dynamic loft at impact
07:30and get those distance wedges dialed in
07:33with three different backswing lengths.
07:34And you'll watch your proximity to the hole
07:37get way, way better inside a hundred yards.
Comments