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Distance control for wedges

• GambitMaia 93 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 7:22 AM

  Good afternoon fellas.

  It might sound dumbass, but... it's only me who have power bar problems with wedges? You know, i have to pull out the bar for much more than would be normally required if the shot distances were equally distributed.

  An example - I have an Z Satin 60d wedge which shots 90 yd max. I have a 60yd shot (from the fairway) to go. I pull the bar for about 70% of its length, excellent accuracy... and boom! It goes for no more than 45yd. To make a 60 yd shot I have to pull the bar some 85% or so.

  Another - I have to shoot 25yd from the fairway. Then I get my Z 64d, which goes 50yd in full power, and pull the bar to its half length. Funny to see it doesn't even goes 15yd.

  Here I'm of course not counting wind and spin. And oh, my irons have none of those troubles. And yeah, I'm playing practice rounds to master those crazy distance controls.

  Thanks

• Doublemochaman 2,009 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 7:31 AM

  Wedges and chip shots must be struck with close to full power.  Choose the club and shot type (flop, pitch, etc.) to allow for this.

• NickN85 193 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 7:33 AM

  Well to start off it depends on what your lie is.. are you hitting from the fairway or the rough? and also what is the elevation.. and wind speed and direction

  I see your using the SD balls so youre going to add a little distance to your shots..

  But lets say its a failry flat shot with almost no elevation and very little wind..

  for your first shot.. when youre shooting a Z wedge less than say 75% with a "full" shot then youre going to have to add about 10% power.. I couldnt tell you why this is but thats what ive seen.. so your first shot would then turn into a 76% shot.. and while this only seems like it would add about 5 yards to the shot you actually took.. it will in fact put the shot over that 75% mark and the swing will act correctly..

  On the 2nd shot however... i would suggest anything under 30 yards or so..(with your wedges) that you use the pitch or flop shot.. but remember your pitch shot is going to roll once it lands (depending on elevation and distance of shot this can vary from 2-6 yards.. you'll have to figure it out and judge.. and your flop shot when dinged will shoot 2-3 yards to the right every time and has some roll (depending on elevation and distance this can range from 1-4 yards) therefore you need to aim left accordingly

  you just have to play around with it a bit...

  MY ADVICE... drop the ping driver and get an extra wedge.. something with a closer range.. like the 50 yard Z wedge... that way you can handle those closer shots better and it adds an extra yardage for chip,pitch,and flop.

   

• GambitMaia 93 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:02 AM

  NickN85:

  Well to start off it depends on what your lie is.. are you hitting from the fairway or the rough? and also what is the elevation.. and wind speed and direction

  I see your using the SD balls so youre going to add a little distance to your shots..

  But lets say its a failry flat shot with almost no elevation and very little wind..

  for your first shot.. when youre shooting a Z wedge less than say 75% with a "full" shot then youre going to have to add about 10% power.. I couldnt tell you why this is but thats what ive seen.. so your first shot would then turn into a 76% shot.. and while this only seems like it would add about 5 yards to the shot you actually took.. it will in fact put the shot over that 75% mark and the swing will act correctly..

  On the 2nd shot however... i would suggest anything under 30 yards or so..(with your wedges) that you use the pitch or flop shot.. but remember your pitch shot is going to roll once it lands (depending on elevation and distance of shot this can vary from 2-6 yards.. you'll have to figure it out and judge.. and your flop shot when dinged will shoot 2-3 yards to the right every time and has some roll (depending on elevation and distance this can range from 1-4 yards) therefore you need to aim left accordingly

  you just have to play around with it a bit...

  MY ADVICE... drop the ping driver and get an extra wedge.. something with a closer range.. like the 50 yard Z wedge... that way you can handle those closer shots better and it adds an extra yardage for chip,pitch,and flop.

   

  As I said, both are fairway shots and not taking into account the wind, say it's 0 mph wind with 0 ft elevation. I forgot to say both are full swing and not pitch shots.

  I'm good at pitching, flopping and chipping with my wedges, but the full swings are just sick.

  And I use two drivers only when I play at Bethpage and Oakmont  - there are distance holes and there are accuracy holes. On Andies and Kiawah I put a PING TourW 60d 75yd wedge to replace the Rapture driver.

   

  Thanks for the helpful advice.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:19 AM

  Hi, GM. You are missing something extremely important here-the other 4 shots you can use with those wedges.

  The point I would like to make is that your particular yardage coverage, using all of the shots available for just those 2 clubs is:   90  74  50  41  32  28  15  14  13  6. This is using a full swing with each of full, flop, punch, chip, and pitch shots. Adjusting your swing to fill in the gaps is a lot dicier than taking a full swing. You can use spin to augment those numbers and wind will of course affect them, albeit not the same way for each shot.

  Now, consider what Nick suggested and swap out one of your fairway clubs for another wedge and your low end coverage gets even better. I highly recommend the Satin 77w. It goes 77  63  24  11.  In your example above the 60 yard shot becomes a 95% (or so) punch shot. 

  You're on the right track with the 2 wedges you have. Add the 77w and you will have wedges that will work for you through every tier. GL

   

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:20 AM

  To learn the choked down distances of my wedges, I took the advice I found on the forums.  Start a practice round on BPB #10 or Kia #1 with low winds.  Hit something off the tee to get to the beginning of the fairway.  Then hit a wedge full down the center of the fairway, use the replay to note the carry of the shot, hit the same wedge at 95% and also note the carry.  Turn the  aim around and hit back towards the tee, hit the wedge 90% and note the carry.  Hit it again back towards the tee at 85% ....... turn around and hit towards the green at 80%....75%..etc. etc.  Once you reach max strokes, quit and restart the round.

  You'll get more accurate numbers doing this with low cross winds.  So I restart on the tee if I get a head or tail wind.

  Now you've mapped that wedge from the fair way.  Do the same for 20-25, 30-40, 40-50 rough, and bunkers.

  Yes it takes lots of time and perseverance to complete a wedge.  But well worth it IMO.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:25 AM

  Good tip, Andyson, but the replay thing makes it a bit tedious. Listen for the sound of the landing while watching the yardage counter. It makes a very distinctive THUMP-that's your number. Then when it stops rolling you have the rollout too.

• NickN85 193 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:26 AM

  Jim is completely correct in saying there multiple types of shots that are probably better in those situations.. i was just letting you know how it will react with a full swing... but in all honesty i would have never taken either shot at full swing..just to clarify

• GambitMaia 93 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:42 AM

  Thanks for the advices YJ and andyson. I use full swings, just to clarify things, when no other shot can do what I want - say an approach in KIA #1 or BPB #15 - too far or unfavorable for anything other than a full swing. My examples were just to illustrate my question, you can think of any situation like those.

   

  But none of you have answered what I asked - do you have the same problem? Or do you keep punching full power all the way out?

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 8:59 AM

  No, I don't have the same problem.  For example your 60 yd shot.  I have a chart for my Ping 60 wedge (75yds) that tells me if I hit it halfway between 85 and 90% of full it goes 60 yards with full back spin.