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Distance control for wedges

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 9:10 AM

  I can see where you're having difficulty. You have different meter speeds and use a slow meter ball too. That meter must be crawling! It's been a complaint for a while now, how the wedge speeds don't match the better clubs and does cause a bit of a problem sometimes. There is no fix but what you can do is fairly simple-practice a little with the free ball and then go back to your normal ball. ( IMO you should go to the Tour-SD ball and just learn it. You get used to the faster swing rather quickly and it gets easier to be consistent.)

  Practicing some with the faster ball makes your regular ball much easier to hit.  GL

  *edit-I went back and reread your original question to make sure it got answered and something else came to mind. The meter % is not directly  proportional to the distance. Just because you swing 50% doesn't mean the ball will go 50% of the rated distance.

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 9:25 AM

  YankeeJim:

  but the replay thing makes it a bit tedious.

  No argument there.  Its where perseverance comes in.  LOL  Being a stickler for accuracy I don't trust watching the yardage and listening for the THUMP.  But if it works for a "measure twice cut once" guy, maybe I should try that on my next wedge.  Hope that's a Legend wedge with built in GPS and cup-seeking technology!

• GambitMaia 93 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 9:28 AM

  Ok andyson, thanks, and finally YJ answered my question. That's the core of what I was looking to know - if the meter was proportional.

  And the different meter speeds are not much of a problem to me Jim, I can handle the differences quite nicely - and I use feel balls simply because of my recently-bought R9 (you know, a misdrive can hurt). I used Tour SD before the R9 and will use them back shortly, I have 10 of them in my inventory just waiting to be sent out of bounds :)

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 9:38 AM

  GambitMaia:

  That's the core of what I was looking to know - if the meter was proportional.

  Here's how you deal with that. The club jerks in the backswing. Figure out how much each "jerk" is in the club's backswing. Move to the full swing position, back off until the club moves once, hit it and then see what happens. Then try it with 2 "jerks" an so on.This way you can tune your own eye to your own avatar swing and come up with a consistent number.  :-)

   

  @Andy-sometimes it's still "Damn, no matter how much I cut it it's still too short!"  :-D

• Switz71 278 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 2:20 PM

  It's posts like these that have truly helped my game. Thanks for the tips guys, much appreciated.

  I was struggling big time as of late with the short game, to the point of almost convincing myself I needed to master the 20 foot putt. Which "for me" on tourny greens is a near impossible task.  

  The question I have is a little off topic but I would sure appreciate some guidance. When I played within the Master tier, I was at a point where putts were just falling for me. I used both methods depending on the length and break of putt, either moving marker or by timing the meter. Upon making Tour Master status does a person need to be constantly adjusting marker & "ding" their shot? I'm just wondering if the deviations are less forgiving the higher a person advances.

   

• PGAbound67 565 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 7:43 PM

  Switz, what works for me may or may not work for you, but here goes. My typical style of putting is maybe only dinging 50%(if that) of my putts. Straight putts obviously I'll aim to ding it, and the little short ones. But on longer breaking putts, I play less break and click early/late depending on direction of break. If I have a 25ft putt that breaks 2 squares right to left, I'll only aim like 1.5 squares left and click late. I don't do that a whole lot with clicking early as I rarely get the desired effect, so on L-R putts I typically go for ding. But the others, I find that clicking opposite the direction of the break putts that little bit of sidespin on it and the putt holds its line a little better. But like I said, works for me, maybe not for you. The main thing to remember on the tournament greens is to play more break and hit it softer.

• Switz71 278 Posts

  Thu, Feb 17 2011 9:08 PM

  Thanks for the feedback Mr. PGA, I appreciate your reply.

  I've never purposely tried both methods at the same time, will definitely give it a go. It's taken a while for me to grasp the concept of playing the break instead of powering it through on trny greens. Old habits die hard I guess :)

  Thanks again for the help.

• GoldCard 298 Posts

  Fri, Feb 18 2011 1:07 PM

  Switz71:

  It's posts like these that have truly helped my game. Thanks for the tips guys, much appreciated.

  I was struggling big time as of late with the short game, to the point of almost convincing myself I needed to master the 20 foot putt. Which "for me" on tourny greens is a near impossible task.  

  The question I have is a little off topic but I would sure appreciate some guidance. When I played within the Master tier, I was at a point where putts were just falling for me. I used both methods depending on the length and break of putt, either moving marker or by timing the meter. Upon making Tour Master status does a person need to be constantly adjusting marker & "ding" their shot? I'm just wondering if the deviations are less forgiving the higher a person advances.

   

  20' putt on on very fast greens should be hit at either 16' or 17' power depending on uphill or downhill. (This is for normal 1-4' up/down greens)

  On Tournament greens the same putt will only require 14-16' of power.

  Severe hills you need to make minor adjustments to the above.

  These distances are based on calculating:

  Tournament = 20' to hole, no up/downhill

  Divide 20' by 1.3 = 15.38'

  Very Fast = 20' to hole, no up/downhill

  Divide 20' by 1.2 = 16.66'

  Always add/subtract feet up or downhill to distance to hole before dividing.

  I have used these calculations for months now and almost never 3 putt,

  Missing the ding on purpose does work  but it is a lot easier to move the aiming point and try to hit the line you can see  than to guess just how far to miss it by and try to hit an invisible line?

  As greens get faster they become very unforgiving of even minor mishits.

• Fubar057 170 Posts

  Fri, Feb 18 2011 1:16 PM

  You can also use  85% on Very Fast green & 76% on Tourny gr.  85% X 20 = 17.2 ft.