WGT Golf News

By Josh Zander

Trap it! No, that doesn’t mean put it in the trap. It means that great wedge players trap the ball between the clubface and the ground. The compression they create leads to wonderful distance control.

The biggest mistake I see amateurs make is to make full swings with their wedges and hit sky balls. Their distance control is too variable. The same swing with a 56 degree wedge  might produce anywhere from a 60 to 100 yard shot. This is not acceptable. After all, you are relying on your wedge to put you in range to make a putt and make a birdie or save par.

The reason for this inconsistent distance is because of the loft on the wedge. The increased loft leads to the ball rolling up the clubface at impact. This is much like what Phil Mickelson wants when he takes a full swing with a lob wedge and hits the ball 10 feet. Well, we don’t want this when we are trying to hit an 75 yard wedge shot. Tour players de-loft the clubface 20 degrees when they hit their wedges into greens from 75 to 125 yards. That means that they are turning their 56 degree club into a 36 degree club which makes the loft more like a 7 iron. The ball comes off with a penetrating flight and stops quickly due to backspin.

Make sure your technique is fundamentally sound with your wedges. First, make sure you keep your weight more on your front foot when you hit. As a right-handed golfer, I think about turning around my left leg. This guarantees that I will hit the golf ball before I hit the ground. This compression leads to very solid contact. Secondly, make a shallow 3/4 type swing into the ball. This shallower angle helps the ball rebound off the face as opposed to crawling up the face. Lastly, come into impact with a forward leaning shaft which de-lofts the clubface. This results in fantastic distance control. Never make full, all out, swings with your wedges. There is no need to. After all, if you need more distance, there is always a longer club you can use.

There will be some site maintenance occurring tonight (5/11) between 11pm and 3am Pacific Time.  Please be sure to save your games, and our apologies for any inconvenience.

WGT player clunester is the lucky grand prize winner of the Visit Edgewood Tahoe Sweepstakes!  He has won 2 nights stay at Twin Pines, located on the shores of Lake Tahoe, 4 rounds of golf at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, and $300 airfare credit.  Congratulations to Clunester from the WGT team.

These five lucky WGT players each won a new SkyCaddie SGX by random drawing in the recent SkyCaddie SGX Challenge.

HackerIII
Ren64Blue
NDRUFF
Marco180
Hrrikane

Check out all of the tournaments we currently have running for chances to win more great prizes.  Don't forget to check out the offerings in Closest-to-the-Hole tourneys as well as stroke play, and good luck!

WGT.com will be unavailable starting at 11PM Pacific Time on Thursday, May 6 for about 4 hours. Please be sure to save your games before this time. This is a system maintenance downtime, not a product release so no visible changes will occur after the site is back up.

Joining a club is fun and easy. All you need to do to get started is to navigate to the Country Club page via the link located at the top bar of your browser window.

Now, browse through the list of Country Clubs listed in the Country Club Search area, or type in the name of the Country Club you wish to join and press the Search button.

Once you've found the club you'd like to join, click on the Country Club name and you'll be taken to that Country Club's home page. To request membership in this club, you'll beed to click on the REQUEST MEMBERSHIP button. A request email will be sent to the owner of the club, and if they approve your request, you'll be given notification of your entry into their Country Club. It's that easy!

If you ever decide to leave the club you've joined, simply navigate to the Country Club home page and press the QUIT COUNTRY CLUB button. .

If you'd like to create your own Country Club, navigate to the Country Club page via the link located at the top bar of your browser window.

Press the CREATE A COUNTRY CLUB button to start the Country Club creation process.

Next, choose a name for your new country club.

The minimum charge for creating a Country Club is 50 credits, which will provide you with a 15 member club with its own private Club Forum. If you have enough credits and are satisfied with the name you've chosen, press the PURCHASE CLUB button. You can also go back if you want to choose another name. Last chance, though, so pick a name you really like!

You can select the BOOKMARK THIS button to bookmark the URL of your Country Club in your browser for easy access.

Congratulations! You've just made your own Country Club!

Now, let's fill in some of the extras. First, start by customizing the appearance of your Country Club page. Choose a banner for your Country Club, and then select a logo for your club. You can choose to upload your own logo if you wish. Once you've made your choices, press CONTINUE.

It's no fun to be in a club by yourself! Let's invite some friends next. Choose from a list of your existing friends, or invite some people that haven't joined WGT yet to your club by typing in their email addresses. You can also enter a customized message to the people you invite. Once you're ready, press the SEND INVITATIONS button. The people you invite will receive a notification of your invitation, and once they accept, they'll be in your club!

You can also invite people to join your club by visiting their profile and clicking the INVITE TO COUNTRY CLUB button. They'll receive notification of your wish for them to join your club, and once they accept, you'll have a new member!

As an owner of a Country Club, you'll be given some tools to manage your club. You can find these Owner Tools on your Country Club home page. You can also choose to invite more people to your club from here, or access the club forum (we'll get to that in a bit).

You can update your club's appearance if you'd like to change the banner or logo.

You can transfer ownership of your club to another member if you decide that you don't want to manage the club any longer. Choose a person on the list to transfer the club to, and they'll be given notification of your desire to hand things over to them.

If you're looking to recruit new members into your club, you can choose to have your club show up in a search for clubs looking to recruit members. If you've decided you have enough people in your club and don't want your club to be found in a search for clubs looking for new members, you can select that option instead.

Should you ever wish to close your Country Club for any reason, you can do that here. A confirmation popup will appear, just to make sure you really want to close your club.

Your Country Club comes with its own private Club Forum. You and the members of your club can locate the CLUB FORUM button on the home page of your Country Club.

Your Club Forum page operates much like our main forum page. You can create topics for discussion by selecting the WRITE A NEW POST button, or you can read and comment on topics already created.

There are only a few basic rules for Country Clubs.

• You must be of Amateur rank or higher to create a Country Club. There are no restrictions on tier level if you just want to join someone else's club.
• You can only belong to one Country Club at a time. If you are the owner of a Country Club and you wish to join someone else's club, you'll first have to either transfer ownership of your existing club to another qualifying members, or close your club entirely before you are eligible to join another club
• The current limit on enrollment in any Country Club is 250 members.

Connect with Friends by Creating Your Own Country Clubs

You now have the ability to create and join Country Clubs, groups of up to 15 WGT players. Each Country Club will have its own private forum, allowing WGT users to stay connected with their fellow club members. Create a club and invite your friends, or join an existing club and meet new people.

Compete in Our New Facebook Game

Now you can play an exciting closest-to-the-hole challenge on our new WGT Blitz Golf Facebook game. Compete for prizes in Facebook-only tournaments, and play alongside your friends for highest combined team scores.

Give Yourself a Competitive Edge with New Clubs and Equipment Updates

The 2010 Rapture V2 Amateur Full Set, the first club set designed specifically for the Amateur tier, provides a perfect balance of forgiveness and power. Now available for purchase in the Pro Shop.

The 2009 Ping Rapture V2 Pro clubs will no longer be available for purchase in the Pro Shop. They have been replaced by the The 2010 Rapture V2 Pro Full Set which feature improved consistency and precision as well as a slightly faster swing meter.

Any Pro equipment can now be gifted to Pro and Master players.

Track Your Accomplishments with These New Awards

Round and Round - Complete number of rounds played
Green Thumb - Number of greens hit in regulation
Straight Shooter - Number of fairways hit
In the Cup - Total putts made
Walk in the Park - CTTH games played
Long Haul - 18 hole stroke games played
Short Haul - 9 hole stroke games played

Check out these awards and more in our FAQs

After this evening, the 2009 Ping Rapture V2 Pro clubs will no longer be available for purchase in the Pro Shop. This is your last chance to purchase these clubs, as they will be replaced by the 2010 Ping Rapture V2 Pro Clubs which feature improved consistency and precision as well as a slightly faster swing meter. If you currently own these clubs you will still be able to play with them.

It's May!  That means a fresh batch of monthly tournaments for you to compete in.  Check them all out here.