Instruction
A simple drill to help you stick your wedges closer
If you know nothing else about your golf swing, know this: the flight of your golf ball begins mostly in the direction of your club face at impact, and curves away from your club path so long as you contact a shot in the center of the club face. So obviously, controlling where the face points at impact is a major key in understanding how to hit the ball the way you want.
Many golfers have embraced this knowledge in their driving and iron games, but what surprises me is how many of them pay little or no attention to where the club face is pointed in their wedge games.
Let’s imagine that your path is 0, or neutral, moving directly in line with your target. If your club face is pointed left of the target at impact, then the ball will start left of the pin and curve farther left. In the same example, if your club face is pointed right of the target, then the ball will begin right of your target and curve farther right.
Most of the time when people are hitting their wedges offline, it’s almost entirely attributed to the club face angle at impact. That’s because wedges have more loft than your other clubs, so they won’t curve as much due to something called spin loft. That’s good news for you, because it means you really only have one thing to worry about at impact, providing you’re making clean contact.
Related: Get a better understanding of Spin Loft
OK, so now that we know the position of the club face at impact is the issue for offline wedge shots (for the most part). How do you go about fixing this issue on the range? Read on.
The Alignment Stick Drill
Start by placing an alignment stick a few feet in front of your ball’s target line (so you don’t hit it). Aim it so that when you stand directly behind your golf ball, the stick points directly at your target. It’s a simple drill with a simple setup, but it can have a big impact on your wedge game.
Begin with 20- and 30-yard wedge shots until you can hit the ball where you desire, and then work your swing speed up from there. At this point, don’t be too concerned about your distance control, because that will improve itself but only your starting direction. You will know when you start doing the drill correctly because the ball will start going very straight and shots will feel effortless off the face.
It’s always good to bring alignment sticks with you to the range. In subsequent articles, I’ll teach you a few more drills you can use with them, but for now, work with this drill until your wedge shots start to fly like laser beams toward the target.
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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John
Aug 15, 2016 at 4:06 pm
Your picture looks like a good way to either destroy an alignment stick or embarrass yourself walking into the range to retrieve it
StartingDirectionVariesWithLoft
Aug 5, 2016 at 11:28 am
Although the drill is fine, I don’t think Tom stressed enough how increases in club loft change the relative influence of the club face angle for the starting path. With the more lofted clubs, the swing path has more and more influence on the initial ball direction. The putter starting direction is almost entirely based on face angle, whereas your 60* lob wedge is HIGHLY influenced by the swing path for the starting direction. I don’t believe that many golfers understand this relationship between loft and path and how it changes across the clubs in their bag.
re
Aug 5, 2016 at 3:12 pm
not true. SPIN is influenced by swing path in relation to face angle, but face angle alone with respect to the target determines the starting direction
StartingDirectionVariesWithLoft
Aug 6, 2016 at 11:05 am
Keep thinking that so that the rest of us can take your money. 😛
A
Aug 5, 2016 at 3:15 pm
The third and fourth paragraphs of the article don’t make sense.
If you open your 56 or 60 so the face is pointing right even 30-45 degrees and swing in line with your target, the ball will go in line with the target.
As loft increases, path influences direction more. And face direction matters less, and yes, less curvature too. Can’t slice a wedge really.
Justin
Aug 4, 2016 at 2:51 pm
Who would rate this article a shank? It’s a very simple drill that anyone can do and the wedge game is very important. I just don’t understand how negative some people can be and I hate it
Christopher Cahill
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Tom was my first and last swing coach when I was a junior golfer. He is an amazing coach and was a very early adopter of technology, multi-camera usage, etc. I still work on the basics of what he taught me 25 years ago.
ooffa
Aug 5, 2016 at 6:43 am
I vote a Shank for your comment.