Wedge Tips: Trajectory Control to Shave Strokes Off Your Scores
To become a great player, you must develop a great short game. To develop a great short game, you need to become a master with your wedges. Learning to control the trajectory of your wedge shots, coupled with a thorough understanding of the effects on the golf ball will provide the fundamental tools to becoming a master wedge player.
Why Do I Need to Control the Trajectory?
When hitting wedge shots, full or otherwise, you need to account for more than just raw distance. Many variables should play a part in deciding how you want to hit your approach, such as wind, pin location, firmness of the green, hazards, and slope of the green, just to name a few. Being able to control the trajectory and hit a variety of shots with each club will give you the opportunity to take advantage of certain course conditions while mitigating risks when needed.
Setup for Trajectory Control
To hit a ball with the desired trajectory, the first step is to have correct body and ball position at setup. When taking less than full swings, it is appropriate to narrow your stance a few inches. This will prevent you from over-swinging, leading to more control and solid contact. Be aware, you do not need to open or close the face of the club at address to change the trajectory, though this can be done for specific types of shots – typically those with higher difficulty. Those will be explained in a later post. Before hitting the shot, you want to be in a good mental and physical state to hit the golf ball. Use some of my previous tips to improve your game as you address the ball. (Improve Your Game With 3 Simple Tricks Before Hitting the Ball)
To hit a wedge shot with a low trajectory, ball position should be back of center, close to your back foot. Be careful not to put it too far back, however, as this can cause poor contact and inconsistent ball flight. For a mid-trajectory wedge shot, the ball should be slightly forward of center. A high trajectory shot will require the ball position to be more forward of center, closer to the front foot. Moving it too far forward, however, can result in thin or bladed shots.
Low Point for Trajectory Control
Low point refers to the lowest point of the swing arc and generally occurs when the club head is directly below the top of the grip. Most low handicap and professional golfers have a low point slightly in front of the golf ball (typically between 3-4") when taking full swings with an iron. Manipulating hand position and wrist angles on shorter shots allows you to control the low point of the swing arc, therefore controlling the dynamic loft/trajectory.
A mid trajectory shot should be produced with a standard swing, where you have not altered the dynamic loft much. To achieve this, address the club in a neutral position and swing as you normally would, with the low point slightly in front of the ball.
Low trajectory shots require less dynamic loft than your standard swing. The low point will be slightly in front of the ball, your hand position will be further in front and your trailing wrist will have more flexion (cupping) at impact. Keep the handle of the club leaning towards the target as you move into impact. By releasing the club later and moving the low point forward, you effectively lower the trajectory.
High trajectory shots need more dynamic loft than your standard swing. Releasing the club earlier will bring the low point back slightly, as the club head is directly below the top of the grip much closer to impact. To do this, hinge your wrists more on the takeaway while using a shorter swing with your arms. As you transition into the downswing, hold the angle of your wrists briefly before unhinging through impact. Feel as though you are letting gravity do most of the work and be sure not to unhinge too early. This requires great timing and will often take a lot of practice to master.
Effects on the Golf Ball
In general, lower trajectory shots will create less spin on the golf ball. It is possible, however, to hit low pitch shots that generate a ton of spin (that low one-hop-stop you see on tour), which will be discussed in a later post. Knowing the amount of spin you create on each of the three trajectories will benefit your decision making on the course. If you have more spin with an 80% PW than you do with a 100% SW, you are more likely to choose the PW for that desired distance if you need the ball to stop much faster. Carry distance is also important to know for each trajectory. Typically, you feel as though you are swinging harder to hit the high trajectory shots the same distance – even when the ball speed remains the same. Different trajectories can also produce different ball flights; lower shots may have a tendency to draw more while higher ones may fade. Understanding how the ball flies through the air for each of these shots is extremely important, and a good reason to spend time on the driving range to practice and see the ball in the air.
Below are some stats from a practice session at a simulator to show the different effects on the ball using different clubs and hitting different trajectories. I hit low, mid (regular), and high shots with a PW and 56 degree SW, each carrying about 100 yards. For the 60 degree LW, I only hit mid (regular) and low shots, as it is rare that you will need to hit a full swing LW extra high. I did, however, hit a brand new wedge in addition to the wedge I currently play, to see how different the spin numbers would be with fresh groves. Each of these shots carried about 70 yards. With every club/shot combination, I calculated the average of 8 shots, all with carry distances within 5 yards of the target.
Technology used: Full Swing Pro Series with ION3 Overhead Tracking
Ball Used: Vice Pro Plus
Clubs Used: Mizuno MP-18 MMC PW (~18 months old), Titleist Vokey SM7 56* and 60* (~6 months old), Honma T//World 747 60* (Never been hit)
Takeaways from Simulator Stats
Firstly, I found most of the numbers to be very accurate. Only using the basic driving range feature, however, means the total yardage number is a little higher than what I believe it would be in real life. If these balls were landing on a green with that amount of spin, they would not roll out as much as it was recording.
In my first round after collecting this data, I found myself much more aware of the correct shots I needed to play to attack certain pins. Because the spin access was so draw-biased when hitting a low 56-degree wedge, I was using that shot to work balls into a left pin, as I knew the ball would spin much harder left, allowing me to use more of the green. I was also surprised by the spin numbers on the PW knockdowns and felt very comfortable using that shot on the course to give myself a much better chance at making solid contact and preventing too much roll out. While the data surely made me more willing to get aggressive because I had a good idea of how the ball would react, that same reasoning allowed me to avoid risks as well. Another interesting takeaway is that the new LW didn’t produce more noticeable spin than my current wedge, which is starting to see the the grooves wear down. This could be attributed to using different brands, but unfortunately I was unable to test with a new club of the same model.
Although I felt comfortable hitting all three trajectories with a variety of clubs, understanding the data behind the effects on the golf ball was equally valuable, as I gained insight into the most appropriate times to use each shot.
Examples of When to Use Each Trajectory
Low trajectory wedge shots: Windy day, pin at the back of the green, pin on the left side of the green (for a right-handed golfer), no hazards between the ball and the green.
Mid trajectory wedge shots: Calm or breezy day, pin in the middle of green or small green, hazard between the ball and the green.
High trajectory wedge shots: Calm day, pin at front of green or small green, hazard in front of the green, an obstacle between ball and green, the ball needs to land softly and not roll out much.
Being able to hit low, mid, and high trajectory shots create more opportunities to attack pins as well as mitigate risks when needed. Spend time practicing these shots and watch your short game quickly improve.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out by emailing coaching@fewerbogeys.com or by sending a tweet to @fewerbogeys on twitter.
