How to Practice Wedge Shot Distance Control - Golf Swing Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Practice Wedge Shot Distance Control - Golf Swing Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

I always feel a vastly underrated and underpracticed part of people's game is probably the distance controlled with their wedges. Striking a ball with the wedge isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, and often people say to me, I yeah strike my wedge is really nicely yeah. But they don’t nearly control the distance of that shot very well. They might hit it straight. They might hit in the air, but they might hit 30 yards passed the flag and then just put back. Well obviously the better distance control you have with your wedge is the shorter your putts are going to be.

So if you're an improving golfer and you're stuck at a handicap level, you want to try and break. Sharpen your distance control with your short game, and I'm sure you'll save yourself a couple of shots around. Now, as a kid I learned to practice chipping in the back garden. I was looking up to we had about 30 yards to play within the back garden and I gave myself a little target, little games to play. And one of those were just take my umbrella. I would open it up, and I would lay it at one end of the garden sitting like this like a big basket to aim for. It’s a really good visible target that I could aim into, and I would try and hit the stick, and if I knew that I could got it in the area where the umbrella caught the ball, I knew that, that actually would be quite close when I got up onto the green. And to this day as I look at the golf's chip shot I lineup and think, where my landing area needs to be. I still visualize that umbrella in the back garden, sitting there, trying to catch the ball and I know that if I chip the ball into the umbrella, I'm probably going to only have a 3 footer on the other side. So if you got enough room to practice with either at the practice ground at the golf club or dealing at your back garden. Take an umbrella or a laundry basket or a bucket; put that at one end of the garden. Take 10 steps back, dozen golf balls down on the turf, and go ahead and flick those as close as you can to your target focusing really nicely on your technique, on your result. Then take those dozen golf balls taken of the 10 paces back and repeat. Pick them up. Do the same thing again do the same thing again, until you run out to the room? Now, if you can do that a couple of nights a week, the distance control, the quality of striking and the accuracy of your wedges will improve massively and that can not only save your shots around the green, but it will give you more confidence on the golf course as well. You'll walk up to those shots thinking well our practice is all this week, so I know if I'm not right on there, I'm going to only have a 3 footer on the other side to hold the putt, so a good technique and good practice for your confidence as well. 2013-09-16

I always feel a vastly underrated and underpracticed part of people's game is probably the distance controlled with their wedges. Striking a ball with the wedge isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, and often people say to me, I yeah strike my wedge is really nicely yeah. But they don’t nearly control the distance of that shot very well. They might hit it straight. They might hit in the air, but they might hit 30 yards passed the flag and then just put back. Well obviously the better distance control you have with your wedge is the shorter your putts are going to be.

So if you're an improving golfer and you're stuck at a handicap level, you want to try and break. Sharpen your distance control with your short game, and I'm sure you'll save yourself a couple of shots around. Now, as a kid I learned to practice chipping in the back garden. I was looking up to we had about 30 yards to play within the back garden and I gave myself a little target, little games to play. And one of those were just take my umbrella. I would open it up, and I would lay it at one end of the garden sitting like this like a big basket to aim for. It’s a really good visible target that I could aim into, and I would try and hit the stick, and if I knew that I could got it in the area where the umbrella caught the ball, I knew that, that actually would be quite close when I got up onto the green.

And to this day as I look at the golf's chip shot I lineup and think, where my landing area needs to be. I still visualize that umbrella in the back garden, sitting there, trying to catch the ball and I know that if I chip the ball into the umbrella, I'm probably going to only have a 3 footer on the other side. So if you got enough room to practice with either at the practice ground at the golf club or dealing at your back garden. Take an umbrella or a laundry basket or a bucket; put that at one end of the garden. Take 10 steps back, dozen golf balls down on the turf, and go ahead and flick those as close as you can to your target focusing really nicely on your technique, on your result.

Then take those dozen golf balls taken of the 10 paces back and repeat. Pick them up. Do the same thing again do the same thing again, until you run out to the room? Now, if you can do that a couple of nights a week, the distance control, the quality of striking and the accuracy of your wedges will improve massively and that can not only save your shots around the green, but it will give you more confidence on the golf course as well. You'll walk up to those shots thinking well our practice is all this week, so I know if I'm not right on there, I'm going to only have a 3 footer on the other side to hold the putt, so a good technique and good practice for your confidence as well.