Hitting A Full Golf Wedge Shot Properly (Video) - by Pete Styles
Hitting A Full Golf Wedge Shot Properly (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think not hitting a pitching wedge correctly for a lot of golfers is probably one of the most frustrating shots they got on the golf course. It’s one of the shortest irons in the bag, therefore it should be one of the easiest shots in the bag. They’ve probably done all the hard work in terms of positioning themselves just a 100 yards away from the green. Green is there right infront of you staring you down. If you can knock it on you've got a good chance to make a birdie putt or even a power putt. But if they get this pitching wedge shot wrong, it could often set them into a lot of trouble. The trouble around the side of the green, the bunkers, long shot, outrebounds, all that sort of stuff. So hitting accurate pitching wedge is a real fundamental skill for most golfers that we need to work hard on to make sure we get a good strike. And here’s a couple of key points that I think could benefit you when hitting these wedge shots.

First is setting up from this side, I'd like to see a slightly narrower than a full width stance, so just a slightly narrower stance. That's going to help you control your power and give you a bit more control over your impact position. Well I'm going to keep the ball position nicely in the center of the feet; we’re going to very slightly weight the side so just 60% on that left side and hands slightly infront of the golf ball. Anytime we get too wide and start leaning back behind the ball we’re really going to struggle to get a good strike. So it’s slightly narrower, leaning to the left side and hands slightly ahead. Make a nice comfortable, controlled backswing position. Not going too long, not flinging it around your head too far. And then work really hard on staying down, staying left. Staying down staying left will encourage you to hit the ball and then hit the turf and stay down through the shot, certainly trying to avoid the lean back lifting up. I think the problem for a lot of golfers is they see a pitching wedge fly high up into the sky and they think they need to help the ball up into the sky by leaning back and helping it. The club will do all that hard work for you. Your job really is to deliver that club with a downwards angle of attack. And actually trust your swing, really go ahead and hit down firmly into the back of the ball and don’t be too keen and eager to get up with the head and the chest and see where it went. If the hands and arms deliver the club down nicely we should take a nice big piece of turf and the ball should fly high into in the sky. So I'm going to set up now, checking my ball position is center, slightly narrower, leaning onto my left side. I'm going to stay down and trust my swing and watch this ball fly high. 2015-10-15

I think not hitting a pitching wedge correctly for a lot of golfers is probably one of the most frustrating shots they got on the golf course. It’s one of the shortest irons in the bag, therefore it should be one of the easiest shots in the bag. They’ve probably done all the hard work in terms of positioning themselves just a 100 yards away from the green. Green is there right infront of you staring you down. If you can knock it on you've got a good chance to make a birdie putt or even a power putt. But if they get this pitching wedge shot wrong, it could often set them into a lot of trouble. The trouble around the side of the green, the bunkers, long shot, outrebounds, all that sort of stuff. So hitting accurate pitching wedge is a real fundamental skill for most golfers that we need to work hard on to make sure we get a good strike. And here’s a couple of key points that I think could benefit you when hitting these wedge shots.

First is setting up from this side, I'd like to see a slightly narrower than a full width stance, so just a slightly narrower stance. That's going to help you control your power and give you a bit more control over your impact position. Well I'm going to keep the ball position nicely in the center of the feet; we’re going to very slightly weight the side so just 60% on that left side and hands slightly infront of the golf ball. Anytime we get too wide and start leaning back behind the ball we’re really going to struggle to get a good strike. So it’s slightly narrower, leaning to the left side and hands slightly ahead. Make a nice comfortable, controlled backswing position. Not going too long, not flinging it around your head too far. And then work really hard on staying down, staying left. Staying down staying left will encourage you to hit the ball and then hit the turf and stay down through the shot, certainly trying to avoid the lean back lifting up.
I think the problem for a lot of golfers is they see a pitching wedge fly high up into the sky and they think they need to help the ball up into the sky by leaning back and helping it. The club will do all that hard work for you. Your job really is to deliver that club with a downwards angle of attack. And actually trust your swing, really go ahead and hit down firmly into the back of the ball and don’t be too keen and eager to get up with the head and the chest and see where it went. If the hands and arms deliver the club down nicely we should take a nice big piece of turf and the ball should fly high into in the sky. So I'm going to set up now, checking my ball position is center, slightly narrower, leaning onto my left side. I'm going to stay down and trust my swing and watch this ball fly high.