A List Of Golf Shot Options (Video) - by Pete Styles
A List Of Golf Shot Options (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now we've already discussed how important these wedges are to our game and how many shots we hit with these wedges, but also expect in these wedges and particularly the bounce angle within these wedges to cope with a massive variety of different types of shots. You know if I compare my waist to my seven iron, my seven iron generally hits this same sort of distance. It might hit a hard one, a soft one, a high one, a low one but generally it's a seven iron from the same distance. But my wedges they have to do so many more versatile different types of shots. Let's just explore a couple of those and how the bounce angle might be important to us. From a full pitching wedge shot or a full wedge shot, what have I got here? I've got a 54 degrees, this is my sand wedge. So a full sand wedge shot taken from a decent lie might go around about 90-100 yards if I hit it hard. I could hit it hard or I could wind it back in again, but we'll look at that in a second. But from a full wedge shot, play the ball in the center of the stance, hands left, body weight left and hit down hard. And as the club comes down into the ball, it will take a nice big chunk of turf. I'm really going o hit down hard into that ball and now is the bounce angle that make sure the club doesn’t go too heavy, too low or too fat. So I'm leaning on my left side, I'm hitting down hard, big divot but the bounce angle make sure I don’t hit it too fat.

Now the same approach could apply if I was pitching the ball. A pitch shot might be the same club but a slightly less a distance, but if I'm not hitting the ball full I'd have my feet a little closer together, my hands a little bit lower down, still leaning on my left side, shorter back, shorter through and that would be a pitch. And the bounce angle still working against the ground it's going to hit the ground; it's going to stop the club digging in, it's going to bounce up. The next shot we're going to look for though is a cheap shot. So a cheap shot there narrow your stance again, more down on the grip, more into the left side, gently back, gently through just skimming the surface. Cheap shots will not really going to be taking big divots, we're not going to be hitting really down into the ground too much, it's more just bruising the surface of the grass. So the bounce angle isn’t massively relevant when we're hitting those little dinky chips around the side of the green. Now if we get into a banker, the bounce angle in a banker becomes very important to us again because the bounce angle here is going to really affect itself as it hits into the surface of the sand. So we've got a ball, we've got the club coming in. Now we know a banker shot we should hit the sand before we hit the ball. So as the club hits the sand the bounce angle can either work for or against us and in a banker generally we like a lot of bounce because we don’t want the club to continue descending under the ball. We want the club to hit the surface of the sand, the bounce angle here to work pushing the club forward into the ball and ultimately back upwards to lift the ball out of the banker. So a little plenty of bounce angle in the banker as we hit down into the sand. Now the last shot we're going to look at is back on grass, we're going to hit a flop shot. Now a flop shot one of the sort of really high cut underneath shots. They go high in the air, they land they stop on the green very quickly. For a lot of golfers, a flop shot with a sand wedge is probably the hardest shot in golf. And that's because your sand wedge is inherently got a lot of bounce built into it. So bounce angle being this low trailing edge. Now when we play a flop shot with a sand wedge we probably need to open the face. So we twist the golf club to the right, we add a bit more loft, but look what happens down here, we also add bounce. The bounce angle now protrudes down at the bottom of the golf club. Now as we hit into the ground the bounce angle hits the surface of the floor, lift the leading edge up into the air and we thin the golf ball. So for a lot of golfers playing a flop shot with a sand wedge results in the bounce working against them not for them and they finite. That’s why I'd encourage you to use a lob wedge for your flop shots. A lob wedge generally would have less bounce, try and get less bounce on your lob wedge than on your sand wedge. That enables the club to cut into the ball better. A shallower profile of club slides under the ball, pops the ball out better. So five different shots potentially played with same or similar wedges but utilizing bounce angles in different ways. 2015-11-05

Now we've already discussed how important these wedges are to our game and how many shots we hit with these wedges, but also expect in these wedges and particularly the bounce angle within these wedges to cope with a massive variety of different types of shots. You know if I compare my waist to my seven iron, my seven iron generally hits this same sort of distance. It might hit a hard one, a soft one, a high one, a low one but generally it's a seven iron from the same distance. But my wedges they have to do so many more versatile different types of shots. Let's just explore a couple of those and how the bounce angle might be important to us. From a full pitching wedge shot or a full wedge shot, what have I got here? I've got a 54 degrees, this is my sand wedge. So a full sand wedge shot taken from a decent lie might go around about 90-100 yards if I hit it hard. I could hit it hard or I could wind it back in again, but we'll look at that in a second. But from a full wedge shot, play the ball in the center of the stance, hands left, body weight left and hit down hard. And as the club comes down into the ball, it will take a nice big chunk of turf. I'm really going o hit down hard into that ball and now is the bounce angle that make sure the club doesn’t go too heavy, too low or too fat. So I'm leaning on my left side, I'm hitting down hard, big divot but the bounce angle make sure I don’t hit it too fat.

Now the same approach could apply if I was pitching the ball. A pitch shot might be the same club but a slightly less a distance, but if I'm not hitting the ball full I'd have my feet a little closer together, my hands a little bit lower down, still leaning on my left side, shorter back, shorter through and that would be a pitch. And the bounce angle still working against the ground it's going to hit the ground; it's going to stop the club digging in, it's going to bounce up. The next shot we're going to look for though is a cheap shot. So a cheap shot there narrow your stance again, more down on the grip, more into the left side, gently back, gently through just skimming the surface. Cheap shots will not really going to be taking big divots, we're not going to be hitting really down into the ground too much, it's more just bruising the surface of the grass. So the bounce angle isn’t massively relevant when we're hitting those little dinky chips around the side of the green. Now if we get into a banker, the bounce angle in a banker becomes very important to us again because the bounce angle here is going to really affect itself as it hits into the surface of the sand. So we've got a ball, we've got the club coming in. Now we know a banker shot we should hit the sand before we hit the ball. So as the club hits the sand the bounce angle can either work for or against us and in a banker generally we like a lot of bounce because we don’t want the club to continue descending under the ball.

We want the club to hit the surface of the sand, the bounce angle here to work pushing the club forward into the ball and ultimately back upwards to lift the ball out of the banker. So a little plenty of bounce angle in the banker as we hit down into the sand. Now the last shot we're going to look at is back on grass, we're going to hit a flop shot. Now a flop shot one of the sort of really high cut underneath shots. They go high in the air, they land they stop on the green very quickly. For a lot of golfers, a flop shot with a sand wedge is probably the hardest shot in golf. And that's because your sand wedge is inherently got a lot of bounce built into it. So bounce angle being this low trailing edge. Now when we play a flop shot with a sand wedge we probably need to open the face. So we twist the golf club to the right, we add a bit more loft, but look what happens down here, we also add bounce. The bounce angle now protrudes down at the bottom of the golf club. Now as we hit into the ground the bounce angle hits the surface of the floor, lift the leading edge up into the air and we thin the golf ball. So for a lot of golfers playing a flop shot with a sand wedge results in the bounce working against them not for them and they finite. That’s why I'd encourage you to use a lob wedge for your flop shots. A lob wedge generally would have less bounce, try and get less bounce on your lob wedge than on your sand wedge. That enables the club to cut into the ball better. A shallower profile of club slides under the ball, pops the ball out better. So five different shots potentially played with same or similar wedges but utilizing bounce angles in different ways.