Picking The Right Wedge For A Golf Chip Shot (Video) - by Pete Styles
Picking The Right Wedge For A Golf Chip Shot (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the things I really enjoy about coaching and particularly coaching the short game is the different variety of shots that we can come up against as golfers. And I enjoy this part of my own game when I'm out on the golf course. I feel challenged by every short shot that I get around the green, because there's so many different varieties of shot that we can play. And therefore there's so many different varieties of clubs that we can use. So one of the first things we need to do is when we’re approaching a short game shot is establish the height and the roll ratio. How high do we want the ball to fly, and how quickly do we want it to roll out or how far do we want it to roll out? One of the things I think I would consider doing when I've got one of these shots is imagine if I had the ball in my hand, how would I throw it up onto the green? Would I throw it high up onto the green? Or would I roll it low across the floor? And once I've established that, I can go ahead and select the right club to play that shot with. So let's look at the different shots that we might have, if we had the classics of chip and run. Chip the ball short and run the ball out. It’s a shot that's probably going to roll the ball than it flies. Now I'd be tempted to play that with something even low as down as a seven iron or an eight iron.

Chip the ball and then roll it. If the greens were quick, I might be upto nine or even pitching wedge, playing the ball around the center of my stance, hands leaning nicely forwards. One way is just a putting stroke, a putting stroke with a pitching wedge to create a chip and run. Then if we had a look at a different type of shot, maybe one that would class as a chip and check or chip and hold. So we are going to chip the ball up into the air then we want to little bit grab on the ball just to get it to stop. Now we need to hit this ball a little bit harder to create the spin. We need to hit a little bit higher so when it lands, it grabs a little bit quicker. So we’re going to change clubs here. I'm actually going to go down to my gap wedge which is my 50 degree club. It’s more lofted than a pitching wedge. It puts a bit more spin on than a pitching wedge and it checks on the green and holes. We might start to implement a little bit of wrist hinge in this shot as we hit down, and we check into the back of the ball to generate a little bit of spin. Then we might have a flop shot. So a flop shot’s going to be more played from a forwards ball position in a good lie, utilizing a more lofted club. Now if you're trying to have a flop shot with a sand wedge that could be quite a difficult task. So again this is where having more wedges in my bag, having a lobe wedge in my bag, or actually do a majority of the hard stuff for me. Play the ball slightly more forwards in my stunts to create a little bit more height, take a slightly longer backswing and bounce the club nicely underneath the ball. And just glance underneath the ball, the club with a nice, narrow profile and not much bounce will slide underneath that ball and fly up high in the air, so straightaway just utilizing three different clubs to produce three different shots. Now, when you go into a bunker, the same arrangements of golf clubs can help you. This stands to reason that if you’ve got a sand wedge, you are going to use a sand wedge a lot of the time in a bunker. But actually if I have got a shorter shot that needs to get up more, I quite happily use a lobe wedge in a bunker. If I've got a longer shot that I need to land and release, I could play that with my 50 or even my pitching wedge at 46 degrees. So it doesn’t land and stop like my sand wedge might do but it lands and releases out. So using the right club for the right distance is quite important. And if you've got a good handle on how those three or four wedges work for you, you're going to be more versatile than someone that's only carrying two wedges playing the right shot with the right club when it comes to your short game. 2015-10-15

One of the things I really enjoy about coaching and particularly coaching the short game is the different variety of shots that we can come up against as golfers. And I enjoy this part of my own game when I'm out on the golf course. I feel challenged by every short shot that I get around the green, because there's so many different varieties of shot that we can play. And therefore there's so many different varieties of clubs that we can use. So one of the first things we need to do is when we’re approaching a short game shot is establish the height and the roll ratio. How high do we want the ball to fly, and how quickly do we want it to roll out or how far do we want it to roll out? One of the things I think I would consider doing when I've got one of these shots is imagine if I had the ball in my hand, how would I throw it up onto the green? Would I throw it high up onto the green? Or would I roll it low across the floor? And once I've established that, I can go ahead and select the right club to play that shot with. So let's look at the different shots that we might have, if we had the classics of chip and run. Chip the ball short and run the ball out. It’s a shot that's probably going to roll the ball than it flies. Now I'd be tempted to play that with something even low as down as a seven iron or an eight iron.

Chip the ball and then roll it. If the greens were quick, I might be upto nine or even pitching wedge, playing the ball around the center of my stance, hands leaning nicely forwards. One way is just a putting stroke, a putting stroke with a pitching wedge to create a chip and run. Then if we had a look at a different type of shot, maybe one that would class as a chip and check or chip and hold. So we are going to chip the ball up into the air then we want to little bit grab on the ball just to get it to stop. Now we need to hit this ball a little bit harder to create the spin. We need to hit a little bit higher so when it lands, it grabs a little bit quicker. So we’re going to change clubs here. I'm actually going to go down to my gap wedge which is my 50 degree club. It’s more lofted than a pitching wedge. It puts a bit more spin on than a pitching wedge and it checks on the green and holes. We might start to implement a little bit of wrist hinge in this shot as we hit down, and we check into the back of the ball to generate a little bit of spin. Then we might have a flop shot.
So a flop shot’s going to be more played from a forwards ball position in a good lie, utilizing a more lofted club. Now if you're trying to have a flop shot with a sand wedge that could be quite a difficult task. So again this is where having more wedges in my bag, having a lobe wedge in my bag, or actually do a majority of the hard stuff for me. Play the ball slightly more forwards in my stunts to create a little bit more height, take a slightly longer backswing and bounce the club nicely underneath the ball. And just glance underneath the ball, the club with a nice, narrow profile and not much bounce will slide underneath that ball and fly up high in the air, so straightaway just utilizing three different clubs to produce three different shots. Now, when you go into a bunker, the same arrangements of golf clubs can help you. This stands to reason that if you’ve got a sand wedge, you are going to use a sand wedge a lot of the time in a bunker. But actually if I have got a shorter shot that needs to get up more, I quite happily use a lobe wedge in a bunker. If I've got a longer shot that I need to land and release, I could play that with my 50 or even my pitching wedge at 46 degrees. So it doesn’t land and stop like my sand wedge might do but it lands and releases out. So using the right club for the right distance is quite important. And if you've got a good handle on how those three or four wedges work for you, you're going to be more versatile than someone that's only carrying two wedges playing the right shot with the right club when it comes to your short game.