Measured Wedge Shots

Video Transcript

If you want to hit your wedges better, and it’s a necessary item in a golf game if you want to shoot low scores, you have to be able to hit the wedge close to the hole. That means from 50 yards, 80 yards, 30 yards so on and so forth. What I find most often with people that are having trouble with these shots is that they are using too many power sources to hit a partial shot. By that I mean that when you start back, you might be turning your shoulders and extending your arms all the way back to this point. Now if I do, from this position, this much turn, I can actually turn through and hit a wedge 100 yards. I do not want to do that. If I want to hit it 50 yards, I want to use only the power sources that are required. Just like if I was going to throw a ball this distance with no turn at all, if I wanted to throw it far then I would use a turn. Same thing applies with a wedge. If I want to hit a shorter shot, I might take my arms and swing them against my chest as far as they can go, that’s it, and then from here release my arms and make a through-swing, it would look something like this. That way I feel like I can go ahead and accelerate from this point all the way through. But if I took a big turn and extended my arms, I would feel like I would have to decelerate going through to the golf ball. Now for each increment of 10 yards you want to go past the correct shot I hit, you can then turn your shoulders just a little bit at a time, but each swing would feel tight and connected once you got back here. Then go ahead and release to the finish position. Give it a try. Find that position where you can swing your arms up against your chests, that’s as far as they can go, then release the golf club to your finish position. And start calculating the yardages, you will be amazed at what this does for your golf game.

Mike LaBauve
Kierland Golf Club
15636 N. Clubgate Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Tel: 480-922-9283

Mike LaBauve is one of the world's greatest short game instructors and teacher to LPGA phenom Grace Park. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #31 instructor in the world.

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