Golf Tip from Myrtle Beach Golf Passport: When & How to Use Different Wedges

Tired of chunking or blading chip shots from tightly mown areas? Stuart Clark from the Steve Dresser Golf Academy is here to show you how to hit different wedges from around the green!

Hey guys, my name's Stuart Clark. I'm one of the lead instructors here at the Steve Dresser Golf Academy. Today's tip is on when and how to use different wedges. Now, previously in some of my instruction, we’ve talked about short game, hitting out of thicker rough or tight lies. Well, today we're going to talk about flighting the ball. And how we flight the ball is not necessarily like taking the ball and putting it way back in our stance. If we have a lie that is sitting here on a nice tight lie, we never want to put the ball back in our stance because that changes that angle of attack of being steep. If I want to hit a low shot, I'm just going to change the club to a wedge or nine or eight and keep the ball position still middle to forward. When we have these nice tight lies into fairways, we never want to get those balls working back in our setup because once again, that angle of attack's down. That results in chunks and skulls.

When we have the ball middle to middle forward on these angles and when we're changing these clubs, we keep it constant. We have an opportunity to be a little off and still hit good shots. If I wanted to hit a higher shot, I'm going to use my 56 and open it up a little bit and do the same thing, keep everything the same, pitch it, get a higher ball flight. Say that's a two for me. I use one for low, two mid, three high. For a lower flight, I just walk right over here, keep everything the same, grab my pitching wedge which is a 46 degree, keep everything constantly the same, keep the weight left. Now this ball is going to shoot a little lower because I've got less loft. So do the same kind of deal. Take the weight left, rock the shoulders, boom. Now that ball's coming off on a lower trajectory.

When we're changing trajectories, let's keep the ball position the same and not move it all over the place. Okay, tip for today.