Wedge problems

Haven't posted in a long time.  I have played well the past few years, got my handicap down around 5 or 6 and played pretty regularly, but recently, I lowered my swing plane more, made my hands deeper, etc.  I'm hitting all my clubs well, heck, I can pull out my driver and know for sure I'm going to hit it solid...  I'm hitting better than ever.

Here's the problem:

My two wedges, sand and lob, are incredibly unreliable.  I hit them shorter and often hit them poorly.  I hit my 3 iron around 200-210 yards now, and it's probably the most consistent club in my bag.  I went from hitting my 60º wedged 90 yards to about 65.  I feel like the club just slides under the ball, and it flops up into the air with no power at all.  Is this common, and is there a good, valid, scientific reason?

Ho. Lee. Smokes! Welcome back man!

There is a valid reason why that happens with the wedges and it's usually a combination of two factors: adding loft to the club face and hitting down too much, both of which will increase your spin loft -- which you can think of as a measure of the solidity of your strike.

Spin loft = Dynamic loft - Angle of Attack. Say you take your 60 degree wedge and flip it just a little bit so the actual loft that the ball "experiences" is 62 degrees and that you're hitting down, maybe, seven degrees -- because you're really trying to "trap it." Your spin loft is going to be 62 - (-7) = 69 degrees. Because the hit is so "oblique" (think of an underspin backhand in ping pong) you're transferring less energy into the ball for any given club head speed. Hence those high, fluttery shots that don't really go anywhere.

Shanks, welcome back!

This kind of happened to me a while back more with the 60 than the 54. The more I tried to get distance the less it happened. Then I tried what felt like a more relaxed 3/4 backswing and kept everything else the same (ball position, downswing, impact, follow through) and focused on solid impact. The distance came back. So now, when I have that licking my chops full wedge distance I try to feel that same motion (almost think easy back, easy down, and then get through impact to finish).. I believe in my case I was overswinging which caused me to lose my angles going into impact. Now my stock full 60 hits that 90 yards no problem and the 54 is right on at 105.

Not very scientific, but I hope it helps.

You're probably flipping at the ball, adding loft. You could also be adding bounce to, which would help you just slide under the ball if your hitting a little bit behind it.

Work on getting your left hand forward more at impact.

My hands are usually a few inches ahead of the ball at impact on video.  I tend to have a very long swing, parallel or past.  I'd have to check the videos of wedges specifically to see, but I hit every club high... really high.  I've never really lost distance because of it though.  I was hitting it lower, but I haven't really lost a single yard due to the change.

This was happening to me too, I realized I wasn't getting my hips through and was just spinning/turning them. When i shifted my left hip forward on the downswing i was able to get more shaft lean and compress the ball more. Went from hitting 100 yard 54 deg wedges to now 120 yard.