Wedge -- thin lies -- blading them -- help

[McGolf-Doggie]

With the LW I tend to blade them over the bunker and over the green when I'm faced with a very thin/hard lie and the ball is on some hardpan or grass/hardpan, and I need a short high shot, say 10-20 yards.

I'm wondering if this is a bit mental, or are these generally as unforgiving as I think they are. What's your wedge technique or strategy for thin lies —•any tips? Do you use a wedge with more or less bounce? A PW, 9-iron, something else, different type of technique? Where do you aim to strike the ball, descending blow? Where's your weight?

[saevel25]

Use a wedge with less bounce, go for a 9-iron or PW.

If its very dry, almost concrete hardness of dirt, i will use a low bounce wedge or an iron. Just trap the ball and it should take one long jump check and roll a decent distance. With the lob wedge, don't open the clubface and don't ever try to help the ball into the air. Its tougher to pull off because of the bounce. Just think of this, most irons have a bounce of 1-2 degrees, a lob wedge has a bounce of around 6 degrees, thats huge for tight lies.

But if you have proper technique you shouldn't blade any short game shot.

Practice keeping your left foot forward and always have a bit of shoulder rotation, not much, but don't hands the club. When you use your hands your more willing help the ball into the air and blade it.

[umpiremark]

Are you blading the ball because you're too far behind it and hitting the equator after a fat bounce shot, or just blading the equator on the intial shot? If the former, focus your eye on the very front of the ball (towards the target) and on the latter, are you standing up before you're through the shot? The face of the club should be pointing to the sky when you're done with these tiny shots and all arms, not hands. Rotate through the shot, too.

[Zeph]

Weight forward (hips), swing bottom forward, descending blow, hit the ball first, don't flip the wrists.

[leezer99]

Use a wedge with less bounce, go for a 9-iron or PW.

+1 on using a PW or 9 iron from tight lies.

[Fatphil]

It's almost impossible to explain as god knows every golf magazine has tried.. the only way to truly "get it" is to take your shag bag & LW to the practice green and hit 10 yard to 20 yard pitches...if you hit 50 - 75 a day it will be unbelievably frustrating (and embarrasing) the first 15 or 20 times but you will eventually understand the techique. It may take you the rest of the summer but IMO if you can master that shot it will go a long way to understanding the full swing. Why?...the margin of error is far less than hitting a 460cc teed up driver or a 7i off a nice fluffy lie. You cannot cheat and expect to execute this shot.

[case31]

I used to struggle with the same thing. I would cock my wrists on the backswing, and try to flip them through on the way down. That means an inconsistent point of contact (sometimes fat, sometimes thin) and no distance control.
As others have mentioned, you should have your weight forward, slightly open stance, and swing with your shoulders. The reason is simple: it's much easier to control your big muscles (shoulders) than it is your smaller ones (forearms, wrists). Think of it like a putting stroke. Also, you want the club to follow through the same distance as your takeaway.
Your philosophy should be this: focus first on just getting the ball on the green somewhere . You're much better off chipping to 15 ft away, giving yourself a chance at par, at worst a bogey, rather than trying some uber-difficult finesse shot, blading/chunking it, and now bringing double-bogey into play. Once you a comfortable with a consistent stroke, you can now focus on distance control and increasing those up-and-downs.

[James_Black]

took me all of last summer to be able to hit the shots I can hit with a LW now.

One thing that "clicked" was this.
Walk over to your ball and take a swing while you keep walking..... you get a wrist snap that won't fully release and you'll get a sweet shot (if it works)
You'll have your weight on your left side and will have a descending blow without flipping your wrists. Don't try it if anybody/anything valuable is around because you might mess up.

[ajschn06]

With the LW I tend to blade them over the bunker and over the green when I'm faced with a very thin/hard lie and the ball is on some hardpan or grass/hardpan, and I need a short high shot, say 10-20 yards.

I had that problem for a while. What works for me is trying to focus on "bouncing" the clubhead on the ground.

[James_Black]

I had that problem for a while. What works for me is trying to focus on "bouncing" the clubhead on the ground.

That's hard to get a feel for... It works but you'll have to hit a lot of shots

[zeg]

I try to forget about the ground and focus, like I always try to do, on hitting the ball first on a descending blow. I try to be extra sure to keep my head down and feel my swing across my chest before I look up. For me, if I can fight the urge to "look" the ball into the air and concentrate on hitting it, I've won the battle. If it's really hard pan, it may hurt a bit when you hit into the ground, but the ball should already be aloft by that point.

[keiko]

L wedge has the highest degree of bounce which is causing you to bounce it off hardpan. What you want is a wedge with low bounce such as pitching wedge, just open the face, play it forward and stay down on the shot. L wedge is for fluffy lies and sand.

[James_Black]

L wedge has the highest degree of bounce which is causing you to bounce it off hardpan. What you want is a wedge with low bounce such as pitching wedge, just open the face, play it forward and stay down on the shot. L wedge is for fluffy lies and sand.

what are you talking about?

SW has the highest bounce. Most LW's are low bounce.

[sean_miller]

what are you talking about?

I concur - the OP's 60 has 4 degrees of bounce - that's pretty low.

[saevel25]

Yep, Sandwedge has highest degree of bounce, because it has to go through sand and not dig in. The bounce helps it glide through the sand, thats why SW are not good for tight lies. Lob wedges can be low to medium in bounce, usually 4-8 degrees, SW can be 8+ in bounce usually. Go to Titliest's website and check out the wedge information, they explain bounce very well.

[GDIB_net]

Dude, you hit down on the ball, it goes up! Good Luck. GDIB

[Basket]

Yeah. Same here. It's a good idea to try.

[mlf16507]

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