Morphy11

This is a rather touchy subject especially if you're planning on playing in USGA sponsored events. In the past when I've noticed that if my wedge shots appeared to "leak" to the right on approach shots, I'd take my wedges into a practice bunker and swing them into the sand with a steep angle to really dig them out of the sand. Do this 12 or 15 times and you'll notice that the grooves give you the original bite you had when you first bought them. Plus this is probably the only way you can legally sharpen them without altering the depth of the grooves. Hope this helps.

I'm working on hitting the 15-20 ft lob shot since I find myself sometimes in this range when playing a round. Also trying to break myself of just dying the ball to the hole and instead visualizing sinking the putt. I've come up short, about 2 or 3 inches from the hole and then have to settle for a 2nd putt.

Proper course management is the best approach. Now if that means you have confidence in your 3-wood to make the shot consistently each time you're faced with this type of shot, then go for it! But to "go for it" for the sake of going for it, then that's just bad golf and doesn't help you post low scores. Time and again I run into golfers who think they're "Tin Cup" or make a movie reference while they're playing in a round and or try to pull off a shot that is outside their skill level. There is a big difference between professional and amateur golf. Once an amateur golfer can recognize that they are playing at a certain level, then they can start to see improvement in their game. The ideal is to make the game as "boring" as possible, meaning to avoid hitting into trouble and aiming to post a low score. I know that this mind-set might not be popular with some golfers, but you have to realize that the golf course architect puts challenges such as a 230 yard approach shot to a green protected by water there for a reason.

Great thread. It's nice to see that I'm not the only one that hits driver at the most 2 or 3 times during a round and that's on par 5s. Most of the time I hit off the tee with my 3 wood which I can hit within a range of 250 to 300 yards comfortably without the notion that I have to drive the green. I gave up on going for the green on short par 4s when I found myself in the woods or lateral water hazards.

I've recently put a TaylorMade R9 SuperDeep TP 9.5* (adjusted down between 9.0* to 8.5*, depending on how windy the conditions are) with a UST V2 X-Stiff shaft. The ball flight I'm getting is mid to mostly low. I'm satisfied with the low ball flight that the shaft produces. If I'm really "in-synch" I can get about 330 yards on my drives with 50 yards of it being roll. My drives may not be as impressive as a golfer hitting a high launching drive, but I'm definitely more accurate with more fairways hit. The public is sort of brain-washed that in order to have an effective drive it has to be high and long. IMHO, this adds a factor of hitting a hook or slice more often. Golf marketeers are clever in that they know that the high launching drives seen on tv attracts golfers in hopes that they can "hit it" like the pros and the other aspect is that most golfers don't have the time or patience to hone their swing that will produce a consistent low launching ball flight.

I might add that for my understanding (hopefully this will help someone else), the right foot roll is a result of the hip sliding to the left. When I'm performing the downswing and come to the part of the swing where I'm sliding my left hip to "post up", the rolling of the right foot is a natural progression. I'm making a conscious effort of pointing my right knee towards the target though.

This post is truly the biggest secret, what with all of the golf gadgetry that aspiring golfers can get trapped into. I would watch my Dad's swing since he's always had a fundamentally sound swing that produced lazer like tee shots, but I could never make the connection between the right foot roll, turning of the hips and closed shoulders. He was always a better golfer than an instructor.

I use my 56* as my go to wedge and it is the highest lofted wedge in my bag currently. I've developed a "pinch chip" shot that I'm about 75% accurate with. The other 25% of inaccuracy with this type of shot is due to maybe I didn't hit the shot with enough 'feel'. I think I only had to use my 60* LW one time last year and even then it wasn't a memorable shot. hcp - 5.2