Suchmo

The idea of taking pride in the fact that a country ONLY sends its poorest and most disadvantaged off to fight seems perverse. Perhaps if the sons of the wealthy weren't able to avoid the draft (see Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz etc for details) then the affluent and powerful might think twice about misguided military adventures abroad.

With regards to the linked thread, would you still recommend that the right forearm flying wedge is maintained all the way to finish? In the linked thread, many (including yourself, I think) state that most top golfers release the wedge entirely after impact.

Two questions: 1. Is some of the the wedge still there through impact (e.g. right wrist at 160°)? 2. If so, do you have at least some wedge all the way through to the finish? I think I'm doing the first, but struggling to fluently achieve the second.

I suspect that the OP would suggest that the extent of the flying wedge does change through the downswing, releasing somewhat, but that some of the 'wedge' is maintained after impact, ideally all the way through to the finish. My issue is that I simply cannot swing as fast or as fluently without the right wrist straightening later in the finish. While it has been suggested that maintaining the wedge to finish is a low priority, I'm now uncomfortable thinking that I am embedding a less than ideal component.

I bounce between two types of shot with my driver: A low drive that seems to do okay distance-wise and high shot which balloons and drops down dead, carrying about the same as the first, but with way less roll.

The pro at my local driving range saw me driving with a 10.5° Ping G10 driver with a pro-launch red shaft and advised me the set up wasn't ideal. He said that the pro-launch red was a low trajectory shaft. When I then suggested that I should change the shaft, he advised that I should keep it and get a higher loft head (e.g. 12°). I'm a relatively slow swinger. Does his advice seem to make sense? Any explanation would be appreciated.

Using this technique in a practice bunker where there were patches of dry sand and patches of wet, clumpy sand, I tried hitting my gap wedge (46°, v. low bounce) with great success from the wet stuff and then, out of curiosity, tried the same club out of the drier stuff; I found escaping bunkers far easier with the gap wedge than with my SW. Perhaps it was just because I can escape with less club-head speed, and thus it felt a little more controlled, or perhaps it is down to the nature of the sand at my local course. Perhaps it's a flaw in my technique. Does anyone have experience of something similar?

This is eerily similar to my experience (except you're a far better player and longer hitter than I!)

Thanks. My attempts at a 'flighted' swing went slightly past that point, but felt very controlled compared to my usual swing. However, the extra control could be down to my hands being half-way down the grip. I'm a relatively short hitter (7 iron carries 130ish yards), so I usually grip as high as possible and (probably) overswing to try and make up for it. I might need to make this shorter, controlled swing my stock swing in future and try a genuine, even shorter flighted swing once I've embedded that.

How important is it that the club only goes to vertical for a flighted shot? My full swing goes roughly to parallel and today when I attempted to flight my wedges/short irons (with some success) my playing partner indicated that, as well as gripping down, I was still taking the shaft to 45° past vertical.

People with light-years more expertise than I have will no doubt be able to be give better feedback, but it seems to me that the angle created between the club and arms is released almost immediately in the downswing; this could explain the loss in distance.

The 'early wrist break' is what I was trying to communicate when I recommended keeping the hands close to the body in the backswing, but your phrase expresses it much more precisely. I've found that the early wrist break is equally essential in the pitching method advocated by Mvmac and Iacas. (Also, I meant 'nigh on impossible' rather than 'high on impossible' in my previous post.)

Thanks to MVMAC for this thread. By following the steps outlined I'm finally having some success from bunkers. Just a heads up for those struggling: Don't underestimate the importance of keeping the back swing close to the body. To paraphrase Stan Utley, feel like you're swinging inside a phone box and make sure the shaft is vertical (or very close) when the club hits the sand. To me, learning bunker play seems very much like learning to whistle: It feels high on impossible for a while, but if you keep trying (and following decent instruction) you'll quite suddenly get get the 'feeling' for it and not look back.

Anyone got any answers for the questions in the post above (though it was posted long ago)?

Thanks again. My gap wedge and pitching wedge (Wilson di11) apparently have very low bounce (3 degrees). Could this cause problems given that this method of pitching revolves around using the bounce that a club has?

Thanks for the considered replies. Assuming that a 1/4 wedge shot and a pitch could potentially go similar distances, under what circumstances might you choose one over the other.

Thanks Mvmac. I've read elsewhere that I should flat out avoid full shots with my wedges, and pitch only as these clubs are meant for control. Would you disagree with this?

This thread has been a huge help with my short pitches, so thanks to all involved. However, I'm now a touch confused about how to hit full shots with my wedges. Should I use a longer version of the pitch method espoused in the OP's video, or a swing like I would use for a full iron shot (i.e. with shaft lean at impact and a flat left wrist)?