Video:Dialing In Your Wedge Distances in Golf

Transcript:Dialing In Your Wedge Distances in Golf

Hey golfers, I'm PGA Teaching Professional Todd Kolb for About.com. We're going to talk about dialing in those wedges.

Key to Wedge Distances in Golf

The key to a good wedge game is learning to control the distance that you hit each one of those golf shots. Now there's a couple of ways that we can do this. The first—and the most obvious—is the club that we select. If you grab a club that has more loft on it and is a little bit shorter, you're certainly going to hit the ball higher and a little bit shorter. So the first recommendation is to understand how far you hit each one of your wedges on just what we might call your standard or normal golf swing.

Varying the Distance to Dial in on Wedge Distances in Golf

The next thing that you can do to vary that distance so you can get it dialed in is to simply change the position where you grip the golf club. Not changing your grip, but changing of the positions of the hands on the golf club. The further I move my hands down on the club—in essence—I shorten the length of the club, which is going to cause the ball to go a little bit shorter distance and, of course, the reverse if I move my hands up. So the second tip is to vary the position that you place your hands on the golf club.

Change the Length of the Backswing to Dial Wedge Distances in Golf

The third one—and I think probably is the most effective—is to change the length of the backswing. The length of the backswing will pretty much determine the distance that the ball travels along with the club selection, which we talked about, and the placement of the hands.

So, as an example, if I swing the club back so that my left arm is parallel to the ground—which I might refer to as the nine o'clock position—and give it a relatively full follow-through, I'm going to hit the ball a certain distance. If I take the same placement of my hands and the same golf club, but I lengthen that swing out so that my left hand travels a little bit further—let's say ten thirty on the position of a clock—that ball is certainly going to go a little bit further than the previous one, or the nine o'clock position. So changing the length of your backswing will certainly help you hit the ball different distances.

Good Wedge Play

So at the end of the day, the key to good wedge play is being able to control the distance that you hit each one of those shots. The best way to do that is, first of all, to choose different golf clubs and know how far you hit each one of those clubs. Second, vary the position of the hands on the golf club so you get a different distance with each one of those. And then last, but not least, change the length of the backswing with always giving it a relatively full follow-through. If you do those things, you can learn the different distances that you can hit the golf ball, you can dial in those wedges, and you'll see your golf score start to come down.

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