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The Wedge Guy: 3 surefire ways to never get better at golf

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1 year ago

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Hello again, GolfWRXers. I’ve been taking a break from writing my Wedge Guy article for you, but I’m back to sharing insights from 40-plus years in the golf equipment industry with you.

For this first piece marking my return, you might find this to be a rather strange title for an article…but please hear me out. I’ve always felt my main mission here on GolfWRX.com is to help any and all of you on your path to learning how to play this game at a higher level.

I’ve been a bag room snoop and observer of everyday golfers for longer than I can remember, and what amazes me the most is how many golfers I encounter who must really not want to get better at this game. How else can you explain the fact that – despite all the gains in equipment technologies and the unlimited amount of instruction available (much of it free) – so many golfers seem to be stuck at a skill level that just does not improve year after year?

So, a bit tongue in cheek, let me share what I believe are the “3 surefire ways to never get better at golf.”

1. Ignore the importance of a proper grip

The most basic fundamental of golf is learning how to hold the club properly.

This takes no athletic ability, and you can practice it to perfection anywhere.

It doesn’t matter whether you opt for the traditional overlap, interlock or full-finger (not “baseball”) style, only with a proper hold on the club can your swing function at its best through impact. Your grip can be rotated a bit stronger or weaker, but the fundamentals are the same:

  • The club has to be controlled with the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the grip needs to be positioned under the heel pad, not across it.
  • The lower hand pressure should be only in the middle two fingers, with the thumb and forefinger more lightly engaged, if at all.
  • The upper or lead hand has to be in dominant control of the movement of the club.

Very simply, if you are not holding the club in this fundamentally sound manner, the body and club just cannot move properly through the swing motion.

2. Disregard the importance of proper posture and setup

Likewise, it requires little to no athletic ability to assume the proper posture for the golf swing. Like with the grip, close observation of the best players in the world shows very little “personalization” from one to the other – they all start from basically the same posture and setup.  Anyone can mimic this proper set-up position, which – along with a proper grip on the club – gets you much of the way “there” to a sound repeating golf swing.

And the last thing I see that causes many golfers to be stuck in a rut is…

3. Take instruction from your buddies

Golf instruction is part art and part science, and your buddies — even those who seem to be pretty good players — are not likely versed in golf instruction (if they are, perhaps this is a different matter). Tips and advice are cheap, and I cannot begin to count the number of times I’ve observed a golfer who can’t break 80 (or even 90) try to “coach” someone who also can’t break 80 or 90. Unless your buddy has spent years studying the golf swing and can play a pretty good game him/herself, close your ears and eyes when they offer advice.

In conclusion

I’ll close this post with this: Compared to all the costs associated with golf, leveraging those investments with professional instruction is pretty darn cheap. My Dad often said, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” My bet is that you have already committed to the fact that golf is certainly “worth doing.” So, if doing it well is important, begin by improving your grip and posture, and consider finding a professional instructor who “gets” you and go see him or her regularly.

So, there you have it. Frank Sinatra made a fortune singing “My Way,” but that certainly isn’t the pathway to better and more consistent golf!

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Terry Koehler is a fourth generation Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University. Over his 40-year career in the golf industry, he has created over 100 putter designs and dozens of wedges. In 2014, he put together the team that reintroduced the Ben Hogan brand to the golf equipment industry with his TK 15 wedges and Ft. Worth 15 iron designs. Since receiving a U.S. Patent for his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” in the wedge category. In addition to inspiring multiple companies to emulate this sole technology, the performance of his wedge designs have stimulated all other companies to reposition some mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges. Terry is retired from his role as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf, and remains active in the industry as an independent designer and consultant.  But his most compelling work is in the wedge category. Since he first patented his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” reflected in ‘tour design’ wedges. The performance of his wedge designs have stimulated other companies to move slightly more mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges, but none approach the dramatic design of his Edison Forged wedges, which have been robotically proven to significantly raise the bar for wedge performance. Terry serves as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf – check it out at www.EdisonWedges.com.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Sergio N.

    Feb 26, 2025 at 9:15 am

    I couldn’t possibly disagree more. The late Moe Norman had, according to the golf illuminati the wrong stance, the wrong grip, the wrong posture and the wrong set up. Yet, he had dozens of professional wins, and course records. Jim Furyk stood much too close to the ball and had this terrible habit of looping his back swing. They call him U S open champion. Hubie Green had a horrible swing to look at but they called him U S Open Champion too. John Daly took the club back way too far and gripped down too much, not to mention the smoking and drinking, They called him two times major winner. Golf is a game, when you stop concentrating on “the golf swing” and start concentrating on getting the ball in the hole, the miracle of breaking 80 quite naturally follows. It did for me. Once I started to listen to teachers like Manuel De La Torre, and Darryl Klassen, who learned as a kid to break 90 with just a putter (what could be more wrong than that?) golf got much easier.

    Reply Report comment

  2. RI_Redneck

    Feb 20, 2025 at 8:16 am

    Terry,

    I was wondering if you might expand on the meaning of the third fundamental in the Grip part of this article:

    “The upper or lead hand has to be in dominant control of the movement of the club.”

    I’m pretty sure I know what you mean, but if you could elaborate a bit more on the specifics I would appreciate it.

    Thanks,
    BT

    Reply Report comment

    • Terry Koehler

      Mar 1, 2025 at 8:46 am

      Thanks, BT.
      What I meant is that to play golf at a consistent level, you have to accept that it is a “lead side” athletic move. For right handers, that means the entire left side has to lead the golf swing so that impact consistency can be improved.
      I will elaborate more in an upcoming post.

      Terry

      Reply Report comment

      • RI_Redneck

        Mar 1, 2025 at 2:31 pm

        Got it. I was thinking you might be emphasizing the lead hand’s position on the grip in relation to the clubface. I have always been of the mind that the relationship between the orientation of the lead hand on the grip and the clubface is individualistic as opposed to somewhat static as many seem to promote. I was always taught that the “V” formed by the thumb and forefinger of the lead hand should point to the trail shoulder (Typically called a Neutral position) and any major alteration from that would lead to all kinds of problems. Looking at professional golfers, we see all degrees of positions of the lead hand. I would suspect they concluded that position was right for them through trial and error early in their career and stuck with it. I believe every new golfer should do the same.

        Looking forward to your upcoming posts.
        BT

        Reply Report comment

  3. Germ

    Feb 12, 2025 at 7:22 pm

    Great info, especially for the duffers out there.
    MrShortGame just did an interestingly eye opening video on grip pressure. I highly recommend it. Unfortunately I live in Buffalo, so by the time I can try to actually try anything on the course I’ll have forgotten everything. A 5-6 month outdoor golf season is a bucket of yuck!

    Reply Report comment

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News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

1 day ago

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May 12, 2026

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Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

  • Jon Rahm +1300 
  • Cameron Young +1500
  • Bryson DeChambeau +1700
  • Xander Schauffele +1850
  • Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
  • Ludvig Aberg +2000
  • Tommy Fleetwood +2600
  • Collin Morikawa +3500
  • Brooks Koepka +3900
  • Justin Rose +4300
  • Russell Henley +4600
  • Si Woo Kim +4700
  • Justin Thomas +4800
  • Robert MacIntyre +5300
  • Patrick Cantlay +5300
  • Viktor Hovland +5400
  • Tyrrell Hatton +5500
  • Jordan Spieth +5900
  • Sam Burns +6000
  • Hideki Matsuyama +6200
  • Adam Scott +6400
  • Rickie Fowler +7000
  • Chris Gotterup +7400
  • Patrick Reed +7400
  • Min Woo Lee +7800
  • Ben Griffin +8000
  • Sepp Straka +8400
  • Shane Lowry +9000
  • Akshay Bhatia +9200
  • Maverick McNealy +9200
  • Joaquin Niemann +9200
  • Jake Knapp +9200
  • Jason Day +9600
  • Kurt Kitayama +10000
  • J.J. Spaun +10000
  • Harris English +10500
  • Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
  • Gary Woodland +11000
  • David Puig +11000
  • Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
  • Jacob Bridgeman +12000
  • Keegan Bradley +12500
  • Corey Conners +14000
  • Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
  • Sungjae Im +15500
  • Sahith Theegala +15500
  • Harry Hall +15500
  • Alex Noren +16000
  • Thomas Detry +16500
  • Marco Penge +16500
  • Kristoffer Reitan +17000
  • Alex Smalley +17000
  • Wyndham Clark +17500
  • Sam Stevens +17500
  • Keith Mitchell +17500
  • Daniel Berger +18500
  • Ryan Gerard +20000
  • Nick Taylor +20000
  • Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
  • Dustin Johnson +21000
  • Pierceson Coody +23000
  • Aaron Rai +24000
  • Jordan Smith +24000
  • Angel Ayora +24000
  • Bud Cauley +25000
  • Matt McCarty +26000
  • Jayden Schaper +26000
  • Brian Harman +27000
  • Taylor Pendrith +27000
  • Ryan Fox +27000
  • J.T. Poston +27000
  • Cameron Smith +29000
  • Ryo Hisatsune +29000
  • Michael Kim +29000
  • Max Homa +29000
  • Denny McCarthy +29000
  • Tom McKibbin +30000
  • Rico Hoey +32000
  • Matt Wallace +32500
  • Ricky Castillo +33000
  • Haotong Li +33000
  • Michael Brennan +34000
  • Max Greyserman +36000
  • Stephan Jaeger +37500
  • Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
  • Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
  • Aldrich Potgieter +40000
  • Andrew Novak +42000
  • Patrick Rodgers +42500
  • Daniel Hillier +42500
  • Max McGreevy +46000
  • Billy Horschel +48000
  • Chris Kirk +48000
  • Ian Holt +49000
  • Casey Jarvis +49000
  • William Mouw +50000
  • Steven Fisk +50000
  • John Parry +50000
  • Nico Echavarria +52500
  • Garrick Higgo +52500
  • John Keefer+55000
  • Matthias Schmid +57500
  • Austin Smotherman +57500
  • Sami Valimaki +60000
  • Andrew Putnam +60000
  • Lucas Glover +62500
  • Daniel Brown +62500
  • Jhonattan Vegas +75000
  • Emiliano Grillo +80000
  • Mikael Lindberg +85000
  • Adrien Saddier +100000
  • Bernd Wiesberger +100000
  • Elvis Smylie +110000
  • Stewart Cink +130000
  • Kota Kaneko +130000
  • David Lipsky +150000
  • Chandler Blanchet +150000
  • Andy Sullivan +150000
  • Joe Highsmith +180000
  • Adam Schenk +200000
  • Travis Smyth +200000
  • Davis Riley +225000
  • Martin Kaymer +400000
  • Brian Campbell +400000
  • Padraig Harrington +450000
  • Kazuki Higa +450000
  • Jordan Gumberg +450000
  • Ryan Vermeer +500000
  • Austin Hurt +500000
  • Tyler Collet +500000
  • Timothy Wiseman +500000
  • Shaun Micheel +500000
  • Y.E. Yang +500000
  • Michael Block+500000
  • Mark Geddes+500000
  • Luke Donald+500000
  • Bryce Fisher+500000
  • Jimmy Walker +500000
  • Jason Dufner +500000
  • Jesse Droemer +500000
  • Jared Jones +500000
  • Garrett Sapp +500000
  • Francisco Bide +500000
  • Zach Haynes +500000
  • Paul McClure+500000
  • Derek Berg +500000
  • Chris Gabriele +500000
  • Braden Shattuck +500000
  • Ben Polland +500000
  • Ben Kern +50000

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

2 days ago

on

May 11, 2026

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GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

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News

How much each player won at the 2026 Truist Championship

Published

2 days ago

on

May 11, 2026

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Kristoffer Reitan held his nerve at Quail Hollow on Sunday to claim his first PGA Tour victory and the $3.6 million winner’s check that came with it. The Norwegian fended off a packed leaderboard on a dramatic final day, with Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Højgaard both taking home $1.76 million for their runner-up finishes.

With a total prize purse of $20 million up for grabs, here’s a look at how much each player won at the 2026 Truist Championship.

1: Kristoffer Reitan, $3,600,000

T2: Rickie Fowler, $1,760,000

T2: Nicolai Hojgaard, -$1,760,000

4: Alex Fitzpatrick, $960,000

T5: Tommy Fleetwood, $730,000

T5: Sungjae Im, $730,000

T5: J.J. Spaun, $730,000

T8: Ludvig Aberg, $600,000

T8: Harry Hall, $600,000

T10: Patrick Cantlay, $500,000

T10: Matt McCarty, $500,000

T10: Cameron Young, $500,000

13: Justin Thomas, $420,000

T14: Min Woo Lee, $360,000

T14: Chris Gotterup, $360,000

T14: Nick Taylor, $360,000

T17: Alex Smalley, $310,000

T17: Gary Woodland, $310,000

T19: Austin Smotherman, $242,100

T19: Rory McIlroy, $242,100

T19: Keegan Bradley, $242,100

T19: Sudarshan Yellamaraju, $242,100

T19: Kurt Kitayama, $242,100

T24: Patrick Rodgers, $156,643

T24: Pierceson Coody, $156,643

T24: Adam Scott, $156,643

T24: Andrew Novak, $156,643

T24: Harris English, $156,643

T24: J.T. Poston, $156,643

T24: David Lipsky, $156,643

T31: Brian Harman, $114,416.67

T31: Viktor Hovland, $114,416.67

T31: Alex Noren, $114,416.67

T31: Tony Finau, $114,416.67

T31: Nico Echavarria, $114,416.67

T31: Corey Conners, $114,416.67

T37: Sam Burns, $82,187.50

T37: Maverick McNealy, $82,187.50

T37: Akshay Bhatia, $82,187.50

T37: Taylor Pendrith, $82,187.50

T37: Matt Wallace, $82,187.50

T37: Andrew Putnam, $82,187.50

T37: Bud Cauley, $82,187.50

T37: Lucas Glover, $82,187.50

T45: Justin Rose, $60,000

T45: Daniel Berger, $60,000

T45: Ryo Hisatsune, $60,000

T48: Denny McCarthy, $50,000

T48: Aldrich Potgieter, $50,000

T48: Webb Simpson, $50,000

T48: Michael Kim, $50,000

T52: Mackenzie Hughes, $45,187.50

T52: Max Homa, $45,187.50

T52: Brian Campbell, $45,187.50

T52: Jhonattan Vegas, $45,187.50

T52: Matt Fitzpatrick, $45,187.50

T52: Chandler Blanchet, $45,187.50

T52: Jordan Spieth, $45,187.50

T52: Jacob Bridgeman, $45,187.50

T60: Xander Schauffele, $42,500

T60: Robert MacIntyre, $42,500

T60: Ricky Castillo, $42,500

T63: Ben Griffin, $41,250

T63: Sepp Straka, $41,250

T65: Ryan Gerard, $40,250

T65: Si Woo Kim, $40,250

67: Ryan Fox, $39,500

68: Jason Day, $39,000

69: Sahith Theegala, $38,000

70: Sam Stevens, $37,500

71: Hideki Matsuyama, $37,000

72: Tom Hoge, $36,000

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