Instruction
The Wedge Notebook: A Guide to Improve Your Entire Wedge Game
As you’ve probably heard from friends, instructors, and instruction articles like this one, improving your wedge play from inside 100 yards is essential to knocking strokes of your score. But how do you go about getting better? I provide you a basic strategy for improving your overall wedge game below.
These are the same basics we use for wedge play at Combine Golf in Scottsdale, Arizona, with our students. Click here to learn more about Combine Golf.
The Grip
Your grip is the only connection between the club and your body. Thus, ensuring you have a fundamentally sound grip is imperative for you to become the best wedge player possible.
The grip directly influences the club face and its directional position during impact, and as we know, the golf ball begins mostly in the direction of the face at impact. At slower speeds and with higher lofted clubs, the ball will not curve as much, which makes this point even more important if you want to get the ball close to the hole.
The V’s formed between your thumb and forefinger will be used to audit where your grip is positioned. For most players, the V’s should point somewhere between your right ear and right shoulder. Of course, there are exceptions to this fact and you will have to experiment to find your “perfect” grip position.
There are also three pressure points to ensure that your grip is solid on the club:
- Where the right thumb pad meets the top of the left thumb
- The last three fingers of the left hand
- The underside of the right index finger
Posture
The posture you establish at address determines where your center of gravity is located and heavily influences the shape of your overall golf swing.
With wedges, there are two things you must ensure at address:
- You are not too close to the ball.
- Your spine is in a centered position.
In the photo below, you can see that the arms hang vertically and the club shaft is pointing at the belt-line, but there is still freedom between the arms and body. If you are too close, or crowd the ball, the club will work too vertically, or steep. If you stand too far away, the club will work too horizontally, or flat. Both of these swing shapes may cause poor wedge play.
To establish the correct forward bending of your spine, lean forward from the hips with a flat back, allowing the arms to hang down just over the ends of your toes. Your center of gravity should be on the laces of your shoes in this position, as well. To complete this process, set the grip of the club in-line with your belt, and you will have a balanced forward bending of the spine with plenty of freedom to swing the club around your body.
A “Centered” Spine
With wedges, unlike most of the other shots, we will preset the spine in a more centered condition to ensure your low point stays in front of the ball during impact.
Stance and Ball Position
Your stance is the foundational “base” that you will swing around, and it’s the launching pad for clubhead speed. The proper stance is one that allows the player to have ample balance coupled with the rotational freedom to move. For most players, the checkpoint is a stance that is around shoulder width.
It is our goal with wedge shots to have a stance that allows the player the ability to rotate in a way that ensures a more connected motion back and through. Some players prefer a more narrow stance width on shorter shots. This is OK, but be careful that you don’t inhibit motion in the process.
Ball Position
The position of the golf ball between your feet is influenced by the pivot of your body (how you twist, turn, and displace weight), as well as the club you are using.
With wedges, it depends on the shot and the trajectory you desire, however, for 90 percent of the shots you will play you should have the ball in the middle of your stance, just under your sternum. This will encourage a downward blow on the ball, which is what we’re looking for!
Alignment
Surely you’ve heard somehwere along your golfing journey that your feet should line up “parallel left” of your target as if you were standing on railroad tracks. As demonstrated in the photo above, your body points along the left rail of the tracks while the clubhead points directly towards the target.
As Trackman Launch Monitor has shown us in recent years, however, this is not entirely correct because when you hit down on a golf ball the swing path is shifted more rightward.
Therefore, when hitting wedges, you must aim a touch more to the left to ensure that your swing path does not shift too far rightward causing you to curve the ball too much from right-to-left.
The Pivot
The pivot is simply defined as how your body twists and turns during the swing while displacing weight. Your pivot controls things like rhythm, balance, a steady head, and influences your low point.
When hitting wedges, your weight should stay mostly centered within your feet (as shown below) and on the inside of your rear foot. If the weight moves side-to-side too much while hitting these type of shots, it will be more difficult to impact the golf ball solidly.
In order to understand and feel the pivot, cross your arms and turn your shoulders to the “top” of your backswing while keeping the weight on the inside of you rear foot. Now reverse the process into your “finish” position, keeping the weight on the inside of your forward foot.
As you pivot back and forth, everything should work together back and through so the club, arms and hands, sternum, and zipper all reach the top, impact, and the finish together, thus reducing hand action. The better the pivot, the less you will rely on your arms and hands to drive the club; this will make your low point and release point more reliable under pressure.
Low Point Control
One of the most important things in order to facilitate solid wedge shots is the ability for you to control where the club impacts the ground. The club’s low point must be in front of the golf ball for all shots hit off the ground. If not, you will instantly lose power and consistency.
The easiest way to visualize your low point is to draw a line on the ground when you practice. Hit a shot and note where your divot begins. It should always start on the line and forward, never too far in front or behind it.
Face-to-Path
Trackman has also shown us that curvature is created when the face and path diverge, so your face-to-path relationship is very important when hitting wedges. Studies have also shown that the ball begins mostly in the direction of the face and curves away from the path (with a centered hit) as shown above.
The face is the red arrow (11.8 degrees right of the target) and the path is the blue line (-1.2 degrees left of the target), so the face-to-path relationship in the example above is 13 degrees and the ball curves to the right. Obviously, more loft on the club, coupled with less clubhead speed, causes the ball not to curve as much. But, if you want to hit your wedges as straight as possible, I would suggest you put the following image in your mind: Imagine the path and the face moving in the same “down-the-line” direction at impact. If you diminish the amount of face-to-path dispersion, you WILL hit the ball straighter than you ever have with the wedges.
Lastly, enjoy the process of becoming a better wedge player. Remember, the more often you practice, work on your fundamentals, and develop your feel around the green, the more strokes you will save and the lower you will score. Enjoy the journey!
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Dave R
Aug 8, 2017 at 12:35 pm
So do you replace all your divots and repair all your ball marks. Why do you loose golf balls your short game is like a touring pro?
Matt
Aug 8, 2017 at 5:21 am
Hi Tom, great info. Just wanted to add, as a very average golfer with limited time to play, etc, that knowing a range of wedge distances is also really valuable information to have. I noted wedge distances recently using Pelz’ system (for each wedge loft in my bag using 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 backswings) and have noticed a big improvement in my scores.
Ude
Aug 7, 2017 at 5:25 pm
and you don’t play golf …. sooo obvious
Bob Jones
Aug 7, 2017 at 11:48 am
Low point control is the part of pitching that doesn’t get talked about much, but is as important as anything else for controlling distance. During a playing lesson, my practice swings for an ~80 yard pitch were all clearly of different depths, and the pro told me right away I had to correct that if I wanted to master this shot.
Chris
Aug 5, 2017 at 11:53 pm
I find this to be fairly sound, basic advice. However, I wish more instructors would also discuss the alignment of the forearms, elbows, and upper arms in the setup as well. You can have a technically sound grip, but misalign those parts and suffer with inconsistent face and path conditions. With wedge practice, those inconsistencies may not become as evident without a launch monitor, and bleed into and influence a full swing, to the players detriment.