100 yd wedge shot nightmare

This shot makes me want to quit golf. There is nothing more satisfying to me though, than to get LUCKY and pure a 56 degree wedge to about 3 feet. Unfortunately for me, that is luck almost every time and by every time I mean 1 out of 15. I consider myself to be a decent golfer, don't keep an active GHIN handicap but I stay between 77-82 consistently, all the while makin sure I do not leave myself 100 yds to the pin. I am self taught primarily by feel. I have watched some YouTube.

All jokes aside, I really am looking to resolve my wedge issues as it is wearing on my confidence and am seeking some help from you guys. Typically the miss is fat. I would say that 80% of the shots from 100yds in are hit fat. I can hit a full PW no problem as well as a full gap wedge. The problem starts when I have to hit a 3/4 gap wedge 110 yds or a 56 degree 80 yds. In a effort to not his these type shots fat, it has led to me starting to skull the ball. In this vicious cycle of fat shots, followed by skulls my tempo has became so fast with these shots.

I now believe in my quest to learn how to hit a pure 100 yd shot consistently, I have watched to many videos and read to many articles. I now stand over the shot with 16 swing thoughts running through my head. This does not make for good wedge play.

Does anyone have a go to video that really helped them achieve consistency in their wedges?

Does anyone have a single swing thought that they have when standing over this shot that produces solid contact?

Thanks for your help.

You dont need any videos on how to hit it you already know how if you shoot in 70s! Its just in your head.... hit 50% of all range shots 100 yards with different clubs until you get over it.

Infact just hit the whole bucket with 3/4 PW, GW, SW to 100 yards.... I love those workouts so relaxing and fun to throw darts. You'll see it really pays dividends on the course.

That will be an entire bucket of dreaded humiliation, but I have to do it. I will have to go late in the evening when no one will be there to witness such a catastrophe.

Make it a part of a regular practice routine...partial swing wedges to targets from 50-100 yards. You won't regret it!

There's no humiliation lol! So many feel that way.... couldnt get my "big sister" in the gym cause of that but now she goes and couldnt care less.

It's funny most people suck at golf so who gives a flying turd what they think and the good players will think good on ya laddy for putting in the work to improve cause I was there once!

This is true, the only way to fix it is to put in the work. I appreciate the kind words fellas.

Stop trying to pure a 56 and hit a soft pw. Unless you play on pool table greens, the ball will stop just fine and your success rate for GIR will go up.

Fullish wedges are tricky. Especially if you're using non-set wedges which are typically heavier than your irons.

For me I like to try to do a hold-off-release-without-holding-off release on fullish shots with the wedges on the range to try to train my hands to not get flippy.

This. Practice hitting little 3/4 PW‘s with soft hands and you’ll be good to go.

Change your lofts, lol!

And hitting pure wedges to 3 feet from 100 yards full out is way better than any Tour player would do, so maybe check on some reasonable expectations for proximity.

Seriously, if you are fat 80% of the time inside 100 yards and in maybe there is a swing/setup issue in there somewhere worth having checked out. Want to check your sequencing take your 8 iron and hit it 100 yards until you can. Definitely need to practice different distances. Can you set up and hit a simple little 20 yard wedge? 40 yard wedge? Same idea as 8 iron, take a 56 degree and work on some little 20 and 40 yarders - don't take it too far back and don't swing too fast, match stuff up.

I had a buddy who had similar issues. He is completely not technical and what I would call just a raw talent. Just plays the game without much thinking and usually does pretty good. But he went through a 100 yard and in, struggle last summer.

The thought and fix that helped him, that might help you. We just worked on taking the lower body out of the 120 yard and in game. We had him start with more weight on his left side and keep it there throughout the swing. It prevented him from going full 100% of the way back and and just made the shots a lot simpler.

Really it adds onto the previous posters. Learn how to hit 100 yard distant shots with your GW, PW, 9, 8, even up to a 6 iron (in case you need to get out of trees). You'll really see how quiet the lower body can be when using a 6 iron for only 100 yard shots.

It seemed me, that prior to the fix, he was still taking full swings (even though he said he was doing 3/4 or 1/2) and it really just threw his transition and timing off because he was taking a slower / easier swing to try and limit the distances. That's a good recipe to start chunking them.

Also just for reference, I can hit my 56 SW up to 115 yards if I go after it. But other than needed loft to get over trees, I would never hit that shot on the course. If I'm in the fairway at 115 yards, I'll hit a PW, unless it's a front pin, then I might go GW. But with the shorter distances, always take the simpler swing (which is usually more club and less swing).

Good luck mate.

Hit shots with chest rotation and the feel of hitting flat footed

also make sure the ball is not too far forward

If that is how they feel about you, who shoots in the 70s, then I can only imagine what they would think seeing me out there! ...yikes lol.

In all seriousness though, I have found that sometimes practicing punch shots with something like a 7 or 9 iron tends to help me get the feel for a shorter swing with contact. That may sound weird, but it has worked for me. I will even try to challenge myself to hit those irons to something like 100 yards just to see if I can.

Thanks for the help gents. I will work on making my way through the bag at 100. I will also take all suggestions listed above with me to the range and work through them one at a time until I can pin it down.

It’s funny that you as about being able to set up and hit a 40 with a 56 Because I don’t tend to mind this shot as much and actually hit it pretty decent. The difference in this shot and a 100 to me is for some reason I play the 40yd shot completely by feel. Nothing really technical about it. When I stand over a 100 for some reason I can’t apply that same feel/subconscious swing I make with a 40yd shot. Golf is a funny, but great game and I love the challenge. I’ll make it through it eventually.

What loft is your GW?

where do you place the ball in your stance for a 100 yard wedge shot? i used to have the same issues and would move the ball back and then back and back again thinking i could avoid the fat shot. eventually i moved it forward of center. wedge doesnt dig anymore.

I had to learn the same thing, for about the same distance. Full PW was 135, and when I tried to take something off my swing (as opposed to "controlled aggressive", which is my comfort zone), I alternated between fat and skulls. Very frustrating, I remember feeling your pain.

Take a few clubs (6i, 8i, PW and another wedge, for example) and :

Choke an inch or so down and make a full swing. See how much distance you lose (prob 5-10 yards per inch)Make a 3/4 swing (hands back to about shoulder height) but don't change anything else from your full swing. Again, see how much distance you lose (prob 20 yards).This will give you a few different combinations to get to a particular distance.

I found I could choke 1" down on a 50* wedge, or hit a solid 3/4 PW, and both will carry about 100yds. As others have suggested, take a large bucket and after a brief warm up, hit the entire bucket like this until you can get solid shots with either option.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Do you play the ball back in your stance to allow for the lead?

Another thing to consider is that you may be swinging too hard. If your miss tends to be fat then you're probably coming in steep which again it's probably from too much hitting impulse rather than just swinging through it.

While being able to hit different irons 100 yards comes in handy, you still have to be able to hit the wedge 100, or less when called upon. You have to develop trust in your wedges which won't come from mastering the 6i to go 100. You might be surprised how little effort it takes to hit a lob wedge 70 yards when your sequence is correct and as others have said you keep the lower body quiet. It doesn't mean no lower body, but any excessive movement is going to cause contact issues.

I think people see the tour players effortlessly hit the sand wedge 120 and think they should too, but far too often you are getting the wrong idea and your brain knows nothing less than the perfect shot will get your sand wedge to go 100 so you give it that little extra, and here comes fat.

I would recommend starting at the other end of the spectrum. Get out the lob wedge, and master shorter shots, like 50 - 60 yards. Focus on setup and AC swing you know it's coming in shallow. When you have the feel down for a 60 yards lob wedge and how that does not require a big/fast swing, but a controlled 9-3 (or similar arc), when you have confidence in that, then mashed the same swing with 56 instead of 60. How far does that go? Same swing with 52 (gap), how far is that. Now go back to log wedge and give it a more full swing, still controlled, still not feeling you are going all out, how far is full lob? Compare that to the 9-3. Alternate shots with the lob between half/full. Then try it with other wedges.

Too many golfers have this notion that a particular loft of a wedge should go a certain distance. It may be something like this - oh my 46* PW goes 130 so my 52 should be 115, 56 should go 105 and 60 goes 90.... Sounds great in theory but the reality is they do not have a swing that good and most wedge shots are not supposed to be hit to max out distance. So they let the distance be the goal and try to master a swing for that distance; they end up manufacturing some swing with zero feel/accuracy.

Instead, learn to control your tempo with wedges to ensure center contact with a couple of different swing lengths. The goal is a repeatable / easy / no stress swing. Let the swing result tell you the distance, then change lofts to get your coverage.

I play competition and am scratch and 50% of my practice is from scoring distances. I practice 40 - 130 yards allll the time. Then putting and some greenside stuff and then finally I hit enough full swings to stay loose and on plane. Too many full swings and they start going sideways.

Besides practice, nothing makes me hit good wedge shots than a new set of wedges. If you chunk them then get some mid bounce vokeys w/ standard grinds - nothing fancy 50F 8*/54S 10*/58S 10*. Good luck.

48 degrees

This could be a mindset issue. I think a lot of people have it in their heads that you have to hit excessively down on your wedges. If you’re hitting down on them a lot, that steepness makes the difference between a fat shot and a thin shot very small. If you’re ten degrees down but the ball is an inch forwards of where it needs to be for a perfect strike then you’re hitting that fat and it’ll go nowhere. If it’s an inch back of a perfect strike, skull city. Now if your swing is bottoming out at the ball, and it’s an inch forwards (and you’re using the bounce) then the club will still get on the ball. Likewise if it’s an inch forwards. Your margin for error is markedly improved.

so I’d say think about what you’re trying to do and if you are trying to hit down a lot then go to the range and try to pick it clean. That will help you understand where your low point is and what you should be doing. I think ideally you’d still be hitting down a little bit so you still want a divot but a shallow one. Not a big pelt style thing.

Thank you for the help guys. These will all be a great start at the range. I will let you guys know how it goes.

I feel your pain. I completely lost the ability to hit a full traditional wedge shot. At the time, I was a 10 handicap. Now I am down to a 3, and still can't hit a full 56 any further than 80 yards. That same 80 yards is the distance my choke down 56 swing goes. Believe me, I have practiced and worked on it like crazy. I tried several lower lofted wedges and still have problems. One day in a golf shop, I picked up an AP2 gap wedge that someone didn't want in their iron set. This is now the best club in my bag. My problem is with the traditional wedge for some reason. I am really good hitting my 56 and 60 with partial shots inside of 80 yards. From 80 yards to 107, I have different swings for the AP2 wedge. I have gone from dreading the 100 yard shot, to having complete confidence in it. I choke down to 3 different positions on the grip for the yardages. You might want to try an iron set gap wedge and experiment with choking down on it.

That's a bit of a gap between it and the 56. I might consider bending PW a bit weaker and bending the 48 to 50, such that the 3/4 50 will cover that distance. Or bend the 56 to 54 and hit it smoothly

I use a 48* as well but I play a 54 and 58 sand/lob wedges. You could do a 53 if you wanted to make it even 5* gaps