Wedge shots on wet fairways

[JerseyGolfer]

How do you compress the ball (hitting it fat)

Hi,

This time of year the fairways have wet to soggy conditions. I've found that I am hitting the ball "Fat" with my wedges even though it seems I'm making good decending contact as I usually do. Is this due to the wet conditions and not being able to trap the ball between the club face and the turf or is it in the mind? How do you guys play these shots? Thanks for any imput. :drinks:

[SheriffBooth]

It's probably the bounce (or lack thereof) on your wedges that's causing them to dig more than when it's dryer.

[JerseyGolfer]

If I'm hitting down on the ball to produce spin then would bounce be a factor? I don't understand the principle of needing bounce on a wet lie. Thanks.

[Dariusz J.]

A wedge "digger" needs three things:

1. bigger bounce (as already said - not so much because of tight lies, but mainly due to the fact that a digger will dig in rough and in sand, too);

2. wider sole;

3. less curved leading edge.

A proper grinding of the sole should help as well to make an existing wedge head more playable for a digger.

However, if you are digging only when it's wet, I wouldn't change a lot since you'll have an opposite problem when it's dry.

Cheers

[SheriffBooth]

[quote name='Howellgolf' post='858988' date='Jan 11 2008, 11:09 AM']If I'm hitting down on the ball to produce spin then would bounce be a factor? I don't understand the principle of needing bounce on a wet lie. Thanks.[/quote]

Bounce in the wedge is always a factor in all conditions. In slo-mo, you'd see the wedge strike the ball and then the ground. If you don't have enough bounce, the wedge will plow right into the ground. If the conditions are very dry, and you have too much bounce, the club will literally bounce of the turf and affect the shot.

But, if your conditions are particularly soupy, there's not much you can do. You can open the face a little to create more effective bounce, like you do in the bunker, but you'll also lose distance and gain loft. You can try to back off a little and pick the ball cleaner, but then the skull becomes a reality.

What wedges do you play now?

[atlanta golfer]

Sometimes I'll hit it thin on soggy fairways just because in the back of my mind I don't want to get down into the muck and so I'll unintentionally pull up.

[dirt]

I played in wet conditions this week out in Eastern Long Island at Long Island National. Great course. I took me a few, four swings to figure it out. Bottom line......for me, it was keeping a very stable lower half, turning away from the target, felt the resistance in the core, turned and hit. Making sure I made contact with the ball first. My divots were i foot long and pretty thin.

I play the ping iWedge 50 and 56. Interestingly, I was in the market for some new wedges, but decided to keep these after this week. They were very stable and the forgiveness really paid off in these condition. I have had them in the bag for a year and I feel good about keeping them there!!

Net, net...stable lower half. If you close your eyes and turn your shoulders away from a target with locking down your lower half.....trying not to move your hips at all......then look down at your right hip and you will see that you have actually turned plenty for a good golf swing.

Check out pages 90 to 95 ish in Ben Hogan's 5 Lessons, "The modern Fundamentals of Golf".

Everytime my game gets wayward, I go back to this section.

Good luck.

[birdie_man]

Experiment with combos of weight forward/ball back. You absolutely need a crisp, descending blow. Ball-turf.

[JerseyGolfer]

[quote name='SheriffBooth' post='859029' date='Jan 11 2008, 11:30 AM'][quote name='Howellgolf' post='858988' date='Jan 11 2008, 11:09 AM']If I'm hitting down on the ball to produce spin then would bounce be a factor? I don't understand the principle of needing bounce on a wet lie. Thanks.[/quote]

Bounce in the wedge is always a factor in all conditions. In slo-mo, you'd see the wedge strike the ball and then the ground. If you don't have enough bounce, the wedge will plow right into the ground. If the conditions are very dry, and you have too much bounce, the club will literally bounce of the turf and affect the shot.

But, if your conditions are particularly soupy, there's not much you can do. You can open the face a little to create more effective bounce, like you do in the bunker, but you'll also lose distance and gain loft. You can try to back off a little and pick the ball cleaner, but then the skull becomes a reality.

What wedges do you play now?
[/quote]
I play TM RAC Blacks Y Cutter. I understand now what you're saying about bounce. Good Explanation. I'll just have to use a wedge w/ more bounce in wet conditions, I guess. Thanks.

[pocketfulladoubles]

Don't you guys adjust the attack angle for the sogginess? If I see I'm hitting onto real soft ground, I'll try to scoop it more. You are changing your shot though, is this a bad approch?

[SheriffBooth]

[quote name='Howellgolf' post='859126' date='Jan 11 2008, 01:07 PM']I play TM RAC Blacks Y Cutter. I understand now what you're saying about bounce. Good Explanation. I'll just have to use a wedge w/ more bounce in wet conditions, I guess. Thanks.[/quote]

TM's current line has what I would consider relatively low bounce in everything but their 56. The 58 and 60 in particular are pretty low.

I know it's hard to find demo wedges, but I'd see if you can get your hands on a 3-dot Cleveland and see how that does. Their 3-dot 60 has 14 degrees of bounce - that thing ought to bounce off snow.

[larrybud]

[quote name='Howellgolf' post='858916' date='Jan 11 2008, 10:13 AM']Hi,

This time of year the fairways have wet to soggy conditions. I've found that I am hitting the ball "Fat" with my wedges even though it seems I'm making good decending contact as I usually do. Is this due to the wet conditions and not being able to trap the ball between the club face and the turf or is it in the mind? How do you guys play these shots? Thanks for any imput. [/quote]

Since the ball doesn't REALLY get "trapped" between the club and turf, the cause is you hitting it fat. In dry conditions, there's more leeway in the club skidding or bouncing off the turf. When it's wet, there's less resistance.

[scores]

You have to shorten your swing and sometimes when you strike it well the flight will peel off to the right why because the grooves fill with water.

Firm left wrist and shorten it up..

That works for me

[OldSkoolTexan]

Those Y cutter wedges are decent. You just have to accept that on soggy/wet fairways you will not be compressing wedge shots. Like someone else mentioned , I definitely play wedges with more bounce when its wet or the course is particularly lush.

I just take a more shallow swipe at in wet conditions. If for no other reason than I dont want water and mud flying up in my face and making a mess..... lol Oh and trust me, noone likes compressing the crap out of the ball more than I do, but sometimes its not feasible.

[Viking Golfer]

I have two trios of wedges, one for wet and one for dry conditions.
The trio for wet conditions has larger bounce than the other trio has.

This is the expensive way to do it, but in my view the BEST way

On top of that, my wedges are custom made with custom grind and custom bounce - this also helps a [b]LOT[/b]

[Boba]

In wet conditions, I wouldn't recommend "scooping more" or playing the ball too far back. Scooping (while it may increase effective bounce) is not the way to hit a ball & playing it back will decrease the effective bounce and thus increase the chance of the wedge digging. I play a Callaway X tour md in the mud (the one with a concave sole) and my keys for mucking it are as follows:

1) Stand tall & narrow your stance. Standing tall and maintaining your posture will raise the bottom of the swing arc from several inches under ground to a fraction of an inch below the ground. This allows you to swing down without the chance of flubbing a shot.

2) Choke up. Choking up on the club has a similar effect as #1 by shortening the radius of the swing arc. The shorter the arc, the less the club goes under ground.

3) Flatten your swing plane and utilize the trailing edge of the sole. Most people who stick it in the ground play from muddy lies with too square of a face and too steep of a swing. When you skip a rock off a pond, you throw the rock at a shallow angle. Throw the rock too steep and it goes under water & the same holds true with a golf club. Swinging from a flatter plane with a slightly open face (like you would in a fluffy bunker) helps the club skip on the surface.

4) Take more club and swing smooth. Taking more club allows you to play with an open face which keeps the club from digging.

5) As ClubHoUno said, get some winter wedges. Pros bring multiple sets of wedges for a variety of conditions & so should you. Taylor your clubs to your playing conditions and wet lies will be a piece of cake.

[DaveyH]

just extend down the target line and dont hit ''down'' into the ground hit through the ground.

[kitsoasis]

i'd choke down and hit it thin like i would from a fairway bunker

[GolfTitan]

Errrrr...... Swing Harder??


Ok, that was my lame joke for the day. This thread has some great information, I was actually just wondering the same thing (after my round yesterday).

I play Adam wedges, and I have not clue what the bounce is on the clubs (I know, that's my fault). I do know that the with the 60 degree wedge, I always seem to "dig" down more into the sod and loose distance on the shot. I'm sure it's a swing flaw, but I have the same swing as I do with my 56 degree wedge, and I don't have near the problems with that. In fact, I've given up on the 60 degree wedge because of that. I still carry it, but only for green side bunkers, etc.

[Ridgecrest18]

In wet conditions, the ball, even from a good lie, will tend to sit down a little more than on a dry one. Trying to trap the ball out of a "down lie", might be the reason for your problem. The principal reason for trapping or compressing the ball, with a wedge, is to create or impart spin and cause it to "check" at a particular point on the green.

Given that wet greens will do most of this "checking" work for you, might I suggest that you try using either your pitching-wedge or 9-iron for shots where you would normally use the sand-wedge. The fact that these clubs have a less radius'd leading edge and usually a more "rolled" one as well, you should be able to make cleaner contact and stop the fats.....