Low flighted-high spin wedge video?

[RoyalMustang]

Someone posted a video awhile back about how to keep wedges flighted low: ball back in stance, club face slightly closed, mainly a "body" swing instead of an arm swing. Any idea where I can find it? 

 

I was playing yesterday with a friend, 15 cap, and he pointed out how crisp my wedges were from 100 yards in whereas his were high with floppy hands, rolling out way too far. I told him I would send him the YT video if I can find it. I think it was 3-4 minutes long.  Thanks! 

[MattC555]

He's probably just hitting them a bit fat.  This would create a low spin shot high on the face, increasing launch.  Have to clip it to spin it.  I add shaft lean to reduce the flight if needed. 

[art_vandaley]

Kyle Morris has a couple good videos about that.

[hackeraz]

Hasn't Parker McLachlin pretty much stated that's a very wrong way to try and flight a wedge anymore? Modern way is more middle stance, square to open face, speed through the ball, etc. 

[Sean124]

Just now, hackeraz said:

Hasn't Parker McLachlin pretty much stated that's a very wrong way to try and flight a wedge anymore? Modern way is more middle stance, square to open face, speed through the ball, etc. 

 

Monte advocates flighting shots with the ball forward in your stance. I think he calls it the 3 lefts. 
 

Having the ball back in my stance makes me steep and flippy, which isn’t a recipe for hitting the ball low. 
 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

You're basically trying to hit a draw with the wedge to get it to go lower. 

 

Trying to chop down on the ball isn't the way to go. 

[indianagolf2]

Does anyone have that video 

[SNIPERBBB]

12 minutes ago, indianagolf2 said:

Does anyone have that video 

Some videos in the 30-40 yard pitch thread 

[ReviellGolf]

I am curious how to hit them low spinners as well, looking for pointers. I was under the impression that hitting steep and sort of pinching the ball was supposed to give more spin but recently I was practicing with a launch monitor and my spinniest shots were the ones where I was sort of sweeping and hitting the ball clean with little to no divot. Every time I see better golfers hit short spinners they always seem to take a divot so just wondering if anyone can give notes on what they are looking to do when hitting a low spinner.

[MPStrat]

1 hour ago, hackeraz said:

Hasn't Parker McLachlin pretty much stated that's a very wrong way to try and flight a wedge anymore? Modern way is more middle stance, square to open face, speed through the ball, etc. 

 

Around the greens, yes. From 100 yards there will be more shaft lean to flight the ball.

[Pepperturbo]

2 hours ago, RoyalMustang said:

Someone posted a video awhile back about how to keep wedges flighted low: ball back in stance, club face slightly closed, mainly a "body" swing instead of an arm swing. Any idea where I can find it? 

 

I was playing yesterday with a friend, 15 cap, and he pointed out how crisp my wedges were from 100 yards in whereas his were high with floppy hands, rolling out way too far. I told him I would send him the YT video if I can find it. I think it was 3-4 minutes long.  Thanks! 

Don't know about the video. 

 

Usually, when a ball is high, then nearly drops from the sky, hits and runs, it has NO spin to prevent the run out.  That mean's he's sweeping the ball, NOT hitting down on the ball.

 

Flighting the ball has to do with proper choice of club, ball position, club face angle, hands forward of the ball at address, and how the user hits the ball and how the club finishes though the ball.

 

My 100yd wedge shots hit, bounce once, and trickle forward; when hit really hard, my ball spins backward 1-3', all depends on green composition and speed.

[MPStrat]

4 minutes ago, ReviellGolf said:

I am curious how to hit them low spinners as well, looking for pointers. I was under the impression that hitting steep and sort of pinching the ball was supposed to give more spin but recently I was practicing with a launch monitor and my spinniest shots were the ones where I was sort of sweeping and hitting the ball clean with little to no divot. Every time I see better golfers hit short spinners they always seem to take a divot so just wondering if anyone can give notes on what they are looking to do when hitting a low spinner.

Spin starts with friction. Good contact is what helps create more friction. Notice I didn’t say compression. You don’t want to be compressing the ball on these shots. 
 

The question is, do you want to hit a shot with a healthy amount of spin that will check or do you want the 30 yard shot that rips back? 😂 

 

The low spinner requires a pretty steep angle of attack, -10 or so. The steep angle of attack is what helps keep the launch angle down. Many of the guys on tour are using the bounce so you won’t see much of a divot, even though they’re hitting down a fair amount. 

[MPStrat]

20 minutes ago, ReviellGolf said:

I am curious how to hit them low spinners as well, looking for pointers. I was under the impression that hitting steep and sort of pinching the ball was supposed to give more spin but recently I was practicing with a launch monitor and my spinniest shots were the ones where I was sort of sweeping and hitting the ball clean with little to no divot. Every time I see better golfers hit short spinners they always seem to take a divot so just wondering if anyone can give notes on what they are looking to do when hitting a low spinner.

Copy this 

 

 

 

[ReviellGolf]

1 minute ago, MPStrat said:

Spin starts with friction. Good contact is what helps create more friction. Notice I didn’t say compression. You don’t want to be compressing the ball on these shots. 
 

The question is, do you want to hit a shot with a healthy amount of spin that will check or do you want the 30 yard shot that rips back? 😂 

 

The low spinner requires a pretty steep angle of attack, -10 or so. The steep angle of attack is what helps keep the launch angle down. Many of the guys on tour are using the bounce so you won’t see much of a divot, even though they’re hitting down a fair amount. 

Ah I see, that's a good note. I've always heard people say "nip" the ball, which in my head I envisioned sort of a compression of the ball. But in practice, when I felt that I had struck down on it and felt the compression of the ball through the ground, so to speak, those shots never came out with much spin. But nipping in the context of clean contact makes sense. 

 

Where I play, the conditions are such that it is near impossible to rip one back more than a foot haha so at the moment I am trying to learn how to send a low trajectory with spin so that the ball lands near the pin and bounces a couple times and stops. 

 

Hitting high ones that just fall out of the sky is easy but I find that trying for a lower trajectory helps with getting more consistent in nestling them up close without influence of the wind and such.

[umamimami]

32 minutes ago, ReviellGolf said:

I am curious how to hit them low spinners as well, looking for pointers. I was under the impression that hitting steep and sort of pinching the ball was supposed to give more spin but recently I was practicing with a launch monitor and my spinniest shots were the ones where I was sort of sweeping and hitting the ball clean with little to no divot. Every time I see better golfers hit short spinners they always seem to take a divot so just wondering if anyone can give notes on what they are looking to do when hitting a low spinner.

 

You’re right on the money with your observations. Assuming fairway lie with good access to the ball you want a shallow angle because this promotes maximum interaction between ball and clubface. Be as shallow as you can be unless you want to really spin a low one. But you best have practice that since you’re going to be steep and precision is required to avoid a drop kick

 

If you’re going to mess with attack angle know that you’re going to need to mess with shaft lean to get similar results on shots. The real goal is dynamic loft in the mid 40s. In short - flat with a PW (this is hard) progressively more shaft lean as you climb to to SW and LW 

 

None of this applies if you’ve got a launch monitor but here’s how I made my wedges work for me without access to one:

Take your wedges and figure out how much lean you need to make it’s loft 45. I did this by leaning them up against a wall with a protractor and then taking photos so I had some reference. This took a while. You might be better off just guesstimating based on your wedge’s stated loft.

 

Next consider your typical attack angle. If you’ve got an iPhone you can take a slomo video and guesstimate this. At around 45 degrees of presented loft the ball gets maximal contact and is spun without face riding too much. This gives a lower one (not crazy low we don’t have box grooves any more)

 

You can open the face to get more loft but know that there is a point where you present too little loft at impact and spin falls off a cliff (the dreaded floater that rolls out)

 

Minor shaft lean is also needed so that you again get maximum interaction between clubface and ball.

 

Id say better wedge players take divots out of bad lies and situation specifics like going up to an elevated green when you’re on the hill. You want to maximize contact between face and ball, so if it’s slightly down in hairy fairway you could get steeper but you should probably just accept that it ain’t gunna spin as much.

 

Clean your clubs and use urethane balls.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by umamimami

[ReviellGolf]

8 minutes ago, MPStrat said:

Copy this 

 

 

RPReplay_Final1684035379.mov 31.95 MB · 0 downloads  

 

That's interesting. It almost looked like the face squared up once the bounce hit.

[MPStrat]

1 minute ago, ReviellGolf said:

Ah I see, that's a good note. I've always heard people say "nip" the ball, which in my head I envisioned sort of a compression of the ball. But in practice, when I felt that I had struck down on it and felt the compression of the ball through the ground, so to speak, those shots never came out with much spin. But nipping in the context of clean contact makes sense. 

 

Where I play, the conditions are such that it is near impossible to rip one back more than a foot haha so at the moment I am trying to learn how to send a low trajectory with spin so that the ball lands near the pin and bounces a couple times and stops. 

 

Hitting high ones that just fall out of the sky is easy but I find that trying for a lower trajectory helps with getting more consistent in nestling them up close without influence of the wind and such.

They key on fast greens is less ball speed. It’s really hard to predict what the ball is going to do when it comes off of the face really hot. Those who play these shots with a lot of shaft lean tend to have that issue.

[ReviellGolf]

5 minutes ago, umamimami said:

 

You’re right on the money with your observations. Assuming fairway lie with good access to the ball you want a shallow angle because this promotes maximum interaction between ball and clubface. Be as shallow as you can be unless you want to really spin a low one. But you best have practice that since you’re going to be steep and precision is required to avoid a drop kick

 

If you’re going to mess with attack angle know that you’re going to need to mess with shaft lean to get similar results on shots. The real goal is dynamic loft in the mid 40s. In short - flat with a PW (this is hard) progressively more shaft lean as you climb to to SW and LW 

 

None of this applies if you’ve got a launch monitor but here’s how I made my wedges work for me without access to one:

Take your wedges and figure out how much lean you need to make it’s loft 45. I did this by leaning them up against a wall with a protractor and then taking photos so I had some reference. This took a while. You might be better off just guesstimating based on your wedge’s stated loft.

 

Next consider your typical attack angle. If you’ve got an iPhone you can take a slomo video and guesstimate this. At around 45 degrees of presented loft the ball gets maximal contact and is spun without face riding too much. This gives a lower one (not crazy low we don’t have box grooves any more)

 

You can open the face to get more loft but know that there is a point where you present too little loft at impact and spin falls off a cliff (the dreaded floater that rolls out)

 

Minor shaft lean is also needed so that you again get maximum interaction between clubface and ball.

 

Id say better wedge players take divots out of bad lies and situation specifics like going up to an elevated green when you’re on the hill. You want to maximize contact between face and ball, so if it’s slightly down in hairy fairway you could get steeper but you should probably just accept that it ain’t gunna spin as much.

 

Clean your clubs and use urethane balls.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info. What do you mean by drop kick? I gonna play around with this the next time I hit the range.

[TonyRo]

27 minutes ago, ReviellGolf said:

What do you mean by drop kick?

A "drop kick" is when the club bounces off the ground and then strikes the ball. I would generally distinguish a drop-kick from a chunk in that the golfer has presented enough of the bounce to not completely dig the leading edge in, but it's not a clean, ball-first nip as you'd want. 

[Zitlow]

52 minutes ago, MPStrat said:

They key on fast greens is less ball speed. It’s really hard to predict what the ball is going to do when it comes off of the face really hot. Those who play these shots with a lot of shaft lean tend to have that issue.

 

I played golf with Mike Dunaway, around the greens he was about a 20-22 handicapper because he used a smaller version of his full swing around the greens. 

 

 

[MPStrat]

5 minutes ago, Zitlow said:

 

I played golf with Mike Dunaway, around the greens he was about a 20-22 handicapper because he used a smaller version of his full swing around the greens. 

 

 

A small version of that golf swing would be a disaster for distance wedges lol

[Nard_S]

Play with a plus guy, his wedge is 1/2 the height of mine, I mean pure knock down low, they looked skulled, but they have lots of spin. From 50-125 he's deadly. I'm so jealous.

[MattC555]

4 minutes ago, Nard_S said:

Play with a plus guy, his wedge is 1/2 the height of mine, I mean pure knock down low, they looked skulled, but they have lots of spin. From 50-125 he's deadly. I'm so jealous.

 

 In my circle of golfers I hit wedges pretty low.  I don't really try to, but I spin them a lot and launch lower than my buddies.  Per Trackman, I hit a partial, 75 yard, 56° wedge 45-50ft in the air.  A "full" 56° averages 65-70ft.  Lower than that?   If so, why does he hit them that low?  More curious.  I don't like seeing a super high wedge that moves a bunch in the wind, but I don't see the advantage of skulling them.  Every once in a while I'll bottom groove a PW 20ft off the ground with probably 11krpm spin, but I'm not pleased about it. 

[Nard_S]

24 minutes ago, MattC555 said:

Lower than that?   If so, why does he hit them that low? 

My guess estimate is 40-50 feet high, like beeline low and he can skip & back up ball. Why he does? Pretty sure it 's yardage dial in and he takes wind out of equation more. Uses laser and he's spot on. For context the guy has 115 driver head speed, played D1 ball too.

[glk]

4 hours ago, MPStrat said:

Copy this 

 

 

RPReplay_Final1684035379.mov 31.95 MB · 10 downloads  

 

no no

do this

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsoE81vlBbs/?hl=en

 

oh, maybe this

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG0mRF_APq2/

 

 

or this

as described.  https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYXVG0ptMj/

as executed.  https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYinF-JYjj/

😁

how to get that all important 30* launch or lower

Edited July 12, 2023 by glk

[MPStrat]

14 minutes ago, glk said:

no no

do this

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsoE81vlBbs/?hl=en

 

oh, maybe this

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG0mRF_APq2/

 

 

or this

as described.  https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYXVG0ptMj/

as executed.  https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYinF-JYjj/

😁

I bought Deminsky’s spinner video last year. Really cleared up a lot of things I had misunderstood about spinning the ball. 
 

That’s when I started hitting more “fades” in the short game. I don’t do that in every scenario but I do when I want more spin.
 

It’s interesting that players are using the angle of attack to control the trajectory. I think a lot of players assume “flop” or “high” when they set up with a more vertical shaft and the face open. Well, it depends on the angle of attack. Can hit it super low or super high from there. 

 

Another big thing posters should know is that if you really stay down through these shots it’s easy to compress the ball and have the ball coming off the face too hot. If you’re trying to lower the ball speed and use the bounce, it helps to be coming up early. Don’t stay down. 

[glk]

48 minutes ago, MPStrat said:

I bought Deminsky’s spinner video last year. Really cleared up a lot of things I had misunderstood about spinning the ball. 
 

That’s when I started hitting more “fades” in the short game. I don’t do that in every scenario but I do when I want more spin.
 

It’s interesting that players are using the angle of attack to control the trajectory. I think a lot of players assume “flop” or “high” when they set up with a more vertical shaft and the face open. Well, it depends on the angle of attack. Can hit it super low or super high from there. 

 

Another big thing posters should know is that if you really stay down through these shots it’s easy to compress the ball and have the ball coming off the face too hot. If you’re trying to lower the ball speed and use the bounce, it helps to be coming up early. Don’t stay down. 

The two people I follow on short game are ridyard and Deminsky - doubt I'll see ridyard but Derek is now a 7 hour drive away.   Maybe some day until then there video will have to do.  Best short game advice I can give is buy their video series if you can't see them in person.

[MPStrat]

56 minutes ago, glk said:

The two people I follow on short game are ridyard and Deminsky - doubt I'll see ridyard but Derek is now a 7 hour drive away.   Maybe some day until then their video will have to do.  Best short game advice I can give is buy their video series if you can't see them in person.

Ya I think unlike full swing stuff, short game videos can be quite worth the price of admission. I like Parker Mclachlan’s stuff too. I haven’t actually watched any of Ridyard. 
 

Mclachlan’s bunker setup took me from a mediocre bunker player to really good, immediately. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by MPStrat

[TonyRo]

16 hours ago, glk said:

Best short game advice I can give is buy their video series if you can't see them in person.

Do you have a recommendation on which one? It appears as though some are on PlayBetterGolfTucson or whatever, and some are on his own site as well, with multiple options in each spot. I have seen some of Parker's stuff as well, but I like to gather all of the information and options, test, and see what works best for me and my wedges.

[Chunkitgood]

So, the answer is clear:

 

By no means continue what you are doing that works well, instead do something else because somebody else says so.

 

I started reading this forum to learn about golf and how it is taught.

 

I stayed for the laughs.