This easy drill ensures crisp contact (and lot of spin!) with your wedges

There’s no shot that draws more admiration from a gallery than a wedge that stops on a dime. When pros throw a shot in tight with a ton of spin on the ball, it’s sure to be a fan favorite.

If you’ve ever watched a pro hit a shot like this, you’ve probably tried to replicate it the next time you hit the links. Unlike the bombed 300-yard drive, a wedge shot with a ton of spin actually feels replicable.

Easier said than done.

Hitting a pitch with tons of spin might look easy when the pros do it, but in practice it’s not quite so simple. At least, not without the proper technique. Luckily for you, this shot can be learned with a little bit of practice.

Alex Noren’s wedge drill

The biggest key for generating spin with your wedges is clean contact. If you want to get the ball spinning, you’ve got to get the grooves of the clubface to grab the ball. This can only be done by hitting a solid shot.

The problem with most amateurs is that they have a fundamental misunderstanding of how to properly use their wedge to hit a solid shot. Instead of hitting down on the ball and letting the loft of the club work its magic (and help generate spin), they scoop underneath the ball.

The drill above from European pro Alex Noren can help fix that. All you need to do is place a club perpendicular to your target line about a foot behind the ball and then start hitting shots. With the club acting as a barrier, you will be forced to swing your clubhead over it and hit down on the ball.

“It’s just a reminder of not scooping it,” Noren says. “It’s just about the angle of attack that it comes in.”

Once you start hitting down on the ball with your wedges, you’ll find that crisp contact is much easier to come by — and it will also help you generate lots more spin. Give it a try and before long you’ll be spinning your wedge shots just like the pros do.