Your wedges are your scoring clubs. When you find yourself with wedge in hand, you should be thinking about hitting it close and making birdie.
As some of the highest lofted clubs in your bag, your wedges are built to launch the ball high and land soft. However, while your wedges should hit the ball high in the air, there is a point where you can actually hit them too high.
GOLF Teacher to Watch Parker McLachlin — aka the Short Game Chef — explains more in the video below.
Are your wedges flying too high?
Hitting your wedges high can be useful when lofting your ball up over trouble, but there’s a point where hitting it too high becomes a problem. If you watch the pros hit wedges, you’ll notice they control their trajectory nicely and don’t hit the ball straight up in the air. This is important for controlling your distances and putting the right amount of spin on the ball.
So, how can you find out if you’re hitting your wedges too high? McLachlin suggests getting on a launch monitor to check your numbers.
“The launch angle is important here,” McLachlin says. “We want to be able to launch [the pitching wedge] somewhere between 20 and 24 [degrees]. If you’re launching this thing around 30 [degrees], that’s not good. That’s going way too high and you’re taking the spin off of it.”
When you launch your pitching wedge in this window, you’ll get the proper descent angle on your shot that allows you to stick the ball close. So next time you’re on a launch monitor, check the numbers on your pitching wedge to make sure your scoring clubs are optimized.
ShortGameChef.com, created by PGA Tour winner Parker McLachlin, provides golfers with a comprehensive resource to improve their short game. Through personalized tips, drills, and expert insights, Parker helps players of all levels gain more confidence and a deeper understanding of their short game to lower their scores. You can browse membership options here.
