The Art of Being Skillful

As many of you know I enjoy deciphering which elements contribute to being a great wedge player. Ever since I started with my 'Wedge Project' research in 2010 chipping and pitching have really piqued my interest.

My recent testing, and philosophy, has been aligned alongside golfers using one club and applying their skills to control the trajectory and outcome of their shots in close proximity to the green. For ease of illustration and testing I selected a 58º wedge and a 15 yard carry requirement. I then played three different trajectory shots - a high, mid and low shot. I recorded each version in slo-motion and at regular speed along with running TrackMan in the background to capture data on a handful of each type of shot.

As you can tell there is a dramatic difference in the pace required to execute each intended trajectory. The technical changes for each shot changed as follows:

High: ball positioned off front big toe, face square at address and a sense that the handle slows dramatically approaching impact as the clubhead passes the handle prior to impact. Freddie Couples is a good image here.

Mid: ball positioned centrally, face square at address, medium pace and a sense that the shaft will be vertical at impact.

Low: ball positioned off the back big toe, face square with hands forward as a result of the ball position and an upbeat pace that encourages the handle to 'beat' the clubhead to the ball at impact. Zach Johnson's brisk pace comes to mind with this type of shot

At Impact

The TrackMan data provides some interesting differences:

Club Speed: Low 23mph; Mid 30mph; High 37mph

Ball Speed: Low 27.8mph; Mid 28.5mph; High 28.0mph

Smash Factor: Low 1.2; Mid 1.0; High 0.8

Launch Angle: Low 29.6º; Mid 40.6º; High 51.6º

Spin Rate: Low 2230rpm; Mid 1630rpm; High 1250rpm

One thing that struck me was that the average ball speed was the same for each type of shot, yet the club speed was very different. The attack angle was steepest with the lower shot primarily due to the ball position and the shaft lean. I also found it interesting that there was roughly 10º difference in the launch angle of each version.

The numbers might be important for coaches to understand, but what can you, the player looking to save strokes take away?

• Stick with one club around the greens - you'll become a skilled artisan with it in your hands.
• Alter the trajectory with subtle changes at address and less subtle changes in the pace.
• The manner in which you release the clubhead through impact will make a big difference
• Now get to work!

Thanks for reading and please share with a friend. Happy New Year and all the best for a fabulous 2018. #birdies

My 3 Keys to Great Wedge Play

If you dread any form of pitch or chip shot then this article is expressly for you. If you feel like you could save a few more strokes around the greens then this article is for you. Utilizing better technique will literally make these shots easier. Here are a few straightforward improvements that will get the job done. Watch...

Key #1: Set Up

• Feet should be close together. The most common mistake I see is a stance that's too wide.
• Alignment should be square. Yes, square.
• Ball position is centered to slightly forward.
• Weight distribution is slightly favoring the front foot.

The Proper Set Up...

Key #2: Wrist Action

• Wrists should be relatively quiet in the backswing.
• Avoid excessive cupping in the lead wrist. The left wrist for you righties out there.

Key #3: Body Pivot

• Keep the chest rotating through the strike in order to shallow the attack angle.
• Extend the lead side through impact.
• Avoid thoughts of "stay down", "hit down" or "pinch the ball".

As you work towards better technique be aware that your results are not going to transition from bad to good instantaneously. Taking ownership of the upgrades will take time and patience. Get the set up correct, use the wrists properly and shallow the angle of attack with good chest rotation. Now we're talking!

If you'd like to learn more about improving your wedge play check out the Wedge Project.

Spinning the Wedges - Friction

The kingpin when it comes to generating spin is friction. You can have everything set up perfectly to create huge backspin, but if you don't have friction it's not going to happen. Now keep in mind friction is a big piece of the puzzle, but it's still only a piece of the puzzle.

Simply put, you can elevate friction between the clubface and the cover of the ball by eliminating any matter that could possibly get trapped between the two. The questions are how do we do this and what do we have control over?

Friction is primarily influenced by two factors - equipment and matter. Matter is anything that might get caught between the face and the ball. Let's have a look at what we can do...

Items we can control:

• The quality of the wedges we use. If you're looking to generate more spin you simply must use what I refer to as 'professional grade' wedges that are NOT an extension of your set.
• Play with a premium ball as it will make a tangible difference in the amount of spin you can generate. And premium is code for EXPENSIVE. Spend the money and you'll be rewarded.
• Replace worn out wedges and please stop using your great-grandfathers Spalding wedge - there is not a hint of a groove left. Grooves don't make as much difference as you might think (off the fairway) but remember that we're looking to increase spin here.
• When practicing, and especially when playing, make sure your equipment is clean and the face is dry. Moisture or what I call 'green slime' built up on the face will make it almost impossible to hit a high spin pitch.
• Left over sand from an earlier bunker shot has been known to increase the friction between the face and the ball. As a result I never clean my club after playing a sand shot - the next time I use that club I might need a low spinner.

Items we cannot control:

• Don't tell anybody, but sometimes from a perfect lie in the fairway matter (moisture, grass or dirt) will still get trapped between the face and the ball. That's due to the fact that the sole of the club will almost always contact the ground before the ball (shhh!). Yes, even on those perfectly nipped ones! When the club contacts the grass it can sometimes kick up blades and that will interrupt grip between the face and the ball.
• Dewy mornings. If you're playing early in the AM the grass is often wet and there's nothing you can do about it. Your pitches and chips will always launch higher and spin less when water is reducing grip.
• Lies in the rough. Keep the ball in the fairway and you'll be able to spin it more. That's an easy one.

Thanks for checking in and keep an eye out for my next episode in this series on Spinning the Wedges when I talk about Spin Loft.

Catch up on my introduction to Spinning the Wedges HERE

This free website's biggest source of support is when you decide to call to book a lesson or golf school. You can contact me HERE. If you live in another state or country please consider making a purchase HERE or HERE. It will help your game and it will help me to keep adding to this free website. Thanks again for your support! Andrew.

To Mill or Not to Mill?

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My three test subjects...

I must be honest and write that I did this test in the hopes of proving a few people wrong. Instead, I have proven myself wrong. With my research for the Wedge Project I put my "stake in the ground" on what I believed regarding milling on the clubface. All the tests I performed using TrackMan and various wedges always showed that a wedge without a milled face generated less spin (albeit slightly) than wedges with the fine "corduroy" look of milling between the grooves.

I looked up a person I believe to be very knowledgeable when it comes to equipment, Tom Wishon. I read all that he had to say on the matter of grooves and surface roughness and his findings aligned with the results I was seeing in my tests.

Based on what I had available to me I had done my homework and had placed my "stake in the sand" in favor of milling on the clubface. It just made sense to me. Until this....

David Neville and the crew from Vokey Wedges have been kind enough to let me have access to a few test wedges. They sent me six wedges of which I chose to use three for this test.

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No grooves and no milling

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No grooves and milling

All three wedges have the same grip, shaft (DG S200), length, grind (M) and a stated loft of 56 degrees. I did not check their weight, actual loft, lie angle or bounce measurements. I hit 60 shots off a mat (to eliminate ground interference) with the no groove, no milling club and 60 shots off a mat with the no groove, milled club. I then eliminated the 15 lowest spinning shots to leave the remaining 45 highest spinning shots with each club. I used slightly used ProV1X balls and attempted to carry each shot 50 yards. I wiped or cleaned the clubface between every 3rd or 4th shot. Here are the results:

Titleist SM4 TVD M 56 degree Chrome Fly Cut without Grooves or Milling

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Titleist SM5 56.10 M 56 degree Raw Surface without Grooves/Milling Only

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As you can see the club that had surface milling or roughness actually generated less spin - 6009 RPM to 6229 RPM. While the difference between the two is negligible and most golfers would have a hard time telling the difference between the ball flight of one versus the other (myself included), the result is significant to me in that I firmly believed the outcome would be reversed.

Keep in mind this is a test involving one golfer hitting a limited number of shots to one distance. The results might be a slightly different with multiple golfers at different distances, but I don't believe different enough to sway the outcome of this test.

I recently posted this quote by Martin Palmer on Twitter: "The secret to mastery in any field is to forever be a student." Today my "stake in the sand" moved - I was a student and I learned something. I think it is vital as a coach, or even as a golfer, to place your "stake in the sand" and firmly believe in a method, approach or theory. Stand by it and argue in its favor. That is, until you uncover sound evidence or reasoning against your viewpoint - then you pick up your stake, admit you were wrong and adjust your approach.

As a point of interest I wanted to see how a standard clubface might interact with the ball. I hit 25 shots (keeping the best 20) with the Titleist SM4 TVD M grind that has 17 standard grooves and a milled face. Here are those results:

Titleist SM4 TVD M 56 degree Black Oxide 17 Grooves with Surface Milling

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As you can see this clubface with both grooves and surface roughness generated the highest spin rates of all three clubs. This leads me to believe that grooves play a larger, more important role on cleanly struck shots than I originally thought.

As I continue to learn and work towards providing my students with what I believe to be the best current information and knowledge available I know that I will continue to be wrong. The blessing is that each time I am wrong I will learn, adjust and be less wrong than I was before.

Controlling Wedge Shots

Here is a video I did with the help of TrackMan and a student of mine James Willis. This was actually the first time I had seen James pitch the ball and it was nice to see how quickly he hit better shots and improved the flight and spin rate of these important shots.

From 60 yards and in I like to see a dynamic loft of 40 degrees, a launch angle of less than 30 degrees, a spin rate higher than 6500 rpm and a slight draw shape.

Take a look to see how it's done...

For a deeper understanding of this shot and all wedge shots around the green you need to go HERE

Jason Dufner on Pitching

I have never watched a shortgame or wedge video where I agree 100% with everything that has been said. Here is Jason Dufner and I agree with everything he says in this brief video. I am not being arrogant, after all he is the PGA Champion, but I seldom go through an entire wedge presentation without hearing something I want to question. Really good stuff from Duf and his coach Chuck Cook....

I thought the following points were important: shallow angle of attack, quiet wrists, straight right arm

A few of my findings on the shot:

Pitching Truths

Wedges and Water

I recently stumbled onto an interesting tidbit whilst working with a young professional on his wedge game. It was early in the morning and we had been hitting beautiful 50 yard pitches the afternoon before and suddenly he could not get the ball to launch low enough with the spin rate he had been generating the day before. Now as you may know I've tested almost all there is to test in regards to a 50 yard wedge shot and of course I had looked into the effect of water interfering with the friction between the face and the ball. One problem - I had tested a wet club striking a dry ball. My results from the earlier test showed very little difference in launch and spin when there was water involved and I had since adopted that belief.

As I watched the young pro struggle to lower his launch in the morning dew it came to me - there was a difference between a wet club striking a dry ball and a dry club striking a wet ball! I had to run the test again.

I had to be very careful with the test in that I needed to use the same club, my 54 degree sand wedge, in very controlled conditions, with golf balls that were consistent. I used brand new Titleist NXT Tour golf balls and made sure that I cleaned the grooves and clubface off between each shot. I attempted to hit each shot to carry 50 yards flat and hit eight shots for each portion of the test. I removed the two shots that had the lowest spin from each portion. With the help of my TrackMan here are the results:

Wet club and dry ball:

• Launch angle was 27.8 degrees
• Spin rate was 5463 rpm
• Height was 26.5 feet

Dry club and wet ball:

• Launch angle was 30.1 degrees
• Spin rate was 5291 rpm
• Height was 28.4 feet

Dry club and dry ball:

• Launch angle was 25.4 degrees
• Spin rate was 6603 rpm
• Height was 21.2 feet

The interesting thing in looking at the trajectory chart is how much lower the dry club and dry ball (purple) shots flew. Clearly there was more friction between the face and ball which led to a lower launch with substantially more spin. The dry club and wet ball (yellow) sample flew the highest as the water on the ball greatly decreased friction which led to higher launch, due to slippage and thus decreased spin - certainly not the optimal shot.

The interesting thing when comparing the wet club/dry ball versus the dry club/wet ball results was that the spin and launch were better when the BALL was dry. This was due to the water being forced off the clubhead and into the groove channels during the motion of the swing. Not to mention that the air dried the face during the swing too.

Moral of the story - always clean the clubface (unless it has sand on it) and dry the club and ball when possible. If you happen to have an early morning tee time and you're a dew sweeper, don't plan on hitting any low spinners! The drier the ball and club, the better the friction and the better the quality of shots you will hit.

Please read my first two articles on wedges and pitching:

The Science Behind Superb Wedges: Part I | Andrew Rice Golf

The Science Behind Superb Wedges: Part II | Andrew Rice Golf