Stroke Saver: Pinch The Ball To Get More Stick

During my weekend round on Sunday, I made a conscious effort to begin moving the ball a touch further back in my stance on my wedges. The results far exceeded my expectations. Not only did the move back create a descending blow into the ball, which creates more spin, but it also changed the trajectory of the ball from a hump to a drop. What I mean by drop instead of hump is rather simple. The arc of a typical wedge looks very similar to the blue pattern below. If you were to split it in half, it would be almost identical in each half. The end of the flight would be a bit more drop as ball speed falls and gravity kicks in, but overall, it’s a very smooth pattern.



The red line above represents a downward blow onto the ball. Even with the club delofted slightly at impact, the ball spins off the face at a higher launch angle and will come into the green at a much steeper approach angle. This means your ball will be able to start holding those faster, harder greens in the summer, and during these wetter fall and winter months, you ball should land and virtually plug in place. Now, this may not be as easy at it looks for you given the fact that you really need to generate a decent amount of club head speed to drive the ball up higher, but more of it may have to do with how well you can ‘pinch’ your wedges. Pinching is what I call nailing the timing between hitting the ball and the ground. A perfect pinch will catch the ball and let it click off the face and fly at an increased launch angle. If that is done correctly, you will see a very similar distance to your current wedge shots, but you will see a steeper approach angle. If not, you will still see the steeper angle but you will lose some distance off the ball.

Learning to drop your wedges at a steeper angle will only help your game. If you are able to master pinching the ball with your wedges, and even your short irons, you should start seeing some huge drops in your distance to the hole on approach shots. From not having to guess on if the ball will roll out or spin back, to having shots that stop on a dime, accuracy going into the green can save you anywhere from 3-5 putts a round and get you braking your goals in no time.