The 5-Minute Wonder Wedge Fitting!

“Today’s article is brought to you by our friends over at MyGolfPerformance.com, Ryan Crysler and Spencer Reynolds.   They are students of the Harmon Family, certified Titleist Performance Institute Instructors, and Titleist Advanced Fitters.”

How To Find A Miracle In Your Short Game

This article pledges to help particular players that:

• Struggle through the chipping “yips”
• Have never been fit for a wedge, let alone a set of wedges
• Do not know the importance of wedge design, particularly the sole

For the past 7 years, RC has kept meticulous records on lessons, fittings, phone calls, emails conversations…basically anything track-able.  Little did RC know at the time, this incident created a basis for everything we do at The Studio.  After many weeks of deliberation, we now present the next phase in the Five Minute Series.

Wedge Fitting

Why has it taken so long to post a wedge fitting article that follows Pareto’s Law:  80% of your outcomes is derived by 20% of your inputs?  Our wedge fitting theory has a 100% data correlation.  But players  “switch styles” when it comes to chipping and pitching.  The “switch” or “mis-match” is THE problem creating fear, anxiety and lost strokes around the green.

Sliding And Digging:  The only 2 ways to chip & pitch a golf ball.

When it comes to scoring around the greens, Bob Vokey is the man.  He is credited with coining the terms “slider” and “digger” and builds wonderful wedges for Titleist.  Throughout his career, Mr. Vokey has identified two styles of short game play regardless of instruction:

Sliders

The slider style of wedge play fundamentals:

• Shallow angle of attack…brush or “bruise” divots
• Weak Grip.  Very little grip pressure.
• Ball position near the middle of a square to slightly open stance
• Uses trajectory versus a dependency on spin
• Higher launch
• Neutral to backward shaft lean
• Swing Traits:  early release, cupping, chicken wing
• Notable sliders: Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Tiger Woods, Tom Pernice, Ben Crane

Diggers

The digger style of wedge play fundamentals:

• Steeper angle of attack…deeper divots
• Strong grip.  Strong grip pressure.
• Ball position near the back of an open stance
• Uses spin versus a dependency on trajectory
• Lower launch
• Forward shaft lean
• Swing traits: lead wrist bowed, shaft lag, steep
• Notable Diggers:  Paul Azinger, Ben Crenshaw, Rory Sabbatini…and just about every player you see at your local club.

Whether you take lessons from your local instructor, Dave Pelz, Stan Utley or Butch Harmon, your chipping style will fall into either category. You can, however, switch styles depending upon the shot required which is where the trouble begins for most amateur players and most likely the number one cause of bad chips and pitches. Struggling short game players blend both styles. Sliders hit shots thin, diggers hit shots fat. You can’t have it both ways.

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The Design Needs Of Sliders And Diggers

Basically there are two styles of wedge play: low to medium bounce for sliders and medium to high bounce for diggers.  Bounce is defined as the angle created between the leading and trailing edge of wedges.  Sliders need less bounce because they do not forward press.   The leading edge stays relatively neutral to the ground and slides across the turf.  Diggers need more bounce that neutralizes  forward press.  If you press the shaft forward 9 degrees, 10 degrees of bounce angle will keep the leading edge from digging too much.

The Basic Rule Of Wedge Fitting: sliders need less bounce and diggers need more bounce.

But it’s not that simple.  Even though you behave like a slider, it doesn’t mean you’re a slider.  Same goes for diggers.  And when you end up having a mis-match of fundamentals: your short game fails.

The most common mistake we see is a slider setting up like a digger:  open stance, ball in the back of the stance, shaft forward press at address.  Then shaft fully released at impact…shots chunked or skulled across the green.

The 5-Minute Wonder Wedge Fitting

Based on our stories and methods above, here’s how you can fit yourself for the wonder wedge, the rest of the wedges in your bag and cure the yips in five minutes or less. We even feature your budget for budget-minded players.

1. Find a downhill, short-sided, tight lie scenario no longer than 15 yards.
2. Chip 10 balls left handed, track the results.
3. Chip 10 balls right handed, track the results.
4. Determine your superior hand. Trail hand (Right handed) players are sliders, lead hand (left hand) players are diggers. Opposite for southpaw golfers.

Sliders

Use Slider style fundamentals: square stance ball near the middle, weak grip, light grip pressure, etc.

Two Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 48 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 54 and 60 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce on the new 54 and 60 should be less than or equal to 8 degrees.
3. In some cases where golfers play in a variety of turf conditions, we suggest a higher bounce on the GW…so 8-11 degrees of bounce) will help super soft conditions like wet fairways and fluffy bunkers.

Three Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 48 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 52, 56, 60 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be less than or equal to 8 degrees.
3. The 56 may have 8-11 bounce degrees depending upon whether you play in soft conditions.

Two Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 46 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 52, 58 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be less than or equal to 8 degrees

Three Wedge Budget for a pitching wedge at 46 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts 50, 54, 58 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be less than or equal to 8 degrees
3. The 54 may have 8-11 bounce degrees depending upon whether you play in soft conditions.

Diggers

Use Digger style fundamentals: open stance, ball near the back, forward press, strong grip, etc

Two Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 48 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 54 and 60 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce on the new 54 and 60 should be equal to or higher than 10 degrees.

Three Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 48 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 52, 56, 60 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be equal to or higher than 10 degrees.
3. The 52 may not have enough bounce, so we may suggest a 50 wedge with 8 traditional bounce degrees bent to 52 making it play as 10 bounce degrees.

Two Wedge Budget for a Pitching Wedge at 46 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts: 52, 58 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be equal to or higher than 10 degrees.
3. The 52 may not have enough bounce, so we may suggest a 50 wedge with 8 traditional bounce degrees bent to 52 making it play as 10 bounce degrees.

Three Wedge Budget for a pitching wedge at 46 degrees of loft:

1. New wedge lofts 50, 54, 58 wonder wedge.
2. The bounce angles should be equal to or higher than 10 degrees.
3. The 52 may not have enough bounce, so we may suggest a 50 wedge with 8 traditional bounce degrees bent to 52 making it play as 10 bounce degrees.

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Important Wedge Design Extras

Wedgemakers tend to vary the design of the sole from the leading edge to the trailing edge. Some wedges are wide, while some are narrow. Some wedges are rounded while some are flat. In the lower lofted range of wedges, 48-56, we tend to see narrow soles much like your irons. As we get to wonder wedge lofts from 58-64 we tend to see exotic shaping of the soles. Here’s the good rule to understanding what you may need:

Narrow sole versus wide sole: if you fear bunker shots, wider soles will help sand escapes regardless of style. The wide sole can limit your creativity around the greens, but it can change your life on the beach. You can delegate the wonder wedge to bunker shots and work your way around the green with your gap wedge, or add an auxiliary wonder wedge.

Round versus flat: if you like to show-off that flop shot, rounded wedges help balance the wedge nicely at address and impact as you open and square the position of the club face. If you want to execute a simple pitch and move on, flat wedges reinforce a squarely aligned clubface like railroad tracks.

Locking In Your Yardage Gaps

The most important factor to scoring from pitching wedge to wonder wedge is not power, it’s control.  Knowing your precise wedge yardages is critical to scoring.  There are two sets of fundamentals to chipping and pitching around the green as we have discussed, but as we move further back, we subscribe to a Dave Pelz/Stack-and-Tilt style until you reach nine iron yardage.  For an easy explanation, here is a video from April 2009:

Conclusion

Identify your best style. Find wedges that suit your style and play. Lock in your yardages. It will take 5 minutes to identify the strongest parts of your short game. Maybe a few minutes longer to believe that you can become a scoring machine with the right tools and yardage knowledge.

Slider/Digger Instruction Videos

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