50-80 yards

[chadly643]

I’ve become quite comfortable with the clock system for wedge shots. I’ve got 3 different yardages/trajectories for each of my 4 wedges based on 1/2, 3/4, and full swings. It works great. Where I have less confidence is for yardages that are less than a 1/2 swing lob wedge and more than a pitch shot. What sort of system do people use for these shorter wedge shots? How do you control distance from 50-80yds? I find it quite challenging to differentiate between 55 yards and 65 yards. Obviously practice is the answer but it’s be great to have some sort of systematic approach to practice in and dial these awkward distances in. 
 

Thanks!

[SNIPERBBB]

Choke down, open the face, etc. 

[nitram]

Are you saying that a half lob wedge (for you) is over 80 yards?

[J.Bex]

For me other than simply practice, I like Goldilocks practice swings on these feel shots:  One that feels it will fly too short; one that feels too long; and one juuuust right!  Step up and hit the just right one.

[ShortGolfer]

I play at a hilly Executive course which is great for learning feel shots.  The greens are too tiny for most of us to go pin hunting from the tee.  

Instead, I focus on course management and hitting the green from a reasonable distance.  It is a fun course for those of us who like the challenges it offers.

[deep18]

Used to be a little 9 hole par three course at a driving range near where I grew up (gone now) that if I remember correctly 7 holes were in the 55 to 85 yard range.  Great for practicing those less than full swing shots. 

[cgasucks]

For me, I choke down on my GW or SW and open the face.  This requires a lot of touch and feel so you just got to do quite a bit of experimenting and practicing.

Edited May 15, 2022 by cgasucks

[nsxguy]

2 hours ago, chadly643 said:

I’ve become quite comfortable with the clock system for wedge shots. I’ve got 3 different yardages/trajectories for each of my 4 wedges based on 1/2, 3/4, and full swings. It works great. Where I have less confidence is for yardages that are less than a 1/2 swing lob wedge and more than a pitch shot. What sort of system do people use for these shorter wedge shots? How do you control distance from 50-80yds? I find it quite challenging to differentiate between 55 yards and 65 yards. Obviously practice is the answer but it’s be great to have some sort of systematic approach to practice in and dial these awkward distances in. 
 

Thanks!

 

On the surface, if you've got 12 different outcomes from PW through LW, and you hit your PW, say, 120, it sounds like you've got all the distances accounted for, no ? "Half" a club ? Use the longer "combo" - 15 feet past the pin ain't terrible - and many of us mishit it more often than we flush it so a slight mishit ends up "perfect".

 

Personally, I've gone to my 60* wedge for (almost) everything under 80 yards. 80 is a FULL LW for me.

 

The mind, conscious or subconscious, is a very powerful thing. I suppose I (somewhat) use the clock method as I do alter my backswing based on the calculated yardage, but I don't change the club.

 

What I do do though, is practice quite a bit, usually in a store launch monitor, all those different distances, with my 60* LW. I also often alternate distances from swing to swing as well. Sometimes a lot and sometimes about 5 yards.

 

Then when I'm on the course, I sort of "program" my mind to hit it XX yards, either by thinking of the exact number but also "fractionalizing" it as well, as in "OK, 55 yards of 80" to "program in" the "feel" for the swing length and yardage.

 

[MelloYello]

I'll go in a slightly different direction and say that I don't think it's about having a particular method or list of numbers inside 70 yards, but rather developing a swing / motion that is smooth and wrinkle-free. 

 

If you've done the practice to smooth out your extended pitching motion then the yardages will be like tossing a ball. They'll come naturally and all the shots will just be "feel." 35-yds, 45-yds, 55-yds, etc. 

 

I only associate fixed numbers with more full swings:

 

85-Lw

100-Sw

115-Gw

130-Pw 

[dsmil]

I practiced these shots a lot last summer and simply developed a feel for them. I used my net and a prgr, I’d think of a ball speed to shoot for, and would aim to get with 2 mph of that ball speed.  50-75 yards will usually be my 58, and 3/4 swings are as hard as I’ll most likely go with my 50, 54, or 58.

[EastTNGolfer]

Honestly you should be able to get a 55 to 65 yard shot with a half (left arm parallel) lob wedge swing. If you are getting much more that that then you are swinging your wedges too fast to control them properly.

[Hawkeye77]

I rarely open the face and just grip down a little or control with backswing length/speed or play a different shot, i.e., play with trajectory/loft.

 

If the system works, do it - worked for Tom Kite!

 

Feel and practice for me as a "clock" devotee 20 years ago who "reformed", lol.

[jholz]

I really look at the 50-80 yard shot the same way I do chipping and pitching. No matter how much structure you try to impose upon it - like through the "clock system" - or whatever - it's always going to be a feel shot. 

 

So, if you are devoted to practice...practice it. I start every range session with half wedges to various random targets. It's a great way to start developing "feel."

 

Beyond that, I've got a few different shots I will hit from those distances, depending on the situation. My vanilla shot is a flighted 50* wedge. This is the shot I practice the most. It has a (mostly) predictable roll-out. I use this shot most of the time. 

 

If I need something higher or that will stop quicker, I've got shots with my 54* and 58* too. 

 

At some point, it always becomes a matter of just throwing the ball at the hole and seeing what happens. 

 

 

[bladehunter]

The only answer is practice.  You have to learn to train your eyes what 65 yards is.  The club doesn’t matter until it comes to stopping it. I can hit a 65 yard 8 iron.  No problem.  My eyes are trained to look at the target , back to the ball and then back to the target - before hitting the shot.  Hours and hours of random wedge practice.  Some days illl hit gap wedges to a 75 yard target.  Some days it’s 13/16 lob wedge to the same target.  It’s not really a clock system exactly.  There is some backswing variations. But it’s more about arm speed.  You need to learn the soft arm shot.  Which is a slower swing but with a full turn.  It comes in handy as it doesn’t spin much.  The obj yeah to do it is just take a bucket and make complete slow swings to a target.  

[scooterhd2]

At some point its boils down to putting the reps in and getting a feel for the shot. I'm not opposed to the clock system, but at some point as you get closer to the hole its about feel. How do you hit a 50 foot putt versus an 80 foot putt? What does a 25 yard pitch versus a 35 yard pitch feel like? You have to feel it out. You have to practice those shots over and over again. It's no different than a basketball player practicing free throws and three pointers and then working on mid range jumpers in between those from different angles. Your eyes judge the distance and your brain computes the speed necessary. 

 

 

[iutodd]

Will echo the calls for as much practice as possible to develop the feel for what you want for whatever distance you're looking for.  There is no replacement for practice when it comes to this stuff.  

 

If you don't have a ton of practice time I'd focus on just finding a 50 yard swing.  I'm guessing 70-80 yards you can mostly make work with your existing wedge setup.  So you need 50-60 more probably.  Grass tees for sure on this too.  I don't think mats are good for short game practice because you need the turf interaction.

 

A wrinkle to that notion is finding a 50 yard swing with both your highest lofted club (58/60) and your next one down (54/56) - if you have a really tight lie the lower lofted club generally gives you more room for error at contact.  If you guys ever watch PGA Tour Live and watch a full round or two of these threesomes you are almost guaranteed to see a pro golfer stub a 60 degree wedge from a tight lie at least once.  I also almost always go with a lower lofted wedge out of fluffy lies in the rough - again because you have more room for error at contact.

[Precis1on]

Opening the face is probably out of the pay grade of 90% of folks that play, at least if you're looking for any level of consistency.

 

As someone said above, your motion is the most important. Find one that works and repeat it until you have it. 

 

Once you have the motion, then the clock can come into play. Personally, I don't have time to dial in my short game pace every round, so I'll usually figure out what distances left arm parallel is FOR THAT DAY with 52, 56, and 60 degrees. Keep that feel and focus on the motion and repeat on the course. 

 

And yes, my distances can be variable every round. It depends on how I'm feeling, what the course conditions are, weather, etc. Once you have the motion, you can adapt to all of those on the fly.  

[Kuuuch]

2 hours ago, bladehunter said:

The only answer is practice.  You have to learn to train your eyes what 65 yards is.  The club doesn’t matter until it comes to stopping it. I can hit a 65 yard 8 iron.  No problem.  My eyes are trained to look at the target , back to the ball and then back to the target - before hitting the shot.  Hours and hours of random wedge practice.  Some days illl hit gap wedges to a 75 yard target.  Some days it’s 13/16 lob wedge to the same target.  It’s not really a clock system exactly.  There is some backswing variations. But it’s more about arm speed.  You need to learn the soft arm shot.  Which is a slower swing but with a full turn.  It comes in handy as it doesn’t spin much.  The obj yeah to do it is just take a bucket and make complete slow swings to a target.  

Agree 100%. Clock system makes me cringe but that’s just me. My grandpa who taught me to play would always have me use a 9 iron to hit anything from 50-120 growing up and it’s made a huge difference in the in between yardages. It’s really just all feel that’s learned through lots of practice. 

[Barfolomew]

You, I ,we need a mental reference when standing over a tricky wedge yardage so it makes you feel all comfy...  I go back to a moon lit dance by the lake

[getitdaily]

You just need to practice from under 50 yards every now and then. Get a feel for the downswing speed using a 1/2 backswing length

[Ross_Albatross]

Lots of good answers on practice and feel - and basketball shooting equivalent… but is there something to be said about trajectory / spin / green complex / landing spot… often weekend warriors get close, hit the finder to figure out it’s 74yds and just try to execute a shot rehearsed that go this distance - rather than figuring out what they actually want to do; backstop? false front? other?…

[Barfolomew]

Take a practice swing to the front of the green, then one to flag, then one to back of green..... big difference huh.  Now hit to your target landing spot..... you're welcome 🐫

[trilerian]

The 50-80yd range isn't a range I am in a lot on the course.  I'm not long enough off the tee to play bomb and gouge, so the only time I really find myself in these spots are from horrible approach shots or Par 5s.  Most of the time, all I am looking to do is get it on the green.  If 50yds away, I will try to predict roll out, but from 80-110, yeah, just get it on.  The irony here, is full swing irons, I go pin hunting.  

[hammersia]

On 5/15/2022 at 3:42 PM, joostin said:

For me other than simply practice, I like Goldilocks practice swings on these feel shots:  One that feels it will fly too short; one that feels too long; and one juuuust right!  Step up and hit the just right one.

I quite like this ^^^ tried it last night, promising.

[RoyalMustang]

I am struggling with the same thing.   My course plays short (6700 yards from the tips) and I have recently dialed up my driving distance, so instead of seeing a lot of full 54 degree wedges on my approaches, I am now in the 45-75 yard range.  It is tough.  My course places a huge premium on location; being 10 feet below the hole is a birdie opportunity; 10 feet above is either birdie or 3-putt.  Even a 3/4 swing with my 58 is going to fly further than what I think of as 3/4; more like 90% (85-90 yards).  A 1/2 swing can still feel like a 50-60 yard distance, but it also can feel quite awkward and not quite have the spin of a fuller shot. 

 

I played around with open/closed faces the other day and did start to get a feel for it. If I open the face on this 54, what am I going to get distance wise?  How much can I dial it down on the 58 vs opening the face?  I think that may be a more reliable method than the "clock" for some.  I can make a repeatable 3/4 swing that goes 90%, but if I open the face and it only goes 75 yards, and I know this swing, I can do it again and again.  Otherwise, I seem to often over or under swing.  In my short game, I am very comfortable hitting high lob shots, so why not do it with bigger clubs?  Plus, it gives you more versatility when you need to get over a tall tree 

[RoyalMustang]

21 hours ago, Precis1on said:

Opening the face is probably out of the pay grade of 90% of folks that play, at least if you're looking for any level of consistency.

 

As someone said above, your motion is the most important. Find one that works and repeat it until you have it. 

 

Once you have the motion, then the clock can come into play. Personally, I don't have time to dial in my short game pace every round, so I'll usually figure out what distances left arm parallel is FOR THAT DAY with 52, 56, and 60 degrees. Keep that feel and focus on the motion and repeat on the course. 

 

And yes, my distances can be variable every round. It depends on how I'm feeling, what the course conditions are, weather, etc. Once you have the motion, you can adapt to all of those on the fly.  

 

Somewhat related:

 

For whatever reason, I always hit better shots when I open the face; I tend to stay more balanced and not sway onto my back foot.  Last weekend, I twice had to hit 135 yard shots that were either hard high fades to get around a tree or super high shots to get over a tree; I opened up my 9 iron both times to take 20 yards off and both left me with makeable birdie putts.  I was playing alternate ball and my partner called them "hero shots";  I can't make swings like that consistently when I have a straightforward shot! 

 

When I take a regular stance, I don't rotate as well and don't make as good of contact ,but with the open stance-open face, it always feels like I am turning immediately, not drifting back, exiting balanced left, and making a much better swing. I love going out to the range, opening up my club face, and pounding high 110 yard towering fades with my 8-iron

 

Any idea why this is?  

 

 

[Precis1on]

53 minutes ago, RoyalMustang said:

 

Somewhat related:

 

For whatever reason, I always hit better shots when I open the face; I tend to stay more balanced and not sway onto my back foot.  Last weekend, I twice had to hit 135 yard shots that were either hard high fades to get around a tree or super high shots to get over a tree; I opened up my 9 iron both times to take 20 yards off and both left me with makeable birdie putts.  I was playing alternate ball and my partner called them "hero shots";  I can't make swings like that consistently when I have a straightforward shot! 

 

When I take a regular stance, I don't rotate as well and don't make as good of contact ,but with the open stance-open face, it always feels like I am turning immediately, not drifting back, exiting balanced left, and making a much better swing. I love going out to the range, opening up my club face, and pounding high 110 yard towering fades with my 8-iron

 

Any idea why this is?  

 

 

 

I'm not 100% sure honestly, not being a coach or anything. 

 

My thoughts though:

- The perception of you not swaying off the ball to your back foot will most likely improve your contact if you're chunky with short irons, and also helps with a bias towards a fade. The open face helps too and increases the bounce. So yea you'll hit some big a** fades! 

- Try hitting some short irons and wedges with the same weight/pressure on your lead foot and see if that helps your impact, without opening the face. Be sure to use the bounce as well and don't forget to still turn a bit on the backswing while keeping pressure on the lead foot. 

[EastTNGolfer]

3 hours ago, hammersia said:

I quite like this ^^^ tried it last night, promising.

I do this from 50ish and inside. Got it from Shawn Clement. It works.

[J.Bex]

7 hours ago, EastTNGolfer said:

I do this from 50ish and inside. Got it from Shawn Clement. It works.

Yep, got Goldilocks from Clement.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

I know my left arm parallel 60 goes 70 yards from practicing it. I basically do it by feel off of that. If I need 55 with spin I open the face a little. I could do with developing it more but I don't have anywhere to practice it effectively.