In my last article I mentioned that I had switched to graphite shafts in my irons as a concession to reducing the shock of impact to my hands. And it certainly has done that, but what I’ve also gained is a few more yards and very significant improvement in feel for working the ball.

I’ve been on this search for the optimum graphite shaft for my irons for some time, and we’re talking about blades (y’all know how I feel about them). For the past ten years, I’ve played the Reid Lockhart blades I designed when I was President of that company. These were among the first to push some mass out toward the toe to make them more forgiving, while not compromising the amount of muscle behind impact that makes blades so devastatingly accurate.

But we’re talking shafts here, so I’ll try to stay on track.

I’ve been through a number of different shafts, with various results, but recently came upon what I think is the finest iron shaft – of any material – I’ve ever played. It’s the new ProForce V2 Constant Weight from my friends at UST. I’ve known many of these guys since my days at Hogan, and they are really onto something here.

“Constant Weight” means that each shaft weighs 94-95 grams, and there is a different shaft for each iron – you don’t cut the tip, thereby reducing weight, to make the shaft shorter for each club.

Let me tell you, my friends, this shaft is superb. The short irons keep their weight and balance and offer great trajectory control. The middle and long irons provide just the right height and offer great forgiveness and feel. I’m just overly impressed with this product.

The one thing you have to be aware of - if you want to experiment with graphite shafted irons, consider it an investment. The V2 shaft is about $35/club, plus assembly cost. And there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than right!

In my opinion, the best right way is to have a qualified independent clubmaker/fitter do it for you. At the risk of sounding negative, I wouldn’t buy a “stock” set of graphite shafted irons from any major brand. Their “bean counters” are too influential in what shaft they buy (low cost) and how they are assembled (fast).

You just will not get the quality or consistency you want in your iron play. But if you are thinking of doing that, insist that the store put your set of irons on a frequency machine to see the consistency first hand. There are no standards in this industry for what is “Regular” and “Stiff” flex, nor for what club-to-club tolerances are allowable. [Mine are built to +/- 2 cpm tolerance.] If the store doesn’t have a frequency machine, make them give you a return guarantee and get to a clubmaker for an analysis before you ever hit a shot with those irons.

So, that’s another of my opinions – high quality graphite shafts in your irons can make a world of difference. One way to experiment with this is to have only one iron reshafted and see how you like it. I’d suggest the 8-iron to start. Once you are sold, you can do the rest of them.

This is kind of a continuation of the Examination of Impact article I wrote previously. But it deals with a different aspect to the “Thin To Win” impact principle.

As I’ve gotten older (I’m 56 now!), I’m noticing soreness in the fingers of my right hand during or after practice sessions or rounds of golf. I suspect it’s arthritis or arthritis-like, but why wouldn’t it be? I’ve spent countless hours in my life hitting hundreds of thousands of golf shots, and that’s a lot of pounding of the clubhead into the turf.

The first concession I made to this was to shift to graphite shafts in all my irons and wedges, and let me tell you, not only was this helpful in reducing impact shock, my shotmaking feel improved dramatically. But graphite shafts in irons is for the next post. Let’s stick with this subject for now.

What I decided is to change my impact so that I began taking shallower divots, or no divots at all on most iron shots. As I’ve begun to do that, I’ve greatly reduced the soreness, and you know what else? I’m hitting better quality iron shots than ever before. Here’s all I did to change my shotmaking.

1 - Move a little further from the ball. I adjusted my ball position at address so that the ball is just a slight bit further away from me. That allows me to swing more around my body, making a slightly flatter swing plane, and delivering the club to the ball on a shallower downward path.

2 - Widen the Swing. My takeaway move is now a little more of a “push back” with minimal hinging of the wrists. I think of getting my left shoulder under my chin and letting the backswing get a little wider.

3 - Rotate the Core! My singular swing thought through impact is to make my body core rotate all the way through, leading the arms, hands, grip and clubhead. This insures a shallow angle of approach to the ball, shallow or no divot, and consistently solid impact.

So, there you have it. If you’re looking for a little less wear and tear on your hands from lots of golf, I strongly suggest you get away from digging huge divots and learn to pick the ball a little more. One of the other advantages of this principle is that your game “travels” better from course to course, various kinds of turf and on wet days.

The next post will be about graphite shafts in irons, so bookmark this site or subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss it.

Last time I dissected spin into six aspects that affect how much a golf shot will have. We discussed the “hardware” side of it – the ball, the grooves and the loft. You can affect these regardless of your swing technique.

We then talked about clubhead speed and angle of approach, and hopefully you’ve at least begun to realize that “hitting down” on the ball is what makes it get airborne and have spin. We’ll talk more about that here.

But what I’ve come to zero in on as a major determinant of spin and the sharpness of your wedge play is the precise quality of the connection of the club and ball at impact. Let’s get down to ground level and examine this, and then I’ll leave you with some fun experimentation.

“Thin to Win” - Haven’t you heard that before ? And haven’t you occasionally hit a shot from the fairway, thinking it was just a little “thin” only to watch it hit the green, take one hop and spin to a stop ? Hmmmmm. How . . . and why, did that happen ?

Well, the truth is, under close examination, a perfectly struck iron shot, particularly with the shorter irons and wedges, is hit “thin” in a way. You’ve heard the term “trap the ball against the turf”, but what does that mean ?

Well, what it doesn’t mean is to try to smother the ball with the clubface by having the hands dramatically ahead of the clubhead at impact, and taking a huge divot. What “trapping” the ball refers to is the physical “pinching” of the ball against the turf with the leading edge of the clubhead so that it then shoots out with spin and a lower trajectory.

On a perfectly struck shot, the leading edge of the clubhead is traveling slightly downward at impact and makes contact with the ball right around its equator. The clubhead pinches the ball into the turf before the clubhead then makes contact with the turf. The effect is similar to pinching a watermelon seed between your fingers until it squirts out with high velocity.

In fact, the clubhead making contact with the turf isn’t really a necessity, if the ball is struck properly. Sometimes you’ll see only a “ball divot” where the ball made a mark on the turf, but the clubhead never actually made contact. That is often what happens on those “thin to win” shots.

So, here’s a drill that I like. Get a bucket of balls and go to the range with only your sand wedge. Play the ball in middle of your stance, but practice “skulling” the ball, making no divot whatsoever. You’ll find the occasional shot takes a great trajectory, goes further, and has lots of spin – you can even see it on the range. This is just a “lab experiment” so that you can learn what top quality contact really feels like.

And then tell all of us your findings, OK ? This dialog could be your most useful this year, so let’s have some fun together.

I get dozens, if not hundreds, of questions like, “How do I get more spin with my wedge shots?”

It’s obvious that too many golfers really don’t understand the dynamics of what makes a golf ball spin, so let me see if I can’t break it down into pieces here for all of you.

First, understand that the amount of spin imparted to the golf ball is affected by six things – the quality of grooves on the face of the wedge, the loft of the wedge, the speed of the clubhead at impact, the path of the clubhead as it approaches the ball, the specific “quality” of impact . . . and the ball itself.

The great thing is that you have control over all these factors, though some are easier to improve than others. Let’s examine each, but in the order of easiest to most difficult.

The Ball - This is one very simple way to improve the spin you get with your wedge shots. Many of the more premium balls feature a softer urethane cover that allows the club to grip the ball better. The harder, and usually less expensive, balls typically have a Surlyn cover which is more durable, but doesn’t allow as much spin. You should experiment with various balls to see which gives you the optimum combination of distance and spin.

The Grooves - There’s a page on this on our new EIDOLON website under “About Wedges”. But very simply, if you are playing a wedge that you’ve had for years, it’s costing you strokes. And if you buy a new wedge that does not have milled grooves, you are wasting your money.

You wouldn’t buy a driver that was advertised to be “up to 20 yards shorter than the competition”, would you? Well, that’s exactly what you are doing when you carry a wedge that does not have the most modern technology in groove design and production.

The Loft of the Wedge - Very simply, your 56* wedge will impart more spin than your pitching or gap wedge, because it has more loft. And your 60* will give you even more. That assumes, of course, that they all have modern milled grooves.

I do know for a fact that an EIDOLON V-SOLE Gap Wedge, for example, will outspin an off-the-shelf sand wedge with cast-in-place grooves. But generally speaking, when you want more spin for a shot, choose a higher lofted wedge.

Now we get into the technique aspects of generating improved spin. Let’s examine these:

Clubhead speed - It’s pretty simple physics, actually. Given all the other parameters the same, the faster the clubhead is moving through impact, the more spin will be generated. That’s one reason why most of us amateurs should not lay up on par fives and long par fours to that awkward 30-70 yard range. Not only is it an in-between swing we probably don’t practice, but you don’t have the clubhead speed at that range to generate optimum spin.

Angle of approach - We’ve read thousands of times that you have to “hit down” on the ball to get spin. Well, that’s true, but can also be misleading. I mean, the ball is sitting on the ground – how would you hit “up” on it anyway?

I contend that’s practically impossible. When you’re hitting practice shots, you want to think of making contact with the ball . . . and then the turf – it’s that simple.

The thought of hitting “down” on the ball causes many amateurs to make an overly steep swing path, which is undesirable.

Just realize that you do not need to “help” your wedge get the ball in the air. We club designers have given it 56-60* of loft to make sure it will get in the air. All you need to do is swing the club and make sure the clubhead is traveling slightly downward at impact. Slightly.

Quality of Impact - In my mind, this is possibly the most important and misunderstood aspect of good wedge play, and is worthy of an entire article. So, think about these other five aspects of spin, and come back in a couple of days and let’s examine impact in detail.

Thanks.

In the post on three putting, I touched on grip pressure, but this is a subject worthy of an entire article, so here goes.

If there is any single core fundamental of putting that applies to EVERYONE, it is that the grip has to be L-I-G-H-T !!!!! I can assure you that there is no possible way to hold your putter too lightly.

I had the opportunity to spend lots of time with Ben Crenshaw when I was running Reid Lockhart, and I was amazed at Ben’s phenomenal sense of touch with the putter. You could actually “see” how lightly he held the putter during the stroke, cradling it like it was soft chocolate (I just thought of that analogy!)

Once, when he was rolling putts (I don’t like to think of “hitting” putts), I stuck a putter grip in the path of Ben’s putter before impact – AND HIS PUTTER COMPLETELY FELL OUT OF HIS HANDS ! I assure you that no amateur holds their putter that gingerly.

The killer for grip pressure with all clubs, but especially with the putter, is the thumb and forefinger, particularly with the lower hand (in a conventional grip).

We do everything with our “pinchers”, so we naturally want to control the putter with the thumb and forefinger. But those are the key to feel, and they can’t do that well if we are squeezing the putter with them. Think of other “feel” activities – throwing darts, tossing coins, handling a needle and thread . . . whatever.

All of them are done with a very light hold on the object.

Now, get your putter and try this drill. Hold the putter as lightly as possible in the last three fingers of both hands, with your thumbs and forefingers completely off the putter grip. Make slow back and forth strokes, concentrating only on the path of the grip, not the putter head.

Now, as lightly as possible, just lay your thumbs down on the top of the grip, keeping your forefinger disengaged. Concentrate on “feeling” the putter move back and through, rather than “making” it go back and through.

Then put down some balls and roll some putts this way, not “trying” to make them, but to feel the ball impact the putter face, and watching it roll. If you have a decent carpet, putt toward the baseboard, but not to a particular spot. The key is to “FEEL” the putter moving, and the ball leaving the face.

I highly recommend working on this for a while. You’ll need to “re-learn” how to hold your putter, and make this your new habit. But when you do, your putting will improve dramatically – I promise.

A month ago, I put up a pair of EIDOLON V-SOLE wedges as a prize for some lucky person who left a comment, as a way to compensate all you readers for a technical glitch with TheWedgeGuy.com.

Well, we got hundreds of comments (entries ) in this “contest”.

I’m happy to announce that Greg Bartz of Webster, Texas was our winner. A new 56 and 60 degree EIDOLON V-SOLE wedge are on the way to Greg.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of TheWedgeGuy readers. We have reached over 50,000 readers since we started and hope to add more.

Thanks for the kudos and feedback.

Please let all your golf buddies know that we’re here and are eager to address your questions and concerns about scoring better.

Thanks for all your support !

There is hardly anything more frustrating in this game than to hit a good drive and approach, then 3-jack to put bogey on the card. I always think, “Two shots to cover 400 yards, and then three to finish the last 30-50 feet. What a waste !”

Even the pros three putt occasionally, but most of us amateurs do it way too often. So, let’s examine some things that cause three-putts and figure out how to eliminate most of them, at least with greater frequency.

There are three main causes of three putts, and for most golfers, one of the three is the major nemesis. Which one is yours ?

Missing short second putts. - To avoid three putts, you have to be efficient in converting the second putt of 2-5 feet. Even tour pros don’t make all of them, but if you are missing short putts too often, it is demoralizing. So, if missing short putts is your weakness, here are some things to try:

1. Lighten your grip. We tend to squeeze the putter too tightly when faced with a short putt. Particularly lighten the pressure in your thumbs and forefingers, as that is where tension sets in first. Feel the putter in the last three fingers of each hand.

2. Slow down. Make your practice strokes very s-l-o-w-l-y. This sets up a good tempo – it’s a stroke, not a hit ! I see golfers make these quick back and forth practice strokes – what kind of tempo is that setting up ?

3. Stare down the hole. Your eyes are the key to putting, so pick a small target at the back of the hole (for a straight putt) or on either side (if a little break is to be allowed) and focus intently on that spot.

Bad distance control. - Probably the main cause of 3-jacks is poor distance control on the approach putt. This is a feel thing, so let’s start with the first two tips I outlined above – a light grip and slower tempo. Those are imperative fundamentals to good putting – of any distance.

Then, take some time to really analyze the putt’s probable speed. Is it uphill or down hill ? It helps to walk to the hole and back to get a good feel for the distance.

And one of my favorite “secrets” – have someone tend the flag. Having a person standing beside the hole (I prefer the high side) gives your eyes more feedback for distance than just that obscure little cup.

Finally, make your practice strokes while visualizing the path of the ball tracking toward the hole. Make them while looking at the hole, not at the ball. You are not rehearsing technique, but the speed the putter has to be traveling at impact to roll the ball the correct distance.

Misreading the break. - When you’re playing a course that has large sweeping breaks, it is not hard to miss the hole 6-10 feet either side on a long approach putt. One of my favorite techniques is to analyze the putt from the hole backward. Start with the last ten feet and determine what direction the ball will need to approach the hole from. Then back up another ten to “see” where the ball will need to be in order to get to that spot. Then back up another ten to see how that segment of the putt will break. Once you see the putt in pieces, you can visualize the entire putt and choose your starting line and speed.

Let me know if these tips help you get some three putts off your card and use the Ask Terry button if you have any other golf questions you want answered.

This topic is getting lots of dialog, so I thought I would just write a little on the subject this morning. There is no question that almost every golfer . . . of any skill level . . . can improve their scores by altering the way they approach each hole on the golf course. To me, this is a very complex subject, and has thousands of angles, but let’s address the basics of course management that any golfer can work from.

1. Manage Your Expectations - This is the first principle, to my way of thinking. If you are a 10-15 handicap, for example, there are no “birdie holes”. None. If you make 5-8 pars and the rest bogies, you’ll lower your handicap quickly. The key for mid-handicap players is to take out the doubles or worse.  Even if you play to a low single digit, thinking “birdie” on the tee is quite often a recipe for bogey or worse. I try to not think “birdie” until the ball is on the green within one-putt range.

2. “Play” the hole backward - By this I mean to take a moment on the tee to dissect the hole from the cup back to the tee. On a mid-length par 4, for example, that has several fairway bunkers, maybe the best play is to hit a 3- or 4-wood off the tee, taking the bunker out of play (the fairway is usually widest just before fairway bunkers, by the way). That may leave you a couple of clubs more into the green, but a 5-iron from the fairway is a lot easier shot than a 7-iron from a fairway bunker.

3. The flag is seldom your target -  Unless you are a tour player, knocking down flags is not your game. Even those guys, however, will always target the “safe” side of a flag with their approach shots. In a typical golf course setup, only a few holes are positioned where you can fire right at it and have equal opportunity for par or birdie from either side. When you are assessing your approach shots, try looking at it from the perspective of which side of the hole offers you the best chance to AVOID BOGEY, rather than think “birdie”. You’ll see a “wide” side usually, and the side that offers uphill putts or chips.  Particularly when the greens are fast and firm, this is a great strategy for shooting good scores.

4. Bogey is not a bad score - Even for single digit handicap players, there are 4-5 holes on every course where bogey is not a bad score. When you’re playing the longer and tougher holes, make it your game plan to ensure yourself no worse than bogey. Play the hole more conservatively. On the 3-4 longest par 4s and 3s, for example, you’re not likely to hit long iron, hybrid or fairway wood to “easy par” range. Find the “safe zone”, which is generally short and wide of the flag, and play to it. Make bogey the worse you can make and give yourself a chance at par if you make a good chip or lag putt.

5. Keep reading The Wedge Guy - And use the Ask Terry button in the right-hand sidebar to ask me any golf questions you may have.
Especially when you play the same one or two courses all the time, we lose our analytical creativity. Next time you play, just look at each hole with “new eyes” and see if you don’t recognize a completely different way to play it. And I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that will improve your shotmaking and scores.

Feel free to leave me a comment and let us all know if it helps you the next time you’re fortunate enough to play this grand old game of golf.

Well, another Masters has come and gone and for the second year in a row we saw a “first major” breakthrough by a young player. Congratulations to Trevor Immelman, who is quite apparently a very talented young man.

I love watching this tournament, maybe more than any other, because of how that golf course demands your very best in shotmaking. It’s quite apparent that you cannot score this course from the wrong place on the greens, or if you’re missing greens. But what is not so apparent is the importance of hitting fairways . . . and being in the right place in the fairway . . . to place your iron shot in those right spots.

Last year, the “big story” to me was the way Zack Johnson chose not to attack any of the par fives in two, but rather to rely on his wedge play to dissect them into birdies. And he led the field in birdies on par fives with 11 !!!

That’s playing smart. We also talked about Zach’s driving, as this “short hitter” – 157th on Tour in driving distance – was tied for 2nd in driving accuracy for the week, allowing him to hit greens, where he ranked tied for fourth.

Well, guys, accuracy over distance did it again !

Trevor Immelman was commended throughout the telecast about his ball striking, even emitting kudos from Gary Player that he has a swing like Hogan’s !  Now that’s an accolade, isn’t it ?

So, what Trevor did was drive it in the fairway – he led the field in that statistic. And he hit lots of greens, ranking second in that category. That allowed him to finish 3rd in total putts ! Guess what, if that’s not a formula for winning, I don’t know what is.

So, your lesson here is, again, learn to hit your driver straight, and this game becomes a lot easier. If you’re hitting fairways, but leaving yourself too far from the greens, you are playing the wrong tees !

From my own experience, these 45 and 46 inch drivers are costing all of us strokes. I’ve been tweaking on mine for months, and have finally found that at just under 44”, I hit dramatically more fairways. So that’s where I play it. And you know what ? I haven’t noticed any drop off in distance whatsoever.

If you want to lower your scores, I strongly suggest you grip down on your modern “watermelon-sized” driver about two inches and watch what happens. I think you’ll be amazed at the improvement in your directional consistency, and how much more solid you hit it most of the time.

I’d like to hear from all of you about your “Master’s experience” and offer up questions you’d like me and the readers to sound off about.

Here it is – my favorite weekend of TV watching all year.

The Masters.

What I love most about this tournament on TV is watching the creativity that these guys have to exhibit around the greens . . . and on the greens. And we all can learn a lot from watching how the best players in the world navigate the most challenging track they face all year.  If you watch the Masters with your eyes on the right things, you can learn more from this tournament than any other.

Here’s The Wedge Guy’s Guide To Watching The Masters:

Watch where these guys miss the greens. This year the greens are firmer and faster than in recent years. Brandel Chamblee was talking yesterday about the fact that all the leaders hit many greens, as the course is not conducive to scrambling your way to par. As you watch the next few days, notice how often they arrange to miss the green on the wide side of the hole, giving them a better chip or pitch. The lesson: On many holes, on many normal golf courses even, your best odds are to play to a certain side of the hole and make sure you miss on the “wide” side, where the up-and-down is easier.

Observe the short game techniques. This year, pay particular critical attention to the techniques of these best players when they have a short pitch or chip. Watch the position of the hands at address and impact – we’ve been talking about them being low, with the arms hanging naturally. Watch their tempo. These guys are being very precise, so you’ll notice a slower, more deliberate swing tempo. And notice the body engagement. Even on the shortest chips, they rotate their shoulders and arms in one piece.

Focus on the putting. The Masters always demands a good putter to win. Watch the leaders, as they are the ones putting best this week. You’ll notice very comfortable setups with most. You can almost see how lightly they are holding the putter. And also watch how they break down these big breaking putts into the path the ball has to take to get close to the hole.

Play along. I think watching golf tournaments with your putter and wedge handy, and spending time mimicking what you see these guys do, can be a great learning experience.  When they are taking practice swings and hitting shots with their wedges and putter, the camera will show you plenty of reps. Pick up your putter or wedge and mimic their pace.  You’ll see how slow and deliberate these guys are.

So there is The Wedge Guy’s Guide To Watching The Masters. I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week with comments on the tournament.