Smart Golf Lesson #1: Manage Your Lay Ups

As you probably know, I recently began a weekly Short Game podcast series on GolfSmarterTips.com, where each week we discuss an aspect of the short game, and answer questions from listeners. If you haven’t tuned in yet, please do, and send me your short game questions to be considered on the show.

One question that has come up already a few times is something like this:

“When I lay up on par fives and have a 30-50 yard pitch shot, I have a problem spinning the ball enough to make it stop”, or “I have a problem controlling my distance. What can I do ?”

My answer to these is always the same, and it’s kind of like the old joke where the guy goes to the doctor and says, “Hey Doc, it hurts when I do this”, to which the doctor replies, “Then stop doing it.”

The mid-range or “half wedge” is one of the hardest shots in all of golf to hit to your expectations. You can practice and practice all you want, but each one is slightly different so it will be hard to groove it to the precision you expect. I strongly suggest the alternative – playing to your full swing wedge distances when you are facing a short par four or hitting your second on a par five.

Last year I wrote about Zach Johnson’s strategy coming into The Masters, where he determined beforehand he would not try to hit any of the par fives in two.

But did he hit his second shots as close to the green as he could ? No.

He laid up precisely to his full lob or sand wedge distance so that he could hit full swing shots, achieving maximum distance control and optimum spin. That let him play the par fives better than any other golfer in the field, and win the green jacket.

For each of us, we should have our “comfort zone” swing with each of our wedges, which produces pretty reliable yardage nearly every time. And with my SCoR (Shot Control Routine) Method for hitting the in-between shots, we should be able to “dial in” the correct yardage by gripping down on the club a precise amount.

That’s why I’m a fan of carrying a full complement of scoring clubs. In my own game, for example, from anywhere between 70 and 117 yards, I know that I can make a comfortable full swing and hit most of my shots within 4-5 yards (only 15 feet or so) of my desired distance, by choosing the right wedge and gripping it precisely in the right place on the grip. And it only took me a couple of hours one day to build my wedge distance chart.

112 yards to the flag ? Grip down the PW ½” and swing away.

101 yards ? Full swing Gap Wedge.

80 yards ? Sand Wedge gripped down 1 inch.

You can build your short game the same way. First, develop your “comfort swing” with your wedges. I suggest that is about an 80% power swing to produce consistent distance and trajectory.

Then learn how many yards it takes off when you grip down ½” and 1”. That gives you three precise distances with each wedge.

If you carry four, like I do, that means I can hit the ball – with reasonable confidence – twelve different distances with the same swing !

I go into this process in great detail in my book, “The SCoR Method – A Simple Way to Achieve Precision in Your Short Game.” We include a complimentary copy with each EIDOLON order and sell the book on our website. Click here to read more about The SCoR Method.

Sorry, I didn’t intend this to be a sales pitch for my book, only a suggestion that the best way to master the dreaded “half wedge” is to not give yourself any more of them than you have to. Learn your comfortable full-swing distances with your wedges, dissect them even more with precise hand placement, and play to those yardages. You’ll see immediate results.