Wedge numbers: nine distances, measured indoors
Three wedges by three swing lengths. A February simulator session gives you a chart worth a season of guessing.
Inside 100 yards most amateurs have one shot: a full swing with whichever wedge is nearest the number. That is why the ball finishes twenty yards short or long from a distance where it should finish twelve feet away. Three swing lengths fix it permanently.
Three lengths, not three techniques
Think of your lead arm as a clock hand: nine o’clock, half past ten, full. Each position gives a repeatable distance with each wedge, and three wedges produce nine numbers between roughly 40 and 110 yards. You are measuring what you already do rather than learning something new.
Measure once, write it down
A launch monitor bay, or a field with a rangefinder and your own balls, and ten shots from each position with each wedge. Ignore the best one, keep the number that repeats, and put the nine figures in your phone.
Range balls fly five to ten per cent shorter than a premium ball, so use your own where you can.
Winter is when to do this
Canadian golfers have the advantage that half the year is spent indoors on a simulator, and a simulator is the ideal place to record wedge numbers: no wind, no slope, and a carry figure for every swing. One session in February gives you a chart that is worth a season of guessing.
Rhythm sets the distance, not effort
The common fault is to make the same backswing every time and control distance with hand speed. That works on the range and collapses under pressure. Keep the tempo identical and let the length of the backswing set the number, the way a pendulum does.
Ball position and the low point
For partial wedges play the ball just back of centre with the weight slightly on the lead side, and leave it there. The club should reach the ground after the ball. Trying to help the ball up moves the low point behind it, which produces the fat and thin pair that ruins wedge play.
Use the bounce, especially in spring
The rounded sole is built to skid rather than dig, and on the soft, wet turf of a Canadian May that skid is what rescues a slightly heavy strike. Leaning the shaft a long way forward removes the bounce and turns a small error into a chunk. On partial shots keep the shaft closer to vertical.
Practise the awkward numbers
Everybody can hit a full sand wedge. Almost nobody can hit 63 yards. Spend a session playing to a flag at an uncomfortable distance, adjusting swing length until the ball lands beside it.
What to do this month
- Record nine numbers: three wedges by three swing lengths.
- Do it on a simulator if the courses are closed.
- On the course, pick the swing that matches the number rather than the club that gets there.
Wedge play is the cheapest scoring gain in golf, because it needs no equipment and no athleticism, only nine numbers you do not currently have.
