Golf Tips - Picking the Right Wedge for Your Approach Shot

When you are in the 10 to 30 yards off the green area, do you know which wedge to use? If not, you need to spend some time hitting balls with all 3 of your wedges from at least 3 different distances, 10, 20, and 30 yards out. The idea is to land the ball just on the green and let it roll to the hole. On an average bent grass green, a 10 yard pitch with a pitching wedge (50°) will roll approximately 15 yards, a sand wedge (55°) will roll 10 yards, and a lob wedge (60°) will roll 5 yards, more or less depending on the firmness of the green and the loft of your wedges. As you go to 20 and 30 yards out, the roll remains the same. As you can see, as you get further from the green, your club selection becomes your most lofted club. And once you reach 40 to 50 yards out, forget the roll and fly the ball to the hole. You should be creating enough backspin to eliminate most of the roll, unless the green is extremely firm. Then, watch out for that first bounce! If you take this approach and land the ball just on the green, you will lower your effort level, which will improve your consistency.