2 Simple Swing Changes to Add Spin to Your Wedge Shots

Welcome to Play Smart, GOLF.com’s regular game improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Your wedge is your scoring club. When you have a birdie from the fairway, you should consider making the birdie. When you have to grab a greenside wedge, the most important thing is to hit it up and down to get par. If you can improve your conversion rate in both cases, you’ll quickly see your score drop.

But despite the importance of wedges in scoring low scores, many recreational golfers don’t know what the proper technique for hitting the ball is. When they head to the driving range, it’s all about gripping the club and ripping it apart – with little thought given to short clubs.

Lack of focus during practice often leads to bad habits that result in higher scores. But hitting a clean wedge becomes much easier if you know what types of mistakes you should avoid.

In the video below, Dr. Greg Rose from the Titleist Performance Institute shares two huge mistakes he often sees recreational golfers make when using wedges to reduce spin. Correct them and you’ll be hitting the ball with more spin in no time.

2 Ways to Add Spin

Wedges are crucial to scoring because they can get into hard-to-reach pin locations, allowing you to tuck the ball closer to a hidden hole. This is largely due to the amount of spin they generate.

When you can get spin on your wedges, you can hit the ball high and land it. Plus, you can stop the ball instantly when the situation calls for it. Simply put, knowing how to spin the ball correctly can unlock your scoring ability.

Ball rotation is achieved in two ways. One is the speed at impact (i.e., club head speed), and the other is high-spin loft, which is the difference between the angle of impact and the loft of the clubface at impact.

1. Acceleration by impact

The number one mistake golfers make when trying to create speed is slowing down through the ball. This usually happens because their backswing is too long for the shot they want to hit, so they slow down on the shot to prevent the ball from screaming past the flag. If you really want to create spin, you have to start with a smaller backswing and accelerate through the ball.

“With wedges, if you want the ball to spin, I need speed through the sole,” Rose said. “Make sure you release and build up clubhead speed.”

2. Increase the rotation inclination angle

Another mistake golfers make when trying to generate spin is not generating enough spin loft. As mentioned above, spin loft is the difference between the angle of impact and the loft of the club at impact.

Feeling like you’re hitting the ball is a great way to get the proper angle of impact to create spin. However, the mistake many amateur golfers make is that in doing so, they close the clubface and lower the loft of the club.

“The key here is to feel like you’re swinging down, but make sure you’re increasing the loft,” Ross says. “If you look at good wedge players, they not only create a downward angle of attack, [but] The face is also open. “