Martin Hall on Drawing and Fading Wedges

I heard this on School of Golf Wednesday night and it was so informative that I wanted to pass it on.

Martin Hall said that handiest a lefty ought to hit the hooked wedge shot that received Bubba Watson the 2012 Masters. (Bear in thoughts that the shot would were a slice for a righthander.) And inside the clarification he gave a tip for fading a wedge shot.

Since I need to jot down this for each lefties and righties, allow me outline hooks and slices this way:

• A hook is a shot that curves around you.
• A slice is a shot that curves away from you.

Simply put, when you hook a wedge you close the clubface (also called 'hooding' the clubface) and the ball comes off the wedge at a low angle.The more you close it down, the lower the angle.

But while you attempt to slice the wedge, you open the clubface and it sends the ball almost immediately up in the air. And the extra you open the face, the straighter up the ball goes. It creates masses of sidespin however no curve.

In other words, you can not intention the face far sufficient faraway from you to create a curved ball flight. Martin demonstrated with a rod attached to the face to show where it turned into aimed. It makes best feel in case you reflect onconsideration on it... However it also increases a question:

How do you're making a wedge shot curve away from you when you need to?

Martin's solution was simple but it's probably not your first instinct. If you need to make a slice shape to your shot, take a longer club -- Martin suggests a 7- or 6-iron -- move the ball slightly back in your stance and make a shorter swing. This brings the ball's flight angle down low enough to mimic that of a hooked wedge, and then you can get the ball to slice.

So here's the rule of thumb: Hook a full wedge but slice a chipped 7-iron. Very simple to remember and to do, but probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you're stymied behind that tree.