The 60-degree wedge is perfect for greenside shots where you need to carry a bunker or stop the ball fast, but I see a lot of golfers making full swings with these clubs from 70 or 80 yards out in the fairway. I’m not a fan of that, and the results usually aren’t very good.
For one, the bigger the swing, the lower your chances of hitting the ball solid. There’s a reason you see good players making a lot of less-than-full swings on shots into greens: with a more controlled swing, the quality of the contact is almost a given.
Also, when you try to smash a lob wedge, you really only hit the ball higher, not further, and higher brings more variables into play and means you have to fly the ball right to your target. Trying to carry a lob wedge all the way to a back pin makes zero sense.
A better plan is to take your gap or pitching wedge and make a three-quarter swing. The lower flight is more reliable, and you’ll find it easier to control the distance. You just need to practise those shots so you get to know your distances. Ultimately, you want at least a couple of swing lengths to use with each wedge in your bag.
I went through this very process with Dustin Johnson several years ago. He’s so long off the tee that he often has a wedge into green. But his wedge game was one-dimensional – he had go-to yardages but struggled with the in-between shots. So we added more partial swings to his game, and now he’s one of the most versatile wedge players in the world.
Start to develop a three-quarter wedge swing. Keep your lead arm nice and wide as you swing back [pictured], and then turn your body through to face the target. You don’t need a big, flowing follow-through with your arms. Try to make it a mirror image of your backswing.
With some controlled wedge swings in your bag, you’ll have better success hitting the ball flush and give yourself more margin for error than trying to drop a lob wedge right on the pin.
Butch Harmon heads Golf Digest’s list of the Legends of Golf Instruction.
