52 & 60 degree wedge help needed!

swededmonkey

I recently acquired 52 and 60 degree Cleveland wedges. Never had any major problems with my short game, nothing a bit of tidying up wouldn't sort out, but thought these would be welcome additions to my bag. I've haven't taken these out on the course yet as I'd like to get a feel for distance and control up at the driving range. Now I've found my biggest problem is that I can't hit them at all. Anytime I do, I either get a wicked slice or it runs along the ground. About 1/10 will take flight as expected. I don't think I'm doing anything majorly different each time. Normally I'll have a narrow stance, ball to the middle and hands slightly forward of the ball and doing half swings (for now). Is there anything here that I'm doing wrong or is it a matter of sticking with them and keep practising?

Halfprice

Make sure your weight little more on your left foot and that all your weight is not sitting on your right foot

DuckSlice

how did you perform with your previous wedges? are the new ones longer maybe?

Rikand

swededmonkey wrote: »

Is there anything here that I'm doing wrong or is it a matter of sticking with them and keep practising?

Something that happens with a lot of short irons is the ball flies away right or runs a long the ground (i.e. you are topping/thinning the wedges.) It may be that your posture is being affected using the new wedges.

I only know this because I have experienced the same myself of late. The clubs being of a shorter length, you're stooping a little more, but because you still want to generate power, you're throwing your body out of position coming through the ball

Check out the video at this link. :: http://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/videos/long-game-tips/thin-iron-shots-video

My posture was failing, as a result, I was firing my right hip forward and through and then my body was moving upwards, resulting in the ball going low and often times to the right.

Try to do as the video says, keep your arse in a stable position and see if anything improves.


I was actually doing two things wrong. I was also swinging a little flat, which was compounding it. I have since been working on getting my backswing to go back straighter and higher while keeping my arse in its appropriate position and it's making my wedges much more consistent.



Hope this helps

Senecio

What brand were your last wedges? Cleveland wedges are often high in swing weight (D6 and above in the higher lofts). May just take a little while to get used to them.

CMOTDibbler

I had exactly the same problem with Cleveland wedges. My irons are TaylorMade and they just seemed incompatible to me. When I switched to TaylorMade wedges, the problems went away. It could well be the swing weight as Senecio suggests. I know I had to swing differently with the Cleveland wedges; shortening my backswing and follow through to compensate. It was just too much trouble and confidence sapping, so I hunted the internet for matching TM wedges which I managed to acquire over time.

swededmonkey

Rikand wrote: »

Something that happens with a lot of short irons is the ball flies away right or runs a long the ground (i.e. you are topping/thinning the wedges.) It may be that your posture is being affected using the new wedges.

I only know this because I have experienced the same myself of late. The clubs being of a shorter length, you're stooping a little more, but because you still want to generate power, you're throwing your body out of position coming through the ball

Check out the video at this link. :: http://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/videos/long-game-tips/thin-iron-shots-video

My posture was failing, as a result, I was firing my right hip forward and through and then my body was moving upwards, resulting in the ball going low and often times to the right.

Try to do as the video says, keep your arse in a stable position and see if anything improves.


I was actually doing two things wrong. I was also swinging a little flat, which was compounding it. I have since been working on getting my backswing to go back straighter and higher while keeping my arse in its appropriate position and it's making my wedges much more consistent.



Hope this helps

Thanks rikand. I've made the adjustments and there's an immediate improvement!