You see the professionals doing it all the time. They hit a wedge shot to the green and the ball bounces a couple of feet beyond the hole only to take grip of the green and spin back towards the hole, leaving a simple putt for birdie.
However, playing this shot requires a few things to be in place and you must be aware of them before planning on hitting a wedge shot which requires a lot of spin.
Firstly, to put maximum spin on a wedge shot you must have the right lie and this means the ball needs to be sitting up and lying cleanly, with very minimal grass behind it. In fact, you are better off only playing this shot when there is no grass behind the ball.
The more of the club face which can connect with the golf ball, the more it will spin. If the path between the club face and the ball is blocked in any way, this will reduce the amount of spin.
When trying to play a wedge shot with a lot of spin, start by putting most of your weight on your front leg. Also, lean your upper body slightly towards the target as this will help to hit the ball before the grass. You can also open your stance a little, as this also helps to promote hitting the ball first.
On the back swing, make sure you keep your weight on the front leg and your upper body leaning towards the target. Keeps your arms and the club in-front of your body rather than allowing them to swing around to the side or behind you.
When practicing this shot, try doing so at home in-front of a full-length mirror. As you are about to contact the ball, freeze and look in the mirror at your impact position.
At this point, your left wrist should be ahead of the ball and the shaft of the club pointed at an angle towards the target. Having this position at impact will ensure you strike the ball first and then the turf. An additional check you can do is with the back knee. If you are in the correct position, this will be pointing ahead of the ball.
On to the finish and to achieve maximum spin on the ball, the trailing arm should not rotate over the lead arm on the follow through.
To avoid this, try and rotate the whole right side of the body through with the shot and use this as way to accelerate through the ball, rather than scooping underneath the ball. Under no circumstances when playing this shot should the club head pass the hands before contact has been made with the ball.
So, next time the pin is at the front of the green, why not try and hit beyond it with your wedge and add some spin to the ball and bring it back to the hole? The steps above will help you to achieve this spectacular shot.
