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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

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30 Yard Reference - Finesse Wedge

For a portion of my students, a 30-yard wedge shot can be a trouble spot; this can be due to poor technique, but it can also be attributed to a bit of misunderstanding. Thankfully though, we have been able to establish a very straightforward and useful backswing "reference point" using 3D data from a variety of touring professionals. Ultimately, this reference point can dramatically simplify things and provide players with the foundation to create reliable wedge shots from multiple distances.

Tags: Fundamentals, Poor Contact, Pitch, Backswing, Concept, Intermediate

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This wedge video is 30-yard reference.

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So I have a number of students who struggle with kind of that 30-40-yard shot and one thing

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that I found has helped a lot of golfers is having some idea of a reference of about

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how big of a swing you should take.

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So we'll go through, we'll look at a bunch of, or a handful of Torpro 3D files and what

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you'll see is that there's kind of this zone where most of these Torpro's have figured

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out they need to take their backswing back to about this far in order to hit a 30-yard.

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What I tend to see is that the amateurs who struggle with this area tend to be too short.

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I have seen a couple who will tend to take it a little bit too far, but most of the time these

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golfers will bring it back to about here and then try to really create speed and have kind

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of a big wild acceleration on the way through.

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In order to have more of a consistent acceleration on the way through, most golfers, most

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Tor golfers for this 30-yard shot are going to bring their hands to about belly button

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height or the shaft, somewhere kind of in this zone here somewhere around shaft about 45.

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That tends to give you enough speed to hit a 30-yard shot without having a massive acceleration.

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By being able to swing a little bit more in rhythm or feeling like you're swinging at

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kind of a more constant speed, you'll probably have a better chance of controlling your distance

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for these 30-yard shots because you won't have to manage how fast you're going to accelerate.

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You can just accelerate smoothly all the way through the shot.

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With the finesse wedges, I like to have a couple different swings just like we do in the distance wedge.

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So I'll have a lot of golfers do one more they bring it back to about the club head at about

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knee height, kind of right there, and then one to about hip height, and then that 30-yard shot

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at the hands coming to about belly button height. And as if you only had one reference other

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than your little green side chip shot, I would like to build that 30-yard reference

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because I think that you can always feel like you swing a little shorter or a little harder

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and once you get to about 50-yard 60-yards, usually it feels close enough to a mini full swing

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that it's no longer a problem. It's really for that kind of nebulous 30-40-yard shot that a lot

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of golfers struggle with, and I find that if you build a reference of about how far back you're

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going to take, keeping your tempo consistency, it really helps with dialing in your distance.

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Okay, so that 30-yard distance taking it back to about belly button height, kind of like that,

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and then just having a relatively smooth acceleration on the way through.

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The two, if you're looking at yourself on video, I'd recommend doing this one from a face-on camera,

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and what I want you to look for is if you're doing, if it's kind of a short shot,

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and then you're trying to speed it up, you'll see, I did that with a lot of leg or arm action

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or occasionally, for golfers you get really steep, they'll on this 30-yard shot pick it up,

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and almost do like a full swing, and then try to really flip it on the way down.

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So if you're going to have more of a smooth, consistent tempo, then as a reference, I'd recommend

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this kind of, this checkpoint here, of the club at about a 40-degree angle, 45-degree angle,

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with the hands at about belly button height.

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Little higher launch, but good distance.

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Last little point, this can be a great distance to coordinate with your tempo,

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of a one-two kind of smooth acceleration rate on the way through, and then training yourself to

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just to keep the tempo the same and just adjust your distance to hit it a little further or a little

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shorter.

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