COMMUNITY

The only time that I change my grip pressure is on short pitch shots. I lighten my grip a bit and it helps me get the wristy hinge that I need to get the ball in the air and produce a little extra spin so that the ball stops fast.

same grip pressure with all clubs. You still have to accelerate through the shot just as if you had any other club. look at ball postioning and follow through the same distance you took the club back.

Holding the club lightly may be the biggest myth in golf (all that about a live bird and whatnot). Get a good grip on the damn thing and keep a good grip on it.

I'll third Dandy's reply. Light grip pressure is B.S. Pros tell you they hold it lightly all day....BUT....they hit balls every day of their life. Their hands are immensely strong. Ever shook hands with a Tour pro? My buddy Rick, who played the Champions Tour, had ridiculously strong hands.

That means what feels "light" to a pro is actually a very, very firm hold on the club for the rest of us who don't play golf for a living.

Here's the thing. We're trying to pressurize the shaft into impact. That's how you get the ball to come off the club with real purpose. If you're not pressurizing the shaft, there's no telling which way that clubface is going to point when it meets the ball. And you can't pressurize the shaft if your connection between yourself and the club (your grip) is loose.

Great quote from Jackie Burke Jr.: "I know Sam Snead says to hold the club like you're holding a bird. What Sam didn't tell you is that the bird he was holding was a damn hawk!"

So go ahead and grip that thing. Don't white-knuckle it, of course (there's a limit to how tightly you should grip it)...but hold the damn club like you're about to hit something with it. Because, hey, you ARE about to hit something with it!

I like to hit 95% of all my shots very firmly. Even short chips! I'm holding the club firmly and hitting the ball with some authority. That's how you get the ball to hold its line and spin the amount that you want. I control my distance using the length of my swing, my trajectory (ball position), and the club I'm using. That last point is the biggest one. EVERY high handicapper I play with doesn't use enough club, on any shot. And that applies around the green too. I see guys just grab their lob wedge for anything around the green, and they constantly come up way short.

Nikhil, next time you go play, whenever you have a shot around the green, try this experiment. Whatever club you think you should hit, take one more. If you think it's a lob wedge shot, use your sand wedge. If it's a sand wedge, use your pitching wedge. Etc., etc. Pretty soon you'll learn what club you need to use to get the ball to the hole.

...and grip it firm.

ding ding ding ding we have a winner

I have given this advice before...

My wedge game was average at best for years, until one day I decided to lose the macho...forget the spinner...forget distance and just play an easy shot into the green.

What that meant for me...I never ever take a full swing with a wedge in my hand. I am a fairly long player and can hit a 60 degree LW straight up in the air 100+yards, but if I am facing a 100 yard shot I take a half swing with my GW (52 degrees). If I need 90 yards its a half swing with my SW. If I need 80 its a half swing with my LW.

What I can tell you is this...a half swing is all about control which is what you want on a shorter approach. When I take a half swing with my GW I know that its going 100 yards nearly every time...so now all I need to worry about is my aim.

For me a half swing is the way to go...the more controlled shot assures you that your aim will be more precise and your misses will be fewer and far between.

Grip pressure is not something I think about...its not light and its not firm...I suppose I would say that my grip pressure is tight enough to feel mobile...that is to say that I can easily cock my wrists and my feel is not restricted.

Nikhil, there is a lot of good advice here, but I'm not convinced any of it will help you, because we haven't enough to go on.

Here's what I know. Most of what passes for advice from guys out on the course is dead wrong. So just because some of your fellow players think you should grip it tighter doesn't mean squat. They could be way off base. Who knows?

So I want to know more about what is going on with your wedge play before suggesting how to fix it.

What kind of wedge shots are you attempting where consistency is a problem? Chips around the green? Lobs? Green side bunker shots? 40-50 yard pitches to the green? There are lots of different shots required with a wedge in your hand.

You say your wedge play is inconsistent - usually dropping the ball short. I want to know more, because on one hand you are saying you are inconsistent and on the other you are saying you usually drop the ball short of the target, which in itself is a level of consistency. So tell me more. What is inconsistent about your wedge play? Is your contact consistently crisp, or do you chunk it one time and thin it the next?

How would you describe your swing with a wedge? Long and languid? Short and choppy? Long back, short through?

What do you do to make less than a full swing? What exactly do you do different than a full swing? If you say you are usually dropping the ball short, why don't you just swing a little harder, or lengthen you swing a bit and keep your tempo? What prevents you from doing that, or what happens when you try to do that?

Grip pressure? Most of us are doing good if we can use a decent grip; much less worry about grip pressure. Unless you are a very low handicapper, just grip it and rip it. There are better issues to worry about than "grip pressure."

Here's food for thought. Why do all your wedges have so much bounce? Are you in Seattle, and it never stops raining or Abu Dubai playing on sand fairways? I'd love to know how you play that 60* from a tight or even bare lie...

Sorry I wasn't able to get on the forum the past few days as I had a problem with my internet access. But thanks for all the replies folks. Lots of good feedback in there.

One thing in certain .. FIRM GRIP it is!!!

In reply to all of you who asked some questions, I'll try to answer:

gsollars: I'm in the process of fixing issues with my short game. I've been using (without knowing it) a predominantly weak grip with flippy/wristy hands through the shot. To control the ball better I've now started to work on a more neutral grip that compresses the ball. Among other things that came to my mind was that I had to also had to have a relatively firmer grip on the club.

Dandy: You're probably right about the bounce angles on my wedges. When I bought my wedges last year I was new to this stuff. I had started playing after a gap of almost ten years. I had no idea what suited our conditions here.

That's exactly what I like doing as well. The problem I'm having is consistency - when I have "feel" it works great. When I'm off its terrible!

Tim, great advice as always man. For me a stronger grip has been the key to pressuring the shaft. I'm now re-working the yardages. I'm also going over Elk's "Tour Quality Short Game" video from SITD. Some great stuff in there.

Mark this looks like the start of another "journey"!! I'm going to put some thought into all that you've asked - maybe shoot some video/pics of my wedge game as well.

A few things which I know I was doing wrong was that I had an open face (weak) grip on the club. Very wristy swing with a lot of wrist cock. And a loose grip that I had mistakenly seen as having more feel. I've already started towards correcting this with a stronger/neutral grip that puts compression on the ball.

The wristy swing with a loose grip is a great place to start. That combination will produce very inconsistent contact. Impossible to get any real feel until your contact is consistently solid.

My short game has really been good lately. I saw this on you tube and it worked for me.
Pick a wedge, I use my 56 for just about everything. I placed a bucket at 10 yds and chipped to it until I was all over it. Then I moved back 10 yds. Now I am at 20 and still pitching shots right at the bucket. I kept moving back as my aim became better. When I got to 50 I was amazed at how easy I was still swinging the club but was still consistant. I still do this drill today, every day out in the yard.

I started off hitting my 56 about 85 yds, now I hit it 95 yds at about 80%. This drill really paid off for me.

What happened was my overall ball striking became so much better.

Best you tube video I've seen.