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70 yards and in...

derelict

derelict

In the trees
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
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Location
SoCal/NorCal
Handicap
short game
I've read that this is a very uncomfortable distance for many. I am included in this bunch. Actually, Anything less than 100 yards is uncomfortable for me because I can't use a full swing.

How do you guys practice half swings, 3/4 swings to dial this in? I can't tell you how many times I have hit a monster drive, just to over/under hit my pitch to the green...
 
75-70 yards - SW 58* Half swing to 3/4 follow (the 5y difference is controlled by how far I choke down)
70-65 y - GW 52* Half Swing to Half Follow
65-60 y- SW 58* Half to Half
60 and in is more of a feel thing.
The day my friend bought a Laser Range Finder was the day my 100y and in game improved. We went out to the range late one day and put a bunch of empty range buckets at 10 yard increments from 60 to 100Y
 
derelict said:
I've read that this is a very uncomfortable distance for many. I am included in this bunch. Actually, Anything less than 100 yards is uncomfortable for me because I can't use a full swing.

How do you guys practice half swings, 3/4 swings to dial this in? I can't tell you how many times I have hit a monster drive, just to over/under hit my pitch to the green...
Click to expand...

100 yards and in is my major weakness!!! I hate this shot a lot, I'm even bad from 10 yds. too????
 
is it weird that i hit my 52* A wedge 130...
 
buy more wedges
or hit a short game practice area and work on that distance
or pick targets at the range and hit shorter and shorter shots with diff clubs
try diff shots like bump an runs/flops/etc

for me personally... anything inside 150 is money... short irons wedges and putters im more than comfy with...
cant say the same about longer clubs especially off the tee recently
 
My am very good from 60-80 yards
I am AWFUL from 90-110
I am goof from 115+

I just find a slow day on the course and drop balls somewhere 90-110 and play out the hole. If I drop 10 balls my goal is 6 on the green and 5 up and down. As I get better I hope those numbers improve.

Addendum:
I have a VERY grooved full swing which is why I struggle from 90-110... its a 3/4 club
60-80 I open my stance and do full swing "pitch shots" with various wedges.
 
no. you might have a forward press in your swing that makes it play more like 48* but 130 doesn't sound out of the question
 
I've been so bad from 30-70 yards lately, if I'm in the middle of the fairway, I've been known to simply bump and run it with a mid-iron. I rather keep the ball low than shank it right.

Just need to practice more and make sure I accelerate through the shot.
 
i saw a tip on the golf channel the other day abotu bein gin side of 100 yards. Keeping the ball back in your stance keeps the trajectory lower and increases the spin, helped me today that is for sure...still need a 60* though...
 
PinHunter said:
is it weird that i hit my 52* A wedge 130...
Click to expand...

Not weird at all... my 52* is my 130 club... very consistent with a full swing. When I am less than 80 yards, I am always struggling to decide... hit my 60* or my 56*... how much swing... I am almost always a little far or a little short... or i just fat it or thin it... or shank it... it's like a crap shoot for me when I don't have a full swing!
 
PinHunter said:
is it weird that i hit my 52* A wedge 130...
Click to expand...

As a dissenting opinion...

130 is a -9 or a +PW (45*) for me
My full 52 is a 80 yard club.

BUT... I don't have a lot of distance on my irons and, for whatever reason, have a VERY high ball flight
 
My personal method for anything inside of 70 yards is to just take a few practice swings with my 56 and try to feel the distance that I'm looking for.

For reference, I hit my 56 about 85 yards with a full swing and the ball not too far back in my stance so I use that fact to judge how much of a swing I need.

I'm sure my method isn't the best but recently it has really worked for me, and I don't carry any clubs with more loft so the only time I'm using a different club around the green is when I'm trying to bump and run or some other tricky nonsense. :act-up:
 
derelict said:
I've read that this is a very uncomfortable distance for many. I am included in this bunch. Actually, Anything less than 100 yards is uncomfortable for me because I can't use a full swing.

How do you guys practice half swings, 3/4 swings to dial this in? I can't tell you how many times I have hit a monster drive, just to over/under hit my pitch to the green...
Click to expand...

You may want to take a more scientific approach to the short game. Read Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible. His method will give you many options for hitting within 100 yards. i.e. 75 yard shot = PW at 1/2 swing (9:00), SW at 3/4 swing (10:00), 60* at full swing (11:00).
He has you take a "short game test" to determine your yardages at different lenghts/different clubs. Once dialed in you can easily pick the right club/swing for that distance. HIs "face of the clock" method might help you with your distances. Instead of using 'feel', you use the face of the clock whereas you may find that your SW at 10:00 will produce a 75 yard shot, etc., etc.

Many options depending on what you like to hit. You may find that at 75 yards you feel comfortable with a 3/4 SW. At 65 yards, instead of using that SW at 1/2 swing, you may opt for a 3/4 60*. Again, many options.
 
This is the weakest part of my game, I lose 5-10 shots per round or more in this area. Lately I am not letting the stress or the fear of messing up affect me and I am doing better. Just takes focus and concentration
 
When I'm below 70-80 yards I start pitching instead of full swings. I actually feel pretty confident in these situations. I hinge my wrist right away and the length of my shot is determined by how far I take back the club and the club I use. For 10-30 yards I use my LW, 30-50 yards I use my SW, and 50-70 my GW. It's not always perfect, but nothing in this game ever is for me haha
 
In my opinion, this is where "Old School" beats "New School".

New School has everyone setting up with a square stance and thus everything is loft dependent and swing-length dependent and to negotiate less-then-100-yard shots, one must choose a correct loft and may also have to resort to 3/4 or 1/2 swings as well which can be tricky for many of the reasons listed in this thread.

Old School on the other hand isn't about mechanics as much as it's about feel and thus most Old School players (such as myself) play shots with everything from a wildly open stance to a closed stance, depending on the situation. I think that this flexibility helps a great deal with touch shots such as pitch shots under 100 yards.

In such an instance, I generally use my 52-degree wedge with a wide open face as well as a very open stance. From this setup, I can still take a full swing from as little as 50 yards, so the idea of swing-length and a "designated" loft don't even enter into the equation. Having played this way all of my life, I have become quite accustomed to using the club and my stance in a variety of ways, all of which tend to make things very simple and because I'm not thinking "mechanically", I don't have to worry about specific lofts or swing styles as much and I am free to concentrate more on the "touch" part.

I understand the theories and reasoning behind New School thinking, but I also believe that knowing some Old School "tricks" will go a long way towards becoming a well-rounded golfer and will in many cases simplify things.


Simple is better. :thumb:


-JP
 
I'd think the longer the hitter the more annoying these shots are. I mean if you can seriously hit your 60 degree like 100 yards, then you're probably going to need to be creative and possibly learn 3/4 swings and 1/2 swings.

For me, since my 60 flies about 70 yards, I generally go to a 3/4 with my 52/56/60 which get me down to around the 45yard area. After that, it's about touch.

JP - Isn't opening up a 52 not too different from just hitting a 60-64 wedge? I understand your trick there, and it's akin to hitting a flop/bunker shot, but I'm not want to aim that way......It feels very imprecise to me. I'm definitely not as practiced with that type of shot as I can hit it, but the times I do mess it up, it's very......slicey.
 
jmingt said:
JP - Isn't opening up a 52 not too different from just hitting a 60-64 wedge? I understand your trick there, and it's akin to hitting a flop/bunker shot, but I'm not want to aim that way......It feels very imprecise to me. I'm definitely not as practiced with that type of shot as I can hit it, but the times I do mess it up, it's very......slicey.
Click to expand...

From a loft perspective it's exactly the same thing.

But your second sentence sums it up; it's all in what you're comfortable with. As I said, I grew up with an open stance approach to golf and when I'm about fifty yards away, my belt buckle is basically facing the target at address and I'm swinging more or less across the ball.

I myself tried to play an entire season with a "modern" setup; a square stance and only varying loft, swing length and ball position, just to see if it might make a difference in my game and even though I stayed with it for an entire season, I simply could not get used to that setup. To me, it took all of the feel out of my game and everything became focused on mechanics.

I understand perfectly why a square setup is advocated and I also understand the reason for carrying extra wedges all the way down to a 60 (which I used for that year), but I found myself thinking too much about clubhead speed and loft rather than focusing on my target and I completely lost my touch.

The open-stanced setup is just natural to me and I guess I've sort of learned the nuances of that setup and so I went back to it after that year and I've never looked back. To me, it's more intuitive to just open the clubface and the stance than it is to try to calibrate a backswing and match a loft to it.

To each his own.


-JP
 
I have a 4 wedges setup..... (45, 50, 54, 58)
I tried to use the Pelz method with limited success....
Now I just wing it from my full wedge swings (110, 96, 84, 72)

IMHO, Practicing with my wedges has brought better results then trying to make Pelz's method fit my swing....

bama
 
bama said:
I have a 4 wedges setup..... (45, 50, 54, 58)
I tried to use the Pelz method with limited success....
Now I just wing it from my full wedge swings (110, 96, 84, 72)

IMHO, Practicing with my wedges has brought better results then trying to make Pelz's method fit my swing....

bama
Click to expand...
i cant bag 4 wedges an i think i dont really need to... the problem with me is i need all the long clubs i can carry since length is my biggest weakness... if i had distance... id love to add a few more wedges
 
bogey_russ said:
i cant bag 4 wedges an i think i dont really need to... the problem with me is i need all the long clubs i can carry since length is my biggest weakness... if i had distance... id love to add a few more wedges
Click to expand...

Bogey,
I am definately not a long hitter..That is why I try to hone my short game, because my long game is at such a disadvantage....
 
bama said:
Bogey,
I am definately not a long hitter..That is why I try to hone my short game, because my long game is at such a disadvantage....
Click to expand...
then i need more wedges! asap... hahaha... seriously... i want a couple new wedges... mine are getting crusty
 
For me 70 yards is a 75% swing with my 56* wedge.
 
JP - it made me feel good to read this as I recently went back to an open stance and "eyeballing" the distance on short (less than LW) pitches. I've tried for months to get the 9 o'clock/10 o'clock thing down, but just can't make consistent contact that way. I was considering a few lessons to drill the clock methodology, but just may stay with my little cut shots.

JPsuff said:
From a loft perspective it's exactly the same thing.

But your second sentence sums it up; it's all in what you're comfortable with. As I said, I grew up with an open stance approach to golf and when I'm about fifty yards away, my belt buckle is basically facing the target at address and I'm swinging more or less across the ball.

I myself tried to play an entire season with a "modern" setup; a square stance and only varying loft, swing length and ball position, just to see if it might make a difference in my game and even though I stayed with it for an entire season, I simply could not get used to that setup. To me, it took all of the feel out of my game and everything became focused on mechanics.

I understand perfectly why a square setup is advocated and I also understand the reason for carrying extra wedges all the way down to a 60 (which I used for that year), but I found myself thinking too much about clubhead speed and loft rather than focusing on my target and I completely lost my touch.

The open-stanced setup is just natural to me and I guess I've sort of learned the nuances of that setup and so I went back to it after that year and I've never looked back. To me, it's more intuitive to just open the clubface and the stance than it is to try to calibrate a backswing and match a loft to it.

To each his own.


-JP
Click to expand...



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Last edited:
Something else you can do that I don't think has been mentioned yet is to simply choke down on the club and swing with a full swing. For instance, my full swing 60* is about 100 yards. If I need a 90 yard shot, the easiest thing for me is to choke down about an inch on the grip and swing full.

80 yards or less is trying to control my backswing length, and takes a lot more practice and "feel" to get right. The choke down is an easy solution to distances slightly below full wedge distance.
 
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