Master the low, medium and high flighted wedge shot

Being able to hit a variety of wedge shots is a great asset to have. Here’s how to hit low, medium and high shots with just one club.

When I’m around the greens, I’m comfortable reaching for my 56° wedge for almost every shot.

It goes back to being a junior, when you didn’t have the options of four wedges to play lots of different shots. You learned to play with just one and you became comfortable with it.

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Even now, if I was looking to hit a low, medium, or high shot, I would almost always reach for the same wedge. All I need to do is change the set-up and technique I use to get a different ball flight with each shot.

How to flight your wedge shots

If you’re trying to hit a really high one, most of the time that will only come into play if you’ve got a good lie. Because the ball is further forward in your stance, the low point moves further forward too. You need to trust that the loft and the bounce of the club is going to do the work.

If you try and help the ball in the air by scooping it, your weight will fall back and you’ll probably mishit the ball.

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For this shot, you’re going to favour the front of your stance, closer to your left heel, with the hands towards the middle of your body. It will appear that your hands are a little bit back, but that’s going to help with adding loft to the face.

For a mid-flighted shot (below), you want the ball more in the middle of your stance, with the hands just slightly ahead. That’s probably going to have them in the same place as before, but you’ll have less shaft lean and more loft on the club.

For a lower flighted shot, you want to get the ball either just inside or just outside your back heel. The further back you play it, the steeper you’re going to be and the lower the ball is going to fly.

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As you move the ball back, you then need to match up your hand position to that. I’ll try and have my hands beside my left thigh. That’s going to de-loft the face. Importantly, it’s not going to close the face, it’s just going to de-loft it. If you start to close the face, the ball is going to fly left of your target.

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What club should I use around the greens?

I can still hit the lower shots with a short or even a mid-iron and in some extreme cases I will, but using the wedge is where I feel most comfortable. Find what you’re most comfortable with and when you need to hit it close and get up and down, you can rely on it.

The key reason you would change which shot you play is because you want to change how far the ball will run on the green. Everyone will have a preference, but there will be times where you might have no green to work with and you need the ball to stop quickly.

However, you might be the kind of golfer who will be just off the green and want to hit a high shot that stops quickly. If you feel more comfortable doing that, then absolutely do it.

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Ailsa Murphy is the PGA Professional at Peebles. You can follow her on TikTok, see her in person at Peebles Golf Club, or book a virtual lesson via Skillest.