Hall of Fame coach: How to hit a wedge shot off tricky pinestraw

Hall of Fame coach Mike Adams shares his advice on how to make one of the trickiest shots in golf, easy

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Welcome to our new series, golfer-to-golfer, where we try to learn from all different kinds of avid players out there, in hopes that the rest of us can take away something that might improve our own games.

It certainly may look intimidating when you walk up to your golf ball around the green and it is resting on less than a perfect lie on the pine straw.

Not only do you need to make good contact, you need to be able to control distance and trajectory as much as possible.

You can accomplish this by playing it much like a green side sand shot. A proper set up, like in a green side bunker will help to turn a difficult shot into a true triumph.

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1. Play your ball forward in your stance:

When you play your ball forward in your stance, this will help slightly increase the loft, but more importantly, allow the wedge to hit the ground before the ball, much like the blast motion of a bunker shot.

2. Open the club face proportional to your desired distance

Opening the face will increase the loft of the club, but also help the club to glide along the ground once it makes contact.

mike adams drill

3. Swing down the shoulder line:

When you play your golf ball more forward in your stance, it will open your shoulders to the target.
When you allow your arms to swing down your shoulder line, which wants to happen naturally if you let it, this more out to in, across path, like a bunker shot will produce a lofted wedge shot that can carry and hold the green.

When you already know a proper motion, like a green side bunker shot and you can apply it to an potentially intimidating situation like pine straw near the green, it can be a great tool to success.

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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

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