Hitting a Good Open-Face Wedge Shot in Golf
You certainly have seen it on TV from time to time – a player is in a tough spot off to the side of a green, and they open the face of their wedge to float the ball up softly into the air and it lands beautifully on the green. Most amateur golfers would love to be able to hit this kind of a shot, but sadly their attempts usually end badly. If you would like to hit a lob shot with an open faced wedge around the green, this article will point you in the right direction.
A good open-face wedge shot is a four step process. Follow along with the process below, and the shot will quickly seem easier than you once thought.
- Open the face of the wedge. It might be obvious, but you have to open the face of the wedge if you are going to hit an open faced wedge shot. The key to this step is making sure you open the face first, then take your grip – not the other way around. In doing this, it will be easier to keep the face open through impact properly.
- Move the ball up in your stance. Unlike most golf shots around the green, you don’t want to hit down on the lob shot you are trying to hit here. Instead, place the ball up in your stance toward your front foot, and try to slice the club through impact while it moves parallel to the ground.
- Take a big swing. There is no way around it – an open faced lob shot around the green requires a big swing to execute correctly. Since you will be hitting the ball mostly up into the air, and not very far forward, you need plenty of speed to make that happen. Instead of taking a short backswing and trying to accelerate quickly, think about both your backswing and downswing going about the same distance.
- Be brave. The open faced flop shot is a scary one to hit because there are plenty of negative outcomes that you can experience if you don’t hit the shot just right. For that reason, you need to be sure that you have plenty of confidence and that you have practiced the shot before you try it on the course. Only when you are sure you can pull it off should you go ahead and go for the high lob shot.