If you’re looking to dial in your 100-yard wedge shots, try these simple adjustments for better ball contact and ball flight.
GOLF
Welcome to Shaving Strokes, the GOLF.com series where we share the progress, lessons learned and takeaways from novice golfers like you — including the speed bumps and challenges they’ve faced along the way. Ed. Note: This article was published in collaboration with Cleveland/Srixon.
If you really want to shave strokes off your game, the key area to target is any shot within 100 yards. This is something I hear all the time from Top 100 Golf Instructors – and it makes sense why this is so important.
Most players can recover from a bad drive or even a misdirected shot. But if you take three or four shots from inside 100 yards, you probably haven’t broken 100 yet.
That’s no way to play golf, my friends.
Since this is an area I’ve struggled with lately, I contacted Cleveland Golf ambassador Jake Hutt for a lesson on making sure I’m hitting 100-yard shots as the golf season approaches.
This 1 adjustment will help you hit 100 yard wedge shots
Hutt and I headed to the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., and got to work. But before I got into the specific instructions, he first asked me to rethink my tools, and he gave me a Cleveland wedge to try at this 100 yard range – the Cleveland CBX 4 ZipCore wedge.
According to Hutt, the CBX 4 has a larger sweet spot, which provides more forgiveness if you tend to take it off your toes (something I’m notorious for).
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Cleveland CBX 4 Zipcore Custom Wedge
$169.99
The new CBX 4 ZipCore wedges bring premium flexibility and superior forgiveness together in a refined, sharp-looking design that blends well into a modern backpack or bare-bones set.
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“We have a full transformation here, so I think you’re going to really benefit from CBX,” Hutt said. “The nice thing about these is that the sweet spot is a little closer to the toe, so you won’t lose the speed of the ball because the fun is great, and it’s a little closer to the toe.”
On 100-yard shots like the one Hutt and I stared down in the video, it’s easy to misfire and miss or miss. So to help plan the swing properly, Hutt reminds me to keep my weight forward – since the length of the wedge is shorter than other clubs in your bag.
“So there’s less time to shift and less time to shift the weight to the right,” Hutt said. “So we’re going to pile it up a little bit on top of that lead.”
As I talk to the ball, Hutt reminds me to swing the club a little, which can be done using the shaft leaning into the target. This helps the ball fly and adds more long range power, as you don’t want to short out on a 100 yard shot.
“To get there, you have to go as high as you can,” Hutt said. “So use as much lean and drag as possible, and keep all the pressure on the front foot. You really have to feel like you’re ahead of the ball.”
By making just one adjustment with the wedge in my hand, I can improve my results from within that 100 yard range. So try them yourself the next time you want to stick it close.
Cleveland Golf RTX 6 Zipcore Custom Wedge
$169.99
The new RTX 6 ZipCore wedges are designed to unlock high spin performance on the entire golf course, regardless of the lie. Yes, that includes fairway, rough, sand, and even wet conditions.
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