Most amateur golfers make 100 decisions on what club to use during a round of golf. Of course that number of 100 is likely an average depending on how many strokes it takes for you to shoot a round, but I think you understand where I am going. Many of the decisions are no brainers, but there is one area that requires a great deal of focus and concentration in order to make a successful golf shot. The distance of 25 yards and closer to the green is where most amateurs fail proper club selection and I know this because of my last round of golf!
As we approach our next shot from around the green, we traditionally have a default club that we feel comfortable using. In my case it is my 56° sand wedge. I find that this club offers a wide variety of options and in many cases I am right. Unfortunately, it also creates ‘decision paralysis’ where I forget to look at other options because I do not take the time to properly analyze my shot and automatically select my sand wedge. The foolish process of mine prevented me from gainfully contributing to my Men’s Night team on Thursday.
On four separate occasions, our team missed the green on our approach shots. During each decision on which ball to play, we all agreed to play the ball that offered the least amount difficulty and most amount of green with which to roll the ball. For some reason, I selected my sand wedge for each shot only to lament after that it was the wrong club…..yet, I continued to use if for the different chips. Truly I was disappoint in my rookie error and failed to take the proper time to analyze which club would best suit the shot. I am not sure why my brain was disengaged, but it happens from time to time.
What I failed to focus on was my carry to roll ratio. Where I want to land the ball so it rolls out to the pin effectively. I just failed on all levels with respect to this critical chipping factor. If you do not know what I mean, then take a look:
Club selection is very important. Normally, I am dialed for this important aspect of my game. On Thursday, not so much. Regardless, the lesson I relearned was to stay mentally engaged with my shot selection process around the green. It is a stroke saver and should be a vital step in your pre-shot routine.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
They keep telling us that we need to get the ball on the ground and we keep wanting to throw it up in the air. lol That’s something I tend to do as well. My sand wedge gets most of the work around the green. Certainly inside 25 yards it’s called on for the vast majority of shots.
But there are things to consider that she’s not mentioning. Like how hot the face is on your 6 iron. If you have game improvement clubs, it’s likely hot enough to make that somewhat of a poor choice because it’s going to adversely effect your distance control. You’ll see one speed from a impact that isn’t centered and a much faster speed when you get the impact centered in the face. The difference won’t be so much with forged iron and it’s not going to be as much with a wedge either.
If I wanted to run one down like she is to the farther pin I’d get the shaft of my gap wedge more vertical to get the toe down and use it like a putter for the same job. Yes I’ll have to swing a little longer which is an accuracy hit, but on the flip side, I’m going to be using a putting stroke, I’m going to be closer to the ball, I’m going to be hitting a face that provides a more consistent speed across it, and combined that makes me more accurate.
That’s me. Your mileage may very as they say. The truth is on 18 in our skins game I was in the rough behind the hole facing a down hill slope to the pin a few feet closer maybe than the far one in the video and I used the sand wedge for the shot. It was a short swing so I didn’t create lots of spin, it checked just a tiny bit and then rolled down to the hole missing it by maybe four inches on the left and ending a foot behind and one inch to the right from my angle. I threw that one 5 feet on give or take so a total of about 8 feet and it ran the rest of the way there. About 16 feet maybe. I was looking at maybe a little more slope than she faced and I was afraid to just pop it on low thinking the slope would generate too much speed to stick close to the hole so I used the air and some spin and surprised everyone except me and saved the last skin. I knew I had that shot. My little range out back has me practicing it with every ball I hit long from the tee box. lol I get tons of practice with both uphill and down hill chips around the green thanks to all the times I go short or long from the practice tee.
Like I say the advice in the video isn’t bad per say. The only way to know is to put in the practice time. If you just go grab a 6 iron and try it on the course it’s probably not going to be pretty.
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Kevin,
Your final comment is the critical one. The only way to know what club to use, how your club selection will react to to contact, and the amount of roll each club produces is to take a bit of time practicing. I would suggest that is the same of all the tips and advice given by anyone. We all have to put a bit of time in practicing to be better players.
Cheers Jim
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