How To Hit Wedges Longer? (3 Tips)

The three best ways to hit the wedges longer in golf is to have less loft at impact, compress the ball (stop casting) and increase swing speed.

Many golfers struggle to hit their wedges long enough.

While hitting wedges is more about hitting the same distances more consistently vs hitting the wedges longer, golfers still want to hit their wedges a reasonable distance.

The good news is there are some simple adjustments to help the golfer hit their wedges longer.

How To Hit Wedges Longer

My Journey: For years I hit my wedges too high and lost distance. Once a golfer can truly compress the ball, have the right angle of attack and hit the center of the face they will get a distance that is more correlated with their swing speed!

We will take you through each of the 3 tips above and provide some quality detail to get you headed in the right direction. Make sure you check out our bonus tip on creating a distance chart to help you manage your game!

On a wedge shot like the one above, you have to make sure you have enough distance and the right distance!

Tip #1: Less Loft At Impact

Most wedges in golf range from 48 degrees to 60 degrees. The most common wedges are the following degrees:

Pitching Wedge = 48 degrees
Gap Wedge = 54 degrees
Sand Wedge = 56 degrees

Lob Wedge = 60 degrees

The number one issue golfers face is that they present too much loft at impact with all their irons, but especially when it comes to the wedges. For example, their launch angle might be in the 40s with a pitching wedge and even higher with the others. This results in a high, short shot that is difficult to control in many different conditions.

What are the golf wedges (complete overview)

The golfer ultimately needs to present less loft at impact by taking one of the following steps below or a combination of the steps:

Move the ball back in the stance
Move your hands forward at address
Ensure you get your weight onto the front side at impact

Moving the ball back in the stance is an easy way to reduce the amount of loft. The lower amount of loft often equals more distance in golf and with the wedges there is no exception. Another way to reduce the loft is to move the hands forward at address and then maintain that same angle at impact with the hands past the ball at impact. Finally, the golfer needs to ensure they shift back to the front side and get through the shot instead of getting stuck on the back front and presenting too much loft at impact.

What wedges do I need?

A beautiful shot, but challenging. Having the right distance is vital. Check out our bonus tip below!

Tip #2: Compress The Golf Ball (Stop Casting)

The number one issue among the weakest golfers is casting or throwing the club away too early in the downswing. Oftentimes prior to the golf reaching parallel to the ground on the downswing the golfer has dumped all of the angles out. This results in too much loft at impact and a reduction of overall speed as the speed has been wasted way too early.

For years, golfers thought, well I will just hold the release off. And as a result many continued to struggle. Here is the key we believe works the best.

Focus on creating speed past the ball or out towards a target way off in the distance. This gets the golfer to be more patient during the transition in the swing and early in the downswing. The golfer who dumps the angles and the speed is often trying to create too much speed too early. Instead, remain patient and focus on throwing the speed down the fairway or past the ball.

This will keep your angels and allow you to compress the ball. We also believe this drill below to control your low point will help with the compression of the golf shot.

What wedges should a beginner carry?

The Drill: The Low Point Control Dril

Take some yard paint and paint a 1-2 yard long line.
Setup with 55% of your weight on your front side.

Try to hit the target side of the line and see how many times out of 10 you can do this successfully!
Repeat this drill every day for a month, tracking your progress and your ability to do this successfully in trials of ten.
You may need to start with half swing and progress to full swings.

If you are struggling, put more weight forward and work on keeping your head still to help control the low point in the swing.

The more solid you hit the ball, the more distance you will get out of the golf swing.

Have the right distance and don’t forget to pick a target in the distance. This hole is setup perfect to use the cell phone tower or a tree beyond the green.

Tip #3: Ensure you get your weight onto the front side at impact

We have all seen the weakest golfers get stuck on the back foot, which makes low point control, compression of the ball and maintaining angles really difficult. The golf swing loads up, goes down (engages the ground) and then back up and through the shot. When you drift back and stay back, the golf shot becomes really difficult.

The best way to feel what this impact position feels like is to hit shots where you load up 60% of the weight on your front foot and then get to 90% at impact. Stop worrying about shifting weight with the wedges and get the weight forward. The compression you will get with this setup and swing will be impressive. Hit some 3 quarter shots with the weight forward to see how good this swing feels!

How to spin your wedges (5 Tips)

BONUS TIP: Create A Distance Chart

I would highly recommend each golfer create a distance chart like the sample below:

Club	Carry Distance (100%)	90%	80%
2 Utility Iron	210
4 iron	190
5 iron	181
6 iron	171
7 iron	163
8 iron	153
9 iron	143
P Club	130	123	115
Pitching Wedge	118	110	102
SW Club	105	97	91
LW Club	90	82	74

This might be the most important information you can use to help you play quality golf. I have heard so many stories and have seen it first hand where golfers completely over estimate how far they hit each iron.

They hit one 7 iron 165 yards one time and think this is their carry distance. So they step up to a 165 yard shot, hit the 7 iron and end up in a bunker. They blade it out of the bunker and are looking at a double bogey as their reality. Instead, if they had the right club and hit the 6 iron, their chance of hitting the middle of the green would increase greatly!

Why am I hitting my wedges so high?

How can you create your own chart?

Best Option: I would highly recommend a launch monitor!

These portable devices can be used at the driving range, golf course or set up in your home net or golf simulator. These devices are game changers not only on being able to map your bag and know your distances, but they also provide quality feedback after on every shot and provide the following information:

Carry Distance

Spin Rate
Launch Angle
Spin Axis

Total Distance
Ball Speed

This information will help you map your bag, decide on which clubs are best for your game, develop a stock shot and much more. I love using my SkyTrak 365 days a year in my golf simulator setup.

The process for mapping your bag can looking something like this:

Hit 5 shots with each club in your bag.
Log the carry distance and total distance for each shot.
Eliminate any outlier numbers (poor hits or low spin rates).

Take the average and create a map of your bag.

If you visit any PGA Tour event you will see plenty of golfers utilizing their launch monitors. While most can’t afford a Trackman, there are some very affordable options in the 500-2000 dollar range. I own the SkyTrak and think the world of it.

Here are the top 3 options to check out:

SkyTrak Launch Monitor

The perfect setup to take your game to the next level!

Final Thoughts

I would highly recommend using a golf launch monitor to help measure your clubface and your swing path. Once again, as these two numbers get too large of a gap, the golfer is going to fight the hook shot in golf. I purchased a Skytrak Launch Monitor several years ago and the feedback is rather impressive. After every shot, you can receive the following:

Carry and Total Distance
Spin Axis
Spin Rate

Swing Path
Launch Angle
Ball Speed

Club Speed

In addition, the shot tracer is rather helpful in getting feedback. If you understand the ball flight laws, the shot tracer gives you the immediate feedback about where your clubface was at impact as well as your swing path based on the curve of the ball.

Check Current Price of Skytrak Launch Monitor, Here!

My Secret To Golf Improvement

Let’s face it, in order to get really good at golf, we must practice frequently. About four years ago, I made the leap and invested in a golf simulator build for my garage. I went with a SkyTrak Launch Monitor and the TGC software and can now play over 100,000 courses including Augusta, Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black, Whistling Straits. St. Andrews and many other of the top 100 courses in the world.

This golf simulator setup, which is more affordable that you might imagine, has been a game changer. I can now play golf everyday of the year regardless of rain, snow, cold weather or time of day. I can practice or play rounds of golf. I can stand in the 11th fairway at Augusta and with the auto-rewind feature I am able to practice my approach shots from various differences.

It is worth checking out through Rain or Shine Golf as they offer some incredible packages along with financing offers that are difficult to beat.

Some direct links to Rain or Shine Golf for pricing and financing:

Rain or Shine Golf Packages

Take Action – What You Can Do Today to Get Better

What does this mean for you? I believe in the following recipe to get better:

1 – Improve your motion in the golf swing by identifying a golf instructor. Here are some options:

Here is a list of golf instructors that we have reviewed:

2 – Train to swing faster and improve your swing speed. Here are some options:

Looking to gain more Speed and Distance in your swing. Two Options:

3 – Understand course strategy and work to break through your next barrier. Here is a series on breaking through:

We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.

4 – Practice Frequently

Did you know that I build a golf simulator in my garage and have played over 500 rounds of golf on my SkyTrak system? It has been a game changer and one worth checking out. Here are some of my other posts on golf simulators frequently asked questions: