Wedge Fitting Re-Visited

The United States Golf Academy was recently named by Golf Digest Magazine as one of the Top 100 club-fitters in the United States. If there is a reason we were chosen for this honor I think it is simply this. We have assembled a group of excellent golf instructors who understand that you can’t have a conversation about how to swing a golf club without knowing something about the playing characteristics of the club. Nowhere is that more evident than with the wedges you play and yet they are often overlooked during the fitting process.

When buying new clubs, the wedges should be fit in a separate process. The reasons to do so are basic. First, we use the wedges for shots covering a broad range of distances. Where the variance might be +/- 7 or 8 yards with an iron, it could be as much as 25 yards with a wedge. Second, we make a variety of different swings to achieve the distance controls we seek. Outside - in cut shots, inside - out paths for low spinning shots to the green, steep or shallow angles of attack depending on lie and shot requirements. Our ability to hit these shots requires perfect clubface control.

The ball flies where the face of the club is pointed at impact. When the face of the club is tilted the effect on the ball is magnified. The more it is tilted the greater the effect. The effect on the ball flight of a wedge that is too upright or too flat is exaggerated due to the increase in loft. As a review, because of the tilted plane of the wedge, how that plane is tilted will influence the direction the ball leaves the club and also how the ball spins.



Most golfers play with wedges that are too upright. So for a normal shot and swing they get a ball flight that is often left of the target. If they don’t have the knowledge of club dynamics and how the dynamics change with the fit, they often compensate by turning the face open thinking the pull was caused by a closed face. Some will reroute the club on a bigger path to the right, which is the recipe for a shank, but that is another story for another day. Unfortunately, by opening the face, they also increase the amount of loft the club has at impact. The result is a straight shot high that flies shorter than expected due to the increase in loft. Unfortunately, by opening the face you also flatten the lie angle of the club. You can see this at home. Take your sand wedge and lay the club head flat on the ground with the leading edge of the face straight away from you. Now rotate the club head in a clockwise manner (opposite for lefties) and watch the face open. If you keep the club flat on the ground you will notice your hand drops lower and lower as you open the club. Why would this be a problem? Lie angles are usually tested by striking a ball off a board and then looking to see where the board marks the golf club. A wedge that is too upright, with an open face to compensate, will mark the sole of the club as if it is a perfect fit. So we keep playing at a disadvantage because we think we have the correct fit, blaming our lack of talent when it is really a club fit issue.

More Important, Direction or Speed?

A ball goes into the hole because two requirements have been achieved. First, the ball is traveling in the correct direction. Second, it is moving at the proper speed. The speed and direction the ball travels is determined in that fraction of a second the ball is on the face as the putter collides with the ball. At that brief moment all the other concepts used to describe the putting motion are of little importance unless they deal directly with the moment of impact. So to create our own strategy we must focus on those two factors, Direction and Distance and the parameters at impact that influence them.

A constant topic of discussion at the United States Golf Academy is from a strategic standpoint when putting, what is more important? Distance or Direction. A quick search on the internet will produce all the opinions you could ever want on the subject and all are valid points of view. However, for a player trying to develop a method or technique, it is very important you start with controlling direction.
There are a number of myths and legends about how the ball comes off the putter. These are mostly created by product marketing. Golfer's have a tendency to romanticize putting, when it simply is a collision of a moving object with a stationary one. Since the ball is on the face for such a limited time there isn’t much that happens. The ball moves from the impact depending on where the face of the putter was pointed and how fast it was moving. If the direction or speed changes after impact it is totally due to forces beyond the player’s control. So it is imperative that we control what we can.

When building a putting stroke we have to start with the issues dealing with direction. Controlling direction requires an understanding of the mechanics of the stroke. As you build your method, it is much more efficient to address the two issues in this order, direction first, and then speed. Why? Because how fast the putter is moving has no influence on direction the ball leaves the putter. However, how the face is delivered to the ball has a large influence on how fast the ball leaves the putter. Our putting study has shown clearly that with the putter moving at the same exact speed, how far the ball rolls will vary depending on other variables to impact. The primary factor is the vertical angle of the face at impact, or the loft. The loft is influenced by a number of factors, how much on the putter to start with, and have you done something to alter that number at impact. This can be done by changing the angle of the shaft at impact. Toward the target reduces loft, away from the target increases the loft. Another influence is where the face is pointed relative to the direction their putter is moving. As always the explanation is complicated, but for the player, we have learned if we can control these variables to control direction, the adjustments needed for speed are much easier to learn.

The moral to the story is this. If you are a winter practicer, work as hard as you can to understand what makes the ball start on line. Spend no time worrying about speed. Feel for speed is a constant adjustment because conditions change on a daily basis, but if we understand direction we are prepared to make the adjustments.

Tiger Putting Problems

In 2006 I saw PuttLab reports for Tiger Woods. A bunch of them.

His stroke was exactly on line at impact, the shaft was straight up and down and he struck the ball exactly at the bottom of the arc of his stroke. His goal was for a vertical shaft angle and 3.5 degrees of loft at impact. He was robotic in his ability to do that.

I have read twice in the past two weeks that he now hits up on the ball in excess of 4 degrees. This could be in an attempt to use the Method at 2 degrees loft, in order to get the ball rolling. Or it could be he drank the "Kool Aid" that says that hitting up on the ball when you putt, gives you "top spin" which means a better roll, so you will make more putts, and then you will win the lottery….. and all the other promises marketers make to sell putters. It is not a better or more efficient way and here is why I believe that.

The following is a PuttLab report of Iron Archie using a perfect arc. While it isn't an exact duplicate of Tiger's stroke it is very close and will help show the issues of trying to hit up on a putt.





The diagram shows the side view of an arc. The black dots stacked over each other are the ball position. The single black square to the left would be the ball position required to hit up on the ball 4 degrees! The bottom picture shows the measurements of shaft lean and rise angle. So impact in this example was at the bottom of the arc and shaft position is vertical just as Tiger was looking for in 2006.


This picture shows the players view of the path that corresponds with the picture above. This is the classic arc many try to achieve. The black spot on the left notes the impact point required for 4 degrees (approximately) up, with no change in posture or setup. Remember you can't change the posture or setup without changing the stroke.

Note the direction of the path at the impact point 4 degrees up. One characteristic of the robot is that the putter always swings square to the path. Square to the path at 4 degrees up is left! So you must either swing the putter open to the path to stay square to the line as you hit up (what most players do) or adjust the path. When Tiger releases the putter the face is closed to the path. So with this stroke he is really fighting the pull.

Puttlab shows that most of us hit up. In 2006 and the next couple of years later, Tiger was the best putter ever, certainly better than the pros used in the initial PuttLab studies that showed hitting up on the ball. Isn't it possible they should have copied what was working for him?

So based on a face slightly closed to the path, as anyone would have with the thought of releasing the putter, here is the where the direction of the path would have to be to strike the ball as the putter swings 4 degrees up. You have to tilt the arc to suit impact.




I know some players with paths this shape who are great putters. But they have used it forever and they understand the issues and requirements.

Perfect Stroke needs the Perfect Putter

A portion of everyday, at the United States Golf Academy, is spent trying to help people improve their putting. Most come to us in search for a perfect stroke, one that would never miss. If they can’t have perfect they will settle for a “better way”. Such as, “there must be a better way than the method I currently use.” The mechanics of a perfect putting stroke are fairly easy to achieve. Hold your hands in front of you as if you were praying, with your elbows pointed at your hips. Bend from the hips until your fingers are pointed at the tips of your toes. At this point you can adjust the bend of your elbows to make yourself more comfortable. Some of us bend better than others. Now swing your hands back and through on a straight path. In essence, that is all you need to make a perfect stroke. I have never met a player who could not perform this task and do it every time. We all have a perfect stoke. However, there are key elements missing, the relationship of this stroke to the target, the location of the ball relative to where you are standing and how you connect the hands to the ball, or the putter we use.














Every putting stroke we make is a random event and our success or failure is not necessarily determined by whether we are using a perfect stroke. Even with the perfect stroke, a holed putt is still achieved based on how we deal with the other parameters involved. How we position ourselves for the task and whether we can perform based on our preparation and not as a reaction to the ball while the putter is in motion. In other words, can you use your perfect stroke or do you have to compensate as the putter is in motion or even worse, do you think you need to compensate? To use our perfect stroke, we need to make the correct visual decisions. We have to choose the right target. We have to position our bodies in such a way so our perspective of the target does not change when we move to a side on position. We must have the correct position of the golf club relative to the body and the ball, so the club swings in the direction and speed intended. In a perfect scenario, once the visual decisions are made the stroke becomes a mechanical function, our perfect stroke. Over the past years we have discovered this connection between hands and ball, and the design of the putter, has the most influence on how the stroke is eventually made. In a 4 year study using PuttLab technology to measure in excess of 15,000 strokes one indisputable conclusion is that people change their putting stroke based on the putter in their hands. So once the posture and position is determined we have discovered that not only are the correct dimensions critical, but also there are putter designs that better suit the position you create. When the correct putter is found the compensations we once thought we needed are eliminated and we can use the perfect stroke we all know we have.

Artist or Engineer?

At the United States Golf Academy we have a staged area, set up for putting analysis. Every student working with the Academy, involved in a putting discussion, works from here. It is a huge benefit to us as instructors to see each player under the exact same circumstance. Trends and similarities start to become apparent. For example, how people approach the task of putting can easily be placed into two distinct groups.

We have come to the conclusion that golfer’s fall into two groups from an analytical standpoint of how they approach the task of putting. I call them the Artists or the Engineers.

The Artists are the big picture people. They approach the task of putting in its entirety, rather than the sum of a step by step process. Details often annoy them and they seem to prefer simple over complicated. These players often have a great feel for distance but struggle with direction. Often their strokes are long and free flowing, and combined with their occasional struggles with direction, they have a tendency to struggle with short putts.

The Engineers prefer order and are detail oriented. They see the world in straight lines, right angles and prefer accurate reference points. Their liking of detail is often reflected in their putters, big lines and clear reference points, and their thoughts about the stroke path shape. This is the straight back and straight through group, with controlled backswing and follow through lengths. These players are usually very good on short putts but struggle with longer putts as their natural tendency is to focus on line over speed.

One way we use to help determine the category a player fits is to simply ask them to hit some putts with their eyes closed. For the artist this is no problem, for the engineer this task creates an anxious feeling and a loss of control.

Understanding how these personality traits apply to you is an important first step in building your strategy and technique for putting. It is extremely important to not try to do something that doesn’t fit your personality. It is amazing to watch golfers as they try to do something outside their comfort zone. The frustration and anxiety is measureable. Much more important is to learn how to deal with the inherent weaknesses, not from change, but from knowledge. The grass is never greener on the other side. Take the Artist who struggles with shorter putts, or the Engineer who struggles with distance control, asking them to use techniques that don’t suit their personality is a recipe for disaster. They might be able to do it but they are fighting you every inch of the way. Eventually the inner self wins out and they get worse instead of better.

So which one are you?

When I was employed by Science and Motion, the builders of PuttLab, we spent some time consulting with a well known putter manufacturer. They were using PuttLab to determine the influence their putters might have on players and their putting strokes. They had purchased a putting robot to use the measured results as a baseline for the test groups. One afternoon I got a phone call from the company complaining that our equipment was off. They had hooked PuttLab to the putting robot and got the following results.















At the top we are looking at the position of the putter relative to the red target line. You can see it was perfectly square. The Path View shows the putter swinging on a path about 4 degrees to the right of the target line. The end result is the putter sqaure to the target but 4.4 degrees closed to the putter path. The representative of the company said that the system must be off as the path direction was not perfectly straight and all the putts had gone into the hole. This was very distressing to a company who spent a great deal of money promoting a sqaure to the path putting stroke. I explained to the technician that the robot made all 5 putts was no surprise. Since the face at impact is 4 times more influential on direction than path, with a perfect face on a 10 foot putt it would take a path of 6 degrees right or more for the putt to miss to the right. He had set the robot up to the target line without any calibration and then he attached the putter so it was perfectly square to the target line. The results were 5 made putts but not from a “perfect” stroke. With this explanation he was able to meet the needs of the company, but with a little less belief in the system. Moral of the story focus on face position and let the path take care of itself.

Corked Bat.

The summer of 1994 was the season of the “corked bat” controversy in Major League baseball. Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians had been caught using a bat that had been hollowed out and the cavity of the bat, filled with cork. It was thought that this adjustment caused the ball to jump off the bat with greater speed than a conventional bat and was in violation of Major League Baseball rules. This controversy was a topic of conversation around the country for a period of time; certainly it was at Latrobe Country Club.

During a round of golf with Mr. Palmer and the usual suspects, AP asked no one in particular what would happen if he corked one of his wooden drivers. While guys laughed and joked, I thought it over and said, “I seriously think you need to try it.” Mr. Palmer no longer smiling replied, “Yeah, I think so too.” Nothing else was said about it and to be honest by the end of the round I was thinking more about my own play and not much about modifying a driver.

The next morning I made my usual stop at the workshop. As I walked in the office I could hear a drill running back in the shop. “What are you working on Boss?” “I am corking this driver,” was the reply. He had taken the sole plate off one of his Peerless drivers and drilled a hole at least an inch and a half in diameter and about an inch deep. He then epoxied cork in the new cavity. You might find it strange he had cork readily available, but I am witness that this was the best stocked golf shop in history. If Mr. Palmer didn’t have it, it wasn’t needed.
He left town that day for a tournament and the following Monday during our weekly practice session it became time to hit the drivers. Grabbing the “modified” driver he hit the first shot. Over the years I had worked for him I had seen him hit thousands for drivers from the same spot, in the same direction and the only comment I had after the first swing was “Whoa.” The ball flew farther out onto the range than any drive I had ever seen him hit. The look on his face was priceless. My best description would be the look of a five year old at Christmas.

Over the years I have come to understand exactly why the driver worked as well as it did. The industry has caught up by offering longer drivers with lighter heads. We are really seeing a lot of that for next season. What the industry, as well as the consumer will find, is that there is a good fit and too much of a good thing is worse in many ways than not enough. The next version of the corked driver broke because the head was weakened by drilling a hole twice as large as the original. He also found he had a difficult time on windy days using a club head lighter than the first. The original version was perfect and became his tournament driver, or gamer, until it was replaced by a titanium head a few years later. That titanium head weighed and was balanced exactly the same as the corked driver, by the way.