It's this new, modern-high end and wanna be high end super-cut that starts about 40 yards short of a green-on an older thatchier fairway often the approach grass is replaced with a modern super short grass mowed by a separate mower-There is a distinct drop from fairway height to approach height where a 45 yard shot is played off a "fairway" lie and a 35 yard shot is played off a super tight, thatchless monostand(often because it's new) where the ONLY way to hit the center of the club is to take a divot because of the height of cut.
Okay Jeff, I know I'm on pretty thin ice here talking about golf technique to a pro with your credentials, but I'm a pretty damned good pitcher and chipper and I have a theory about equipment that applies here.
I think that "modern" wedges, especially the 58- to 60-degree ones, are too light and don't have enough bounce. I attribute this (perhaps wrongly) to the pervasive influence of Tour pros.
I have (had) a pretty big collection of wedges going back to 1930s and for the most part the wedges that were bringing big money in l70s and early 80s were either 1930s Wilsons or 50s and 60s Wilsons and Hagens.
When I was at the 1970 U.S Open at Hazeltine I was already a club geek and my informal survey of bags indicated that more than 75% of the bags I looked in had those wedges, regardless of the player's sponsorship.
Since I have several of them, and looked at weights and bounce. Almost without exception they swingweight at D8-9 or higher. And they also have a LOT of bounce.
I attribute this mostly to the heavy sand most courses had in their bunkers. But the lack of bounce is also big factor in the shot you are talking about.
As you said, hitting a shot off that stuff almost requires a divot, and it better be PERFECTLY taken if you don't want a chunked or bladed shot. That's with low-bounce wedges everyone says you need for those shots.
But I used to play at a course with bare, rock hard gumbo around EVERY green. I didn't hit many greens so I had to figure out a solution to the problem.
It turned out that I wasn't good enough to use a zero-bounce wedge everyone espoused. BUT I experimented until I found that with more bounce I could hit down HARD on those shots and use the bounce to skid the club head under the ball.
I could even hit a ball off a cart path with that swing.
SO... back on your topic. I don't disagree that shaving approaches has gotten out of hand, but I believe the pro's difficulties with that shot would be greatly reduced if they looked at how good players in 60s and 70s dealt with hardpan and bare lies.
Open the face on a high-bounce wedge and drive it under the ball. It's like hitting a sand shot.
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Like I said, I'm probably on thin ice here, but I have ~40 years of experience playing that shot and it works WAY better than the commonly accepted method.[size=78%]
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