So, you want to figure out those dreaded wedges which pros make look easy, but every weekend round you play, you get nervous over the ball. Well, here we’ll really get to understanding the basics of wedge play and how you can start to gain confidence.

In this article, we will explore the differences in shots inside and outside of 30 yards, and shots with your full wedge swing. We’ll learn the basic setup for bunkers and how to finally get out in one shot, not three! Then, we will explore the design of wedges and how equipment can help or hurt your game, and begin to learn how to optimize your wedges.

It is an amazing skill, but I truly believe that everyone can learn to hit amazing wedge shots, just like the tour pros I practice and play with day in day out. So, try to really digest the information here and enjoy the journey of creating a great wedge game.

1. The Basic Pitching Motion

In golf, a pitch is a shot that carries in the air further than it rolls on the green. Whereas a chip is a golf shot that rolls longer than it is in the air.

A pitch can be used in many different circumstances: for instance, hitting a golf ball over a bunker to a pin; hitting the ball to a flag that may have heavy rough in front; to carry over any mound or area you can't roll the ball through; and many more areas of the short game.

Basically, what we are defining is a shot that gets in the air, lands at a certain spot, and then rolls close to the golf hole. Sounds simple, but how do we achieve this cool shot that the pros hit all the time?

The first steps are: understanding how to use our body to hit a softer golf shot than a 300-yard drive; and setting ourselves up to use the loft on our club.

When I refer to the word loft, I'm referencing the angle the club has at address. On wedges that say “60 degrees,” that means at address; and with the club not moving, there is 60 degrees of loft to get the ball up in the air.

Next, we want to take power out of this shot and instead maximize control. So, what we do is set our feet only about six inches apart. This decreases a large power shift and helps us use the rotation of our body to slow the golf ball down.

Place the ball in the center of your stance (once we get into specialty shots, we can move the ball position, but for now right between the feet is perfect). Further, we want the golf shaft to sit more vertically. I don't mind a tad bit of forward shaft lean, but remember we want nice and soft shots, not hard shots, so this more vertical shaft will achieve that outcome.

Check out the pictures above to see the proper pitching set up and notice the difference between a full shot and a pitching shot setup.

Now the motion is pretty simple, because what we are going to do is create a pivot with the body. It will feel like the hands aren't very active and the body rotates forward and back through the golf ball. At the finish, the chest is almost pointing directly to the target. Imagine a laser pointer fixed directly in the center of your chest. You move that pointer around your body to the right (for right-handed golfers; opposite for lefties), then to the golf ball, and then to the target.

The best drill to master this motion is the trail arm drill. Get into your pitching stance then remove your lead hand (left hand for righties). Now the club seems like it weighs double, so you are forced to use your larger muscles to move it. Make small swings with just your trail arm and notice where you finish and how open to the target you are. That is the perfect pivot for a beautiful, soft pitch shot. Add the other hand back on and try to feel the same pivot and motion—that’s the stock pitching motion.

2. The Basic Bunker Setup

Setup is key to understanding how to get the ball out of the bunker and to begin to hit really solid shots from this difficult lie. In the bunker, we want to first build a solid base. I prefer a wider stance and to lower the handle of the club to really sit into the shot, which helps to get the club sliding through the sand.

You want some weight forward, so put about 60–70 percent of it on your lead leg. Then, assume a square stance parallel to the target. You don't want to be open, because you want to release the golf club and not drag it through the sand.

The ball position is about two balls forward of center. Next, open the club face up to expose the bottom of the golf club. This bounce—which we’ll discuss later—is what's going to slide through the sand and under the golf ball.

An effective drill to practice this setup is to learn to hit a bunker shot with your 8 iron. By doing so, you're forced into a good setup—with a longer club and less loft, you instinctively know you need to lower the grip handle and open the face. By lowering that grip, you will get a wider stance and a solid base with a ton of loft on the club to hit it somewhat higher. Afterwards, when you grab your sand wedge, you will love how much loft there is.

Lastly, it’s important to take a pretty full swing in order to learn to hit behind the ball. But why would we hit behind the golf ball in the bunker? Well, in the sand, we don't want to hit the ball directly, because the sand is so soft that the club would dig into it instead of slide through it. If we hit behind the ball a tad and use the bounce to slide through the sand, the golf ball comes out soft and predictable. With this set up, you will be able to release the shot properly—well on your way to hitting tour-caliber bunker shots.

3. 5 Wood or Hybrid Chip

Whether it's ego or pride, the hybrid chip for beginners is not utilized nearly enough. As a beginner, I would recommend using this shot anytime you are around the green and it's pretty flat to the pin.

The golf ball comes out with some overspin and a little loft to get through the fairway or a small amount of rough. It will roll out just like a putt, so you can easily predict this and not mess around with fat or thin chips over the green.

The setup is very similar to a putt. I recommend gripping down on the shaft about an inch for control and leaning a little forward—about 60 percent—on the lead foot. From there, use the same putting motion—you can literally even use your putting grip in this. It’s a very safe shot to help you save par and move onto the next hole.

4. What Is Bounce and How Can it Help You

Bounce refers to the bottom of the wedge. And the greats say, “bounce is your friend!”

As you can see in the photo, the bounce of the club gives you a “safety net” and is the part of the club that is gliding through the ground.

The leading edge of the cub goes first. Then, with that great pivot motion, the bounce is engaged and slides through the grass—helping players to not get stuck in the ground.

This gives you a margin for error; because if for some reason you don't catch the golf ball perfectly clean, the club will still slide through the turf, and you can still have a pretty decent golf shot. A pretty cool design!

5. Distance Wedge Setup

Let's go over a shot that we can hit from about 40 yards all the way to the full pitching wedge distance. The goal of this distance wedge shot is to control spin and produce a lower trajectory. So it has a totally different objective and setup than our inside-30-yard pitching motion we talked about earlier.

We want to incorporate a small power shift here, so set up with the feet about shoulder width apart, ball in the center of the stance, and with a little shaft lean to help with lowering the ball flight. I don't mind a little weight forward, but nothing more than 55/45 in favor of the forward leg.

The swing itself is full with a small shift and rotation through the golf ball. It has either a controlled finish or a full finish—depending on how high you want to hit the golf ball.

6. 2–3 Distances per Wedge

Once beginners start to make solid contact on their distance wedge swing, they need to be able to control how far they hit the golf ball. In this area of the game, dispersion left and right is not as wide and long, so we want to make sure we are coming close to the pin—even with our pitching wedge.

A good method for beginners to achieve this is to have two different swings for each wedge: a full swing and a half swing. Whatever you feel is your half swing is fine, as long as it is consistent with each wedge. So, if you have 2–4 wedges, that's 4–16 average distance yardages that you have practiced and are very comfortable with hitting when you're on the course.

7. Expectations

This is a word that needs to be thoroughly understood by beginners. It’s important to understand just how hard the game of golf is. Sometimes, for a beginner, just hitting the green from 40–140 yards is a great shot.

Managing expectations when you may not be in a great position is key to helping you from getting frustrated. Imagine being behind a bunker and having to hit the ball over the bunker to a pin that's five yards behind. That's a hard shot for the tour professionals, let alone you. Understanding that if you’re just trying your best, even getting the ball over the bunker is an amazing shot that should gain you a ton of confidence. Stay patient in this game and work hard. But don’t be too hard on yourself!

8. Playing Out of the Rough

As a beginner, this area is where the game gets much more difficult. Remember, as we discussed above, to manage your expectations. Sometimes, just getting the ball on the green for a putt is a good shot.

The key to playing in the rough is looking at the lie and putting weight forward—because a steeper swing is necessary to make the ball pop out. With 70 percent on the front foot, you can make the correct pitching motion. Because of this weight forward, it will help you get more steep to get the ball out of the rough. You also have to swing harder based on the density of the rough, so take some practice swings to check.

9. Equipment

Most club sets will come with a pitching wedge at 46–48 degrees of loft. I usually also recommend carrying a sand wedge at 54–56 degrees of loft to learn how to use it in bunkers.

A lob wedge is, in my opinion, a higher-level wedge for the intermediate to advanced player. So adding that, along with a gap wedge (50–52 degree), can come later.

Understanding how much bounce you need is also important. For a beginner, I would recommend 12–16 degrees of bounce in your sand wedge. This degree of bounce can help you as you learn how to pitch the golf ball and master the short game.

Final Thoughts

Understanding good ball contact and beginning to learn wedge skills can lead you down a road to having an elite-level short game. As you begin your journey, take your time and learn to ask for help if you get frustrated. Ask a Curated Expert for customized equipment recommendations, or seek out a local PGA professional for wedge education. Have fun on this journey, get out there, practice, and love shooting lower scores!