In the fall of 2020 I ordered the TaylorMade MyMG2 wedges in 52, 56 and 60. No customization.
Friday, March 19th, 2021
Today I finally peeled off the wrapping of the wedges I ordered several months ago. Going through the swing change with Patrick meant I had no reason to attempt to learn how to hit wedges. Now that my swing is getting closer and closer to “play ready” I asked Patrick to start the process of learning how to hit wedges and pitch shots. After unwrapping the wedges Patrick hit a few himself to get a feel for the 52 degree wedge. He then told me to close my eyes and grip the club with my normal grip (short left thumb, grip on the outside pad of my left hand). He then told me to open my eyes.
He explained that the club may look a little bit shut or could look to have a closed face but we need to get used to hitting low shots with wedges before we start pitch shots or flop shots. After doing this, I set up to the ball with my feet together and pointed towards 2nd base. Patrick told me to spread my feet a little bit. I hit my first chip and actually hit it quite well. I am now getting used to the right lat driving into the ball so I hit a low drive shot about 20 yards. Patrick told me to take it back a little bit further. I did, hit the ball well and a little longer. He told me to take it back even further. This time I took the club face back to a little past hip high and hit a pretty good, low flighted pitch shot.
Patrick wants to start working on chipping, pitching and flop shots with the wedges on Fridays. I will document this journey. If you want to understand more about how I got here and my full swing check out this page.
Friday, March 26th, 2021
During the chipping/pitching part of the lesson today we got some distances with the Mevo golf simulator app. Patrick wants me to keep the trajectory lower with my 52 degree wedge when first learning. Patrick had me set up to the ball in the normal bent at the hips setup. He then turned my core then my upper thoracic to about half way with the club face staying outside my hands. We did this about five times then he wants me to hit some pitches.
Four of the five pitches were very crisp and the contact was great. If I can keep my head stable and not let it fall forward on the backswing, I really hit my pitches well and with a low trajectory. All of my pitches went between 38 and 44 yards. I missed one a little bit and hit it thin. Patrick wanted to get a baseline for the distance of a lower trajectory pitch so we can work from that. Overall, I was very pleased with the contact of my 52 degree wedge.
Friday, April 9th, 2021
With today being a Friday it was a day to practice wedge shots. Patrick told me to get my 56 degree wedge and we were going to focus more on chipping rather than pitching this week. I was to get in my normal setup but have my feet at a 30 degree angle towards the target. Patrick started the backswing with my lower left side and made sure the club face stayed outside my hands. As we approached about hip height with the wedge Patrick hinged my wrists a little bit while forcing my elbows to remain soft and in.
Then, he started the downswing with my lower right side and held the club so I kept the hinge. After impact he pulled the shaft of the club back towards my body. The club is basically horizontal to the ground and what feels like behind my hands. We repeated this five times and I chipped some balls. I actually hit some really good chips. We did this entire process one more time before working on the full swing.
