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.
On the full swing, Patrick continues to tinker and polish. The main thing he focused on today was getting my right lat to drive while holding my left shoulder stable. Basically, the right lat should feel like it is driving into the left shoulder which gets the club to impact. The left shoulder should not lift to get the club to impact. After impact, everything now feels like it is exiting stage left and low while the club stays in front of my chest. It is now much easier to keep my left shoulder low and let it “spin” after impact.
There are still many little things I need to work on, but overall I have improved a great deal this week. Patrick hooked up the Mevo so I could get a few distances. They are:
9 iron – 156 yards
7 iron – 177 yards
My 8 iron is a mess because I hate the grip on it and the Mevo did not track my 6 iron which I hit really well a few times. I am getting my clubs regripped at Golf Galaxy over the weekend so I should be able to get some distances for pitching wedge all the way through 6 iron. This will be useful before the Patrick Kelley Shootout on Wednesday, April 14th, 2021. Honestly, I have no idea how I am going to play but I am going to have fun.
