Giving Your Ball a Wedgie

Everybody knows what a wedgie is, right? In case you don't, Wikipedia has a rather... dispassionate description of the crime, complete with pictures (who in their right mind poses for a picture of a wedgie?):

A wedgie occurs when a person's nether underwear or other garments are wedged between the buttocks. While a wedgie can be created naturally, the term is usually associated with a prank or as a form of bullying. When a person is on the receiving end of a wedgie, his or her underwear is forcibly pulled up by a second person.

That's the image that popped into my mind when I read about this unusual technique of hitting a high spinning wedge shot from the rough when you've shortsided yourself. It's much easier to link you to the golf.com video "Get the Drop on Short Pitches" than to try and describe it. (Hopefully it's embedded properly right here.)



It's that jerking motion at the end of the shot that reminds me of a wedgie.

Scott Munroe's technique is definitely not the kind of thing you're likely to see from the big name teachers, but it's not out of character for some of the shots you see the pros try. The high points from the video are:

• Use your lob wedge
• Stand closer to the ball
• Open your stance slightly
• Put more weight on your lead foot
• Lift the club sharply
• Chop down on the ball but instead of swinging through...
• "Recoil" the club as soon as you hit the ball and ground

You should definitely practice this before you try it on the course, but it looks like it might eliminate those shots where you go completely under the ball.