Dave Pelz SHOWS You How to Pick the Right Bounce

A couple of days back I did a post on matching your sand wedge to the sand you're playing from. Today I'm going to expand that to playing off hardpan, fairway, and rough.

Here's a link to a golf.com video by Dave Pelz that actually shows you up-close how the wedge contacts the ball in different lies. (I'd embed the video but golf.com won't allow it. But I snagged the still below so you can see what he's doing.) This video is nice because Dave actually shows you how the ball lies on different types of surfaces and how the bounce affects contact with the ball when the shaft is vertical to the ground AND when the face is square or open (to get extra height).



The basic things to learn here are:

• The best contact happens when the ball contacts the club face between the 4th and 5th grooves. (Again, he actually shows what this looks like.)
• When choosing loft, the distance you want to hit the shot only matters if you can get that best contact. Otherwise, use the club that gives you best contact (or as close as you can get) and then control distance with the length of your swing.
• On hardpan you can't get the best contact, even with low bounce, so you take what you can get, which means use low bounce. Anything else results in a skulled shot.
• On tight fairways use low bounce.
• On normal fairways -- about 1/2" of grass under the ball -- use medium bounce.
• In light rough -- about 1" of grass under the ball -- use high bounce. Low bounce will go right under the ball.
• And of course you use high bounce for anything taller than light rough.

Watch the video a few times to make sure you get it. This can save you a lot of strokes from skulled or fluffed shots.