Short Game Secrets would like to try and answer this question along with some others. How much of a role does technique play on creating that low launching, high spin shot?

One of the concerns mentioned by coaches is whether or not the low launching wedge shot is a better alternative for the club player than a higher launching shot with a steeper landing angle to stop the ball. It's a fair question and one that should be looked at seriously. Recently, information has been presented to suggest that the higher shot would stop the ball faster than the lower shot and we thought we would do a similar test to see what we could find out.

Our results didn't match as our data suggested that the lower launching shot stopped closer to the landing point than the higher one. This test is described in the video below but while we were testing for that, we found something we felt was even more interesting.

In our data, we really struggled to get the ball to launch high regardless of the technique (while not rotating the face open). A square face at address with forward ball position and fast overtaking rates couldn't produce a higher launch assuming a good strike. It required us to put something on the face to get a higher launch.

This got us thinking. Is the 30º launch something that just happens with a new premium wedge, premium ball, tight lie and adequate technique or did it require something special? How important is the lie to the final launch conditions and thusly the final outcome?

This short little video attempts to touch on these subjects. Hope you enjoy it and please feel free to share it around.

Mobile users: Click Here-----> Can You Buy That Elusive 30º Launch Angle with a Sand Wedge?

I recently posted a blog entitled "The Premium Balls Test" that included a video discussing the results of 6 premium balls tested against one another to determine if there really is a difference between the balls we are convinced to spend hard earned money on, if you'd like to refresh your memory on what happened you can view it here

This generated a lot of interest and I promised that by mid May I would reveal the wildcard ball that is not in the premium ball price range yet outperformed almost all of them.

So here we are, it's mid May!

And the surprise package is.... TaylorMade Project (a)

TaylorMade Project (a) - UK Website

TaylorMade Project (a) - US Website

So TaylorMade have produced a ball that is long off the tee & very soft around the greens, in fact they have produced a ball that should shake up the premium ball market forever and here's why..

I'm not sure why anyone would choose the more expensive balls (even from the same manufacturer) when this is available at almost half the price, what reason could there possibly be besides ego? Remind yourself when you next buy balls that this game is ALL about performance and this ball out performs the majority, if however you derive confidence from playing a more expensive ball then that is also going to enhance performance so that might be the way for you.

Just do me a favour and try these balls out, would love to hear your thoughts (you might even thank me!).

Attention Golf Consumers:

As a player, I've long wondered whether or not there are any significant differences between premium golf balls around the green. Certainly, there are differences off the tee but what happens when the shots become shorter and impact is less explosive? Does the technology that costs millions pay off for you the golfer? 

I decided to make a short video to show you the differences I found amongst a small group of premium golf balls (in the $40, £40/dozen price range and higher). The conclusions I drew are easily understandable and will hopefully make a difference to your ball selection so you get the most out of your game going forward.

Are you really getting what you are paying for and can a better more informed decision be made that best fits your needs and preferences. Most importantly, for some of you, can I get premium performance without the premium price. This video will provide some information to help answer these questions. We can't give you the names of the golf balls just yet but take a look and see what we have to share then stay tuned for the final answer coming later in May.

At Short Game Secrets, our mission is to provide you with the information you may not find anywhere else and help you, the player and consumer, get the most of your time and hard earned money.

Click Here to view on mobile

We recently asked on Twitter what our followers thought was the best short game shot of all time. Here in Part One of a new series we take a look at Tiger Woods' incredible hole out from behind the 16th green at Memorial, it was truly spectacular and an extremely good example of using your set up to improve the probability of a good result. Something we here at Short Game Secrets place a lot of stock in, we hope you enjoy it and maybe let us know your favourite shot of all time.

Greatest Short Game Shots of All Time - Tiger Woods

James

Who has the best wedge game on tour? I don’t think many people would look past Tiger as having the best wedge game on the PGA Tour yet in 2012 Tiger was officially average on all shots up to 100 yards from both sand and grass. In fact, he was average in all the sub categories also, barely gaining or losing any strokes to the average PGA Tour player performance in these categories.

Wedge play has been separated into 5 categories; 0-20 yards, 20-60 yards, 60-100 yards and sand shots from 0-50 yards & 50-100 yards. In the video accompanying this blog I've taken a look at the leaders in the three 'from grass' categories to identify a few points that enable them to have led their respective categories, I think you'll see that the styles are very different and lend themselves to a particular type of shot which offers a partial explanation as to why they excel in some areas yet struggle in others.

The leaders of the 5 categories were:

0-20 yards: Charlie Wi

 20-60 yards: Trevor Immelman

60-100 yards: Brian Gay

Sand 0-50: Chris DiMarco

Sand 50-100: Sung Kang

I hope you enjoy the video

Masters of the Wedge Game Video

James

We are excited to be offering a Vokey Wedge of your choice as a prize as a thank you for your support in the successful launch of the Short Game Secrets project.

Why Vokey? Well the Vokey SM4's led the wedge testing discussed in the All Wedges Are Not Created Equal blog, generating amongst the highest levels of spin from the fairway and retaining the most spin from the rough. As discussed in the Science of Spin blog the surface between the grooves is a large factor in spin creation with the modern wedge and Vokey have the process perfected.

"The Rules of Golf allow for surface roughness within the impact area of a golf club. The micro-edges created on the face of Vokey Design SM4 wedges using our patented Spin Milled process are one example. Parameters set forth by the governing bodies dictate the maximum allowable roughness across a specified surface area as well as the maximum allowable depth of any markings. When compared against alternative milling processes, Spin Milled wedges have approximately three times the roughness across the specified surface area with similar milling depths. In Titleist R&D testing, this equates to 22% more spin on partial wedge shots using Spin Milled wedges." 

There are three ways to enter:

1) All purchases of the 5 Video Set made between January 1st and Feb 14th will be automatically entered into the prize draw. 

2) Anyone who has already purchased the 5 Video Set can enter by leaving a review of the content in the comments section here, don't forget to leave your name with the comment! 

3) Share a link to the ShortGameSecrets.tv website with a recommendation via Social Media, don't forget to hashtag #shortgamesecrets if using twitter and include either John or myself in Facebook posts so we know they exist!

So there you go, the first of many competitions designed to say thank you and enhance your short game at the same time. You need to be in it to win it!

As a follow up to the All Wedges Are Not Created Equal blog that measured the variance in performance between a number of manufacturers wedges it's worth delving into the subject of spin generation a little with a brief review of the USGA literature that is freely available and commonly held beliefs.

What are the technological factors that effect spin?

- The roughness of the flat surface between the grooves

- The sharpness of the top edge and/or the type of grooves

- How far apart the grooves are positioned

- The depth of the grooves.

The interaction that creates spin is quite simple, it is one that creates the most friction and therefore the most spin. At lofts of 40º and under the interaction is mostly sticking and no slipping occurs, the friction force is the same with both smooth and rough surfaces according to Chou, Liang and Yang (Science and Golf II: Proceeedings of the World Scientific Congress of Golf II)

This leads us on to the research conducted by the USGA over a period of years prior to the rule change regarding groove technology, available here USGA Research. The interim paper notes that prior research has found that there is no difference made by groove configuration and face treatment and proceeded to test both the U & V groove types in dry conditions concluding that there was no difference once again.

However during the benchmark player testing there was found to be a difference between modern equipment and old V grooves and balata balls that spun more that any modern equipment combination. From the rough however it was found that the U grooves had the potential to spin MORE than from the fairway! 

The study also concluded that the edge radius or the 'sharpness of the edge' is a contributor to spin but the closer towards a V Groove shape it became the significance reduced to almost none.

Groove spacing was also found to be a significant contributor regardless of groove type.

The type of milling was found to have no significant influence on spin rate from the rough except for an extremely rough surface.

So the question remains as to what was responsible for the often huge performance gaps for spin generation between wedges included in the testing from the previous blog entry. If all the above were bulletproof it would fair to say the performance should be very similar throughout when using the same player, in the same conditions, even allowing for some technical variance. 

We're excited to be planning some testing next month that will include the use of grooved and non grooved wedges from a variety of lies and distances. While it will not be as scientifically sound as the USGA's (expensive) testing it should provide some insight into this fascinating topic in the real world sense.

Using the data collected from a wedge testing session last summer I’m going to illustrate a few key points that might help improve your wedge game through choice and maintenance of equipment.

A group of wedges (56º) from a variety of manufacturers were tested from a distance of 70 yards from two types of lies, tight fairway and 2 inch rough. Spin rate and launch angle were measured using a Foresight GC2,  the wedges required a minimum number of 5 shots from which the averages and standard deviation were taken. A spin retention value was also calculated to measure the diminishing performance from the rough.

The average spin rate from 70 yards on a tight lie was 7130rpm but the variance went from a low of 3573rpm to a high of 8910rpm, as you can see from the mean average the drop in performance from a low performing wedge was significantly greater than the gain from a high performing wedge. The higher performing wedges tended to have a better quality of milling, score lines and extra grooves to provide that advantage.

The correlation between launch angle and spin rate was somewhat linear, for example the lowest spinning wedges were around the 4000 mark and launched at 32º. Wedges spinning at 5000rpm launched at 30º, 6000rpm at 28º all the way to the high 8000’s launching at 24º. Club delivery was very consistent throughout illustrating the importance of friction to launch.

Spin retention from the rough was quite revealing with the average wedge maintaining 30% of it’s fairway spin number when being hit from 2” rough. The top performers in this category maintained approx 50% while the poor performers only maintained approx 20%.

Combining these two parameters gives a good idea of which wedges are the overall top performers and should you get chance to test wedges on a launch monitor of some kind are two measures I’d recommend looking at.

We also conducted a test comparing year old wedges of the same type versus brand new, the old had seen a couple of dozen rounds and some range use but nothing excessive. The spin loss and related higher launch was significant at over 50%.

If you’re going to work towards a tour calibre wedge game it’s vital that you equip yourself properly, if you don’t it will be impossible to control launch, spin effecting trajectory leading to poor distance control.

JR