If you can control a fade ball with a distance wedge, a controlled shot within 120 yards, you will benefit greatly.
- You can aim straight for the pin by hitting a fade on a shot with the wind blowing from the right.
- You can aim for the pin with a shot in a stymied situation where trees are in the way
- You can control the distance subtly.
- I can avoid the mistake of ducking.
Even if you are a golfer who usually aims for the pin with a draw ball, learning to use a distance wedge with a fade ball will save you one or two shots over 18 holes.
Tiger Woods uses this distance wedge to basically get to the pin with this fade ball.
I’m a draw ball hitter, and the distance wedge is a technique I use very often with fade balls.
Most importantly, it is fun to be able to control the trajectory.
Here is how a draw ball hitter can hit a distance wedge fade.
First, let’s start with the mechanics of a fade.
The important thing to remember is that to hit a fade, the following conditions must be in place
- The face is slightly left of the target at impact
- The swing path is slightly left of the target, slightly more than the angle of the face
If the face is pointing to the left of the swing path, you will end up with a pull hook, which you definitely want to avoid.
The face must be kept between the inside of the swing path and, at worst, straight.
With this in mind, let’s set up and swing.
Setup for a Fade Shot
Set up with the face slightly more closed than square.
The angle should be about 3-5 degrees.
At 3-5 degrees, I feel like I should be pointing 5-10 yards to the left at 100 yards.
As for the face, if closing the face is uncomfortable, square is not bad.
You should not open the face just because it is a fade.
If you open the face, you will get a push-slice.
Stance at a slight angle to the face.
Angle the ball a few degrees to the face.
The position of the ball is the same as usual.
Swing for a Fade Shot
Basically, if you swing as you normally would with the stance, the face should be slightly closed and the swing path should be closer to the face.
ただ、やってはいけないのは、手首を返してしまってフェース面がスイング軌道よりクローズになってしまうこと。
こうなると、プルフックになってしまい、大きくターゲットから外れてしまいます。
手首を返さないようにするには、フォローでの意識が大事です。
フォローでクラブのシャフトを立てていきます。
このイメージでスイングすれば、手首でフェースを閉じすぎることはないです。
イメージはこちらです。
However, what you should not do is to turn your wrist and close the face more than the swing path.
This will result in a pull hook, which will cause you to miss the target by a large margin.
In order to avoid turning the wrist, it is important to be aware of this during the follow through.
In the follow through, the shaft of the club should stand up.
If you swing with this image, you won’t close the face too much with your wrist.
Here is the image.
If you can’t seem to get a good fade, adjust the position of the face in your setup by bringing it to the straight side or more closed side.
The same rule also applies to driver shots and other iron shots.
Once you have mastered the fade ball on distance shots, you will be able to control the fade with other clubs as well.
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