El Niguel Country Club

MARCH 2019 ❘ THE DIVOT ❘ 9 THE LESSON TEE BY WADE WILSON, PGA A ll driving ranges provide golfers with dis- tances to the targets. We have them at El Niguel, too, as well as the yardages at our "Big Chipper." In addition, there are lasers and rangefinders and all kinds of technology that can tell you how far away you are from a target. All of that technology is worthless, however, if you are not hitting your shots the distance you want to hit them. The formula for how far a ball will travel when hit includes carry, bounce and roll. Having a plan for how far you want to hit a shot is an important component of being successful in this game. If you want to hit a shot 57 yards and you hit it 65 yards, you could have a problem on your hands with the ball rolling over the green. Practicing how to hit shots 57 yards starts with the understanding of what 57 yards is to you. I use TrackMan in my lessons to help golfers understand what and why things happen with the golf ball. The most common variable golfers want to know is distance. What is interesting is that they want to know how far they hit the ball; they don't know ac- tually how far it was hit. When practicing shots, we want to focus on trajectory, launch angle and land- ing angle. All of these components have an impact on how the ball reacts on the green and most im- portantly how far it goes. Distance is everything when it comes to playing golf, not just how far you can hit it, but how far you hit it on purpose. DISTANCE CONTROL ■ LEARNING TO GAUGE HOW FAR YOU HIT THE BALL IS KEY TO SUCCESS ON THE COURSE VIDEO EXTRA! I n these videos, you see me hitting 70-yard shots with a 60-degree wedge. Notice the width and length of my backswing. Swing 1 is exactly like Swing 2. I could also practice hitting a 70-yard shot with a 54-degree wedge or a 60-yard shot with a 50-degree wedge. My point is that I am practicing how to swing on purpose so that I can be in con- trol and predict the outcome of the shot.

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