Wedge Trainer Review
Full disclosure; I have been a poor/abysmal chipper for the best part of 25 years. It’s led me to some very dark places and has resulted in a lot of embarrassment and a lot of lost balls. So I get over-excited by the prospect of testing anything that might nudge me closer to respectability in this area of the game.
My initial thought when opening the Wedge Trainer was how neat it is, nicely packaged and being a one-piece bit of kit so it’s easy to attach and put to use straightaway. There are left and right-hand options and there are three sizes for both – for sizing measure the circumference four inches above the wrist. It’s worth taking the time to measure this as I tested two and the results and feel with the correctly-sized version made a big difference.
The sentiment of the Wedge Trainer is to reduce the activity of the wrists when chipping and pitching. It was designed to help golfers improve from within 100 yards and there is a degree of flexibility when using the training aid.
Personally I got most out of it when using it around the greens but if you were to attach the Wedge Trainer in the one o’clock position and put the ball a little further back in the stance then it is possible to play full pitches, think Steve Stricker, with a shallower angle of attack and the low launch, high spin shots that the tour players excel at.
The product has been developed with input from PGA and DP World Tour players and has been tested and put into the players’ hands for the past two years before coming to market. What you do want when testing this type of kit is to get some immediate feedback and this is one area where the Wedge Trainer truly does excel.
Part of my problem with chipping is that I am double-jointed so there is little or no space between my forearms. Whether that is the reason that I take the club back on the inside I don’t know but this is a very common problem with club golfers, there is very little body rotation, the hands and wrists do too much and the consistency of strike is poor. When it’s good it can be great, with loads of spin, but generally anything can happen.
I played all my shots with the Wedge Trainer with a pitching wedge as I really want to understand the feeling of a very straightforward chip shot and to fully appreciate what a pitching wedge can do in terms of loft and feel. For the past five years my chipping has approached a level where it’s nearing satisfactory but is not even close to where…
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