Bounce your pitch shots

Pitching from a wet lie is one of the most difficult shots to play, as there is little to no margin for error when striking the ball.

Players will often tense up when faced with this shot and lose all fluidity to their swing, resulting in poor ball contact.

To play from soggy lies, the first thing that you need to understand is that your wedge sole has something called bounce.

Bounce is measured in degrees, and is the difference in angle between the leading and back edge of the golf clubs sole, with the back edge sitting lower to the ground when the shaft is vertical (pic 1).

The purpose of bounce is to help prevent the leading edge of the club digging into the ground.

When playing from soft or soggy lies, your ball should be played from a little left of centre in your stance.

This will allow the bounce to work at impact as there is not too much forward lean in your club shaft (pic 2).

Many players when faced with the wet lie will move the ball back in the stance, but this has the effect of negating the club’s bounce and making the leading edge of your club like a knife edge (pic 3). This will make it almost impossible to strike the ball consistently.

While you swing, make sure you keep your body moving through impact and imagine trying to strike the sole of your wedge into the ground rather than the leading edge.

With a bit of practice, you will be striking the ball great, regardless of the lie.