How to Control Wedge Distance with Kevin Na | LIV Lessons

At LIV Golf Nashville 2024 Kevin Na delivered a master class on precision wedge play —watch and learn how the legend shapes every shot.

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Hi, I’m Kevin Na, captain of Iron Head GC. Welcome to my live lesson. That’s a crowdleaser. In this lesson, I’m going to show you how to wedge it close. If you if you’re not a good driver of the ball and you’re in trouble and you know that you pitch it out and advance the ball to somewhere within your wedge, you know, 100 to 130 yards and you can hit it somewhat close and have a chance for a look for a part and the worst you can make is bogey, you can save a lot of shots. I think for an amateur to um reduce their score and lower their score and the best way to do it is around the greens and the closer you get to the green. Driver is is a long fix. It’s a long, it takes a long time and it it’s not easy for amateurs, but I think wedge game you can improve it pretty quickly and get good at it and that’s the direct correlation to score. I feel like my as I get closer to the green I I I get my game gets stronger and that’s why I wanted to show how I do it. Uh right here I’m going to show you how to hit a wedge shot. Um we’re about 135 yards out. That’s about a normal pitching wedge for me. Um I’m a pretty good a short iron player. I feel like every time I get a pitching wedge in my hand that I got to hit it close and and capitalize. What I like to do is a little bit of hooded face back in the stance and shorter swing, abbreviated follow through. And I kind of trap it and that way you can keep the ball flight down with the short irons, control the spin, control the ball flight and get it close to the hole. I play a little draw. So I aim up a little bit to the right of the pin. Back in the stance, hand forward. Stay down. Trap it. Starting nicely. Oh, go in. Oh, yes. Well, I see what most amateurs try to do is they try to help it up in the air. You don’t really need to do that with a short iron. You got plenty of loft. Just got to trap it nicely back in the stance. A little hooded face and trap it down a little bit. Oh, I just hit the flag stick. I just hit the flag stick, didn’t I? Now it’s off the green. It’s It’s a hard shot right now. I think it’s going to hit and go over, too. I’ve always been a pretty good wedge player and I think the reason why is because I’ve always made my swing I was pretty good at three quarter shot and I don’t I don’t think there’s a necessary to swing big on these wedges because the more you swing bigger I mean you don’t trying to you’re not trying to hit your irons far you just want to control and to have better club face control the tighter your swing is the better your club face control is going to be. Obviously, you know, you you have the certain pins. For me, a right pin, right to left wind is difficult because I draw the ball, but with the pitching wedge, I can it’s going to stop pretty quickly. So, I can start it outside the green and bring it back. But, it’s it’s it can be scary. Let’s say there’s water bunker that’s very very difficult to get up and down. You want to, you know, 10 15 ft left is an okay shot. So, let’s say you have a 135 shot. Okay, that’s your pitching wedge solid. But if it’s 125 and the pins up front, I wouldn’t really as an amateur try to take much out off of it because 30 ft behind the hole or just a ever so slightly smooth and you know 25 ft behind the hole is not a bad shot for an amateur. So I think people get they think too much about oh I have to take a little off it. I have to hit a little hard. Uh that level is for tour players not for amateurs. the people that don’t have good contact, obviously thin and in and chunks, even pros do it sometimes, too, is I I usually choke up on it on on these wedges just ever so slightly and back in the stance where it helps me trap and ball hit ball first. Um, and and the key to this also is is having a little bit of forward lean and trying to keep the the handle forward at all times, which helps you hit hit down on the ball. And because the ball’s back in your stance, you’re going to catch ball first. It’s hard to really fat it and when you have the handle forward when the ball’s back in your stance. I’m kind of getting the hang of this shot. I’m trying to hit it straight, but my my shot is a normally a little draw. And obviously right now it’s a right to left wind helping from the right. And the slope on the green goes right to left as well. So I have to aim this, you know, five, six paces right of the pin. You just got to know your shot, right? That’s going to come in nicely there. And it should bounce left. I take that every time. I think guys, people get nervous. There’s no nothing wrong with taking a deep breath before you go in. People that are nervous with wedges, they get tight and they tense seven, they they’ll bl it. Just a nice deep breath before you walk into the shot. What I’ll do is I’ll go back. I always take a deep breath. In a tournament, it’s like you let it all out and you slowly walk in and you do everything slow. You look at the target slow, waggle, slow, good tempo. Boom. That’s a good one. You want to go catch a few and then we’ll Oh, this is Vegas. Yeah. Oh, this was Yeah. number 10. Almost hold it. I mean, you can see my abbreviated follow through. And most of the time with my wet shot, I never have a full finish followrough. It’s always kind of abbreviated. And that’s what I like to do. And I just showed that, you know, when I was explaining how I hit my wet shots and I bet you it’s not a full swing. Yeah. Little short back. Yeah. Wasn’t quite full. That was Houston number one. I made that putt, too. Greens were uh slightly on the firm side. Um obviously, but the where that hole was was pretty flat. It wasn’t running away from me. I mean, obviously, it was slightly back pin, so I’m not trying to go too long. All I’m trying to do is have a nice flight on it. Back in the stance, trapped a little bit, little 3/4 firm through the impact. I I don’t think people understand the importance of finding the correct wedge for you. People get fitted for a driver. They go look at their swing speed. They look at their launch angle and all that, but they don’t really try all different kinds of grind and all different kinds of lofts. And you got to find what works for you. And you know, I’m a really good chipper, but I can take somebody’s wedge and I’ll I’ll I’ll chip terrible because the sole on it is not the right sole for me. Um, in my opinion, I think the average amateur has too much bounce under on their 60°. And I honestly don’t think they should even play a 60°. I think it should be maxed out at 58. The 60° wedge can be quite difficult to control. Um, and I think a 58 degree wedge is is plenty. We have all the technology to tell us how much shorter it goes. I mean, that’s why we have that, you know, four side track, whatever you want to use, and it’ll tell you exactly how far you’re hitting it that week. And that’s what I do. I usually, you know, every Wednesday or Thursday the determin side I go to. I use a foresight and I’ll put it on and and I’ll see how my ball goes and the temperature or the altitude we’re at and we’ll we’ll write in our note pitching wedge goes. This week it’s going 137 because it’s warmer. You know, obviously in the cold it might be all right. Your pitching wedge is only going, you know, 126 this week uh because it’s so cold. You obviously the ball you play has a lot to do with spin, but everybody plays a pretty good pretty, you know, pretty good ball now. All the balls are pretty good. Uh, number one thing is it’s about contact. You have to swing actually a little bit harder. U, you have to hit down on it. Make sure you take a divot. And it’s it’s all about contact. Now, have you seen me how I hit my wedges close? Try to take what I did and see if it works for you.