How to Attack 100-Yard Shots with Sergio Garcia | LIV Lessons

At LIV Golf UK 2024 Sergio Garcia revealed his secrets of elite wedge play as he breaks down exactly how to dominate the scoring zone from 100 yards and in.

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Hi, I’m Sergio Garcia, captain of Fireballs GC and 2017 Masters Champion. Welcome to my live lesson. In this lesson, we’re going to focus on the scoring zone. Oh, he just looks so comfortable. Absolutely brilliant by Sergio Garcia. Sergio with another birdie opportunity. What a magnificent shot. It might be even better than that. Wow. The scoring zone will be considered probably from anywhere between 150 or 125 yards in into the hole. And it’s pretty much wedges. You can maybe even get to a nine iron, but it’s mostly wedges. Um, and it’s, you know, it’s those situations where, you know, you give yourself a a chance for birdie, uh, if you hit a good drive or into a par five that, uh, that you had to lay up or also if you hit a bad drive and you have to chip out, you know, maybe a great safer par that can really keep your round going. So, that’s a very important part of the of the game that uh, it can it can help you save a lot of shots. Guys, here we are. We’re in that scoring zone inside 125 yards. We’re 105 yards away from the flag here. A tiny bit downwind. So, it’s obviously going to play a little bit short. So, it’s probably going to play around 100 yards, something like that. So, I carry three wedges. A lot of players carry four, some even five. I have my most lofted one is 58°. Then I have a 52° as my sandwich wedge. And then I have a pitching wedge 47°. Obviously, what we’re going to work here, it’s Like we said earlier on the range here, the most important thing is going to be obviously good consistent contact, good strike, that’s that’s going to give you the ability of controlling ball flight, spin, and distance. Uh if you can if you can do that from this distance and give yourself a lot of good looks for an up and down at 125 yards in, you’re always going to be doing great. Even if you know it’s for a birdie or you know for a par save. Sometimes a par save from this distance it feels even better than a birdie because it kind of keeps your momentum going I guess. So um I’ll start with my 52. It’s obviously going to be this is my 125 club. So obviously it’s going to be a a much shorter shot. uh it’ll be a a kind of shot where I’m, you know, if it’s into the wind or if the greens are soft, I’m trying to control the spin of the ball. So, usually, unless the flag is like behind a bunker or behind a a slope or something like that, what what you try to do from this distance is like a one hop kind of stop kind of shot. Uh that’s that’s what the easiest thing to control is. It’s not easy to control eight yards of Spain or something like that. So, we’re going to start with this shot. Uh, obviously, because I’m hitting kind of like a 3/4 shot with this club. The trajectory is going to be a little bit lower. It’s going to be a bit of a hop and then and then kind of stop. Then, when we go to the 58 and hit a a more of a fuller shot, you’ll see the trajectory will go up. The ball will probably come back a little bit more. But, um, you know, let’s let’s try to see the the different kind of shots that you can hit and and how you can control it. So, I can see that the the green kind of looks like it slopes a little right to left. So, I’m going to try to aim a tiny bit right of the flag. See if I can hit, you know, that 100 yard shot with this club. There it is. Yeah. So, you can see that’s Yeah, that’s a smooth smooth swing. It’s a lot more control. When when we go to the 50 to the 58, you’ll see it’s a stronger hit, more spin, more speed, a little bit different trajectory. But, you know, that’s the the beautiful thing when when you get comfortable and and good with the wetest is you can do so many you can hit so many different kinds of shots to get to the same spot. That’s always fun to have a lot of different possibilities when it comes down to the the scoring zone. Obviously, there’s so many things that you can do. Um obviously the your wedges is where you where you put the the most amount of spin. So obviously uh depending how the greens are playing depending of the wind you have to work with lowering the spin or getting more spin and uh you know and lowering or uh or hitting the ball higher depending on you know where the flag is, how the greens are reacting, uh how firm or soft they are and and and where the wind is coming from. So, if you’re in control with that, there’s uh there’s so many different shots that you can hit there uh with those with those scoring clubs. And uh you know, it becomes really really fun here because I’m I’m not hitting a full shot. Uh everything is going to be like a little bit tighter. So, you know, my stance I like it to be a little bit closer together. But I’m still doing the same things I was doing there. You know, I’m still making sure that I’m square, that my height’s still the same way. My weight is a little bit on the left on the left leg, but it’s going to be, you know, I’m probably going to grip it tiny bit shorter down on the on the grip on the handle. Uh, but my my feet are a little bit closer together because I don’t need to to make a full swing. And all these things kind of help me prevent from making a full swing, you know? So, it’s going to shorten my my swing a little bit. And that’s that’s what I need for this kind of shot. The ball is still kind of in the middle with this with this kind of club. There it is. There’s a couple of things to to be able to control your spin. One of them, it’s very important. I didn’t mention, make sure that your club is clean. It’s very important because if there’s dirt on the grooves or something like that, it definitely changes the way the ball flies and the spin that it comes out is not as consistent. But I think mostly the spin you’re going to control with the speed of your swing. So the more speed you put in the swing with the with the shorter clubs, the more spin you’re going to get on it. So obviously if I’m hitting like a 3/4 shot with the 52, I’m hitting a smoother shot. this the the club head speed is going to be is going to be slower. The spin that you put on the ball is going to be slower. So, it’s not going to back up as much. You’ll see when I hit the 58, the swing will be a little bit faster. The trajectory will be a little bit higher. You will have more spin. It will bounce and kind of come back a little bit more than these ones that are kind of bouncing, stopping, and then just just low release in. Hey, it’s burning or or a parade. All right, let’s see what we can do with a 58. All right, so now I’m hitting my 58, my most lofted wedge. And you’re going to see usually I hit this club around 105 105 108 yards. So for me it’s almost going to be a full 58 for this flag. And I’m expecting it to the greens are not super firm. So I’m expecting it to bounce and probably come back. So I have to make sure that I fly it at least to the flag even though it’s a little bit downwind. Let’s see that. Obviously here you’ll see my stance will probably be a little bit wider. my swing is going to be a little bit longer, a little bit more speed, and then you’ll see the a little bit different trajectory and then the the reaction on the green. Nice one. It’s something very important that probably a lot of amateurs don’t don’t think about is to make sure that your uh your grooves are clean when you when you’re hitting every single club, but obviously with your wedges even more because you have to be so much more precise. I think it’s it’s super important to make sure that your club uh is clean, the grooves are clean. Uh and that way the ball reacts exactly like like you want it. If you don’t, funny enough, uh that the ball will will react a little bit different. uh even if you hit a good shot, it might it might come out with more spin or less spin depending on on uh on the dirt that is that is on the club. So, it’s it’s very important to to make sure that they’re nice and clean. I mean, you have to realize what the conures of the green are doing. So, if it was a flat green, then it would probably most likely bounce and then come straight back. Here, it’s kind of sloping a little right to left. So all the shots are probably going to bounce a little forward and then kind of spin back and left. You know, you have to realize all these things when you when you’re hitting a a club with more spin, how the ball is going to react on the green because you can hit a great shot that bounces next to the hole, but if there’s a slope there and you put in too much spin, it’s going to take the slope and then it’s going to go off the green. So you have to think all these things to make sure that not only you hit a great shot, but you hit the right shot. So that’s that’s that’s obviously very important. There it is. Do it. That was close with my 58. This type of shot, I’m hitting it pretty standard. Mhm. So, it’s pretty square. Just a normal shot. Just trying to make sure I gauge the distance on the spin, right? Obviously, there’s different things you can do. You know, I I could hit like a lower one with with more draw and bounce it higher right on the green and then make it spin left. The other way is going to be tough because it’s going to be tough for me to cut it into this wind and get it far enough and carry the the little slope that is in front without hitting that slope and spinning off the green. So, that would be that would be more a shot that I would hit with a 52 if I if I wanted to do that. But let me uh yeah, let me try to hit like a lower one with a little draw and kind of like a a little bit more of a side side spin. I want to I want it to go a little bit lower. So, I’m going to back back foot it a tiny bit. So, my angle of attack is a little bit a little bit more descending. Uh taking you kind of take a little bit of loft of the club and then uh it’s going to be a little bit of a release on my hands to make sure that it has a little bit of that draw. So you see it’s a little bit more back foot. The face is a little bit shot and then it’s a lower shot that it’s going to hit there and spin left. Sh, that was close. I’m still swinging out to the right because I’m trying to hit a draw, but it’s just instead of if I’m trying to hit a fade, my body will be aiming a little bit more left and my swing will be going more from outside to in this way and then kind of holding a little bit this way. The the top of the my hand will kind of hold a little bit more there to keep the face bit more open so it cuts. When you’re trying to hit a draw, you’re kind of doing the opposite. Like you’re making sure that this rotates. So then the club face does that. So then you’re catching the ball this way and then it puts the right to left spin on it. So I’m going to try to hit with my 52. I’m going to try to hit a bit more of a hold shot. maybe like a a little bit of a low hold. The ball is not going to carve too much because with the short irons is it’s easy to hook them. It’s much tougher to fade them or slice them and with the right to left wind, but it’s probably going to go fairly straight. Maybe a tiny bit of a hold and then hopefully it’ll just bounce and and be more of a straight spin kind of kind of bounce. Obviously, I’m going to I’m going to be aiming more towards the flag instead of a little right. And then, like I said, I’m just going to kind of hold that a little bit there to make sure that the the face doesn’t release so the ball doesn’t go left. Try to get a little bit of that left to right spin.