How JJ Spaun DRASTICALLY Improved His Wedge Game

JJ Spaun knew he had a gap in his stats that he needed to fill with hard work – the all-important wedge game. Specifically, 50-80 yards needed some attention.

With the help of ShotLink data and his Trackman, JJ has worked his way into becoming deadly from that distance. Skratch’s Gear Editor Ryan Barath takes him though the combine on the latest edition of Data Driven, presented by @CDW.

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I don’t typically try to hit draws off the tee. I like to just see it bleed a little to the right. Kind of a flat fade that I can trust. Like Lee Trevino said, you can talk to a fade, but a hook won’t listen. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] JJ, how’s it going? Good. Now, when it comes to the way you practice and the way you work on your game, how do you use shot link data in the way you approach working on your game? Every week is different on tour the courses we play and I like to go to shot link to see you know what my weaknesses and strengths are and try to either strengthen those pieces or reinforce them at the same time. I think it’s huge for practice in general. At the end of the year is kind of when I like to do kind of a deeper dive to see you know what I can work on in the offseason and I’ve been doing that for the last couple years to just kind of find a way to get better. Spawn now accurate off the tea. Great middle line player. Oh, look out. We go. Nice. So, we talk about data. How do you feel your T green game has really evolved over the last four to five years? Being able to see where I started about 5 years ago as far as tracing my T green stat. I noticed I’ve gotten a little bit more distance. Kind of contribute that to working harder off the course in the gym, but also keeping my accuracy the same. He’s been the best iron player this week. So, speaking of improvement, I got something to show you here. Now, when we look at your TA green rank from 2019 to 2020, you were 165th. This past year in 2025, you were seventh. Wow. Yeah. It’s a big one. It’s a big jump. Big jump. And not only that, but we’ve seen improvements all the way through through almost all of those years. Yeah. I mean, it’s, you know, just shows that, you know, I’m working on the right things. You know, obviously this is my ninth season on tour, so I kind of know what to expect. I know what I got to do to perform at the highest level, and I’ve just kind of got it all nailed down there. Cool. I’m going to let you uh hit a few. All right, let’s do it. JJ Spawn. Beautiful drive there from Spawn. That’s one of the most difficult driving holes in the golf course. And when it comes to your driver, what do you feel is your your go-to stock shot? I always prefer it to go left to right. You know, if it falls left or goes left, I’m not trying to do that. That’s a pretty good little stock fade. That plays golf, that one. I think something that I’ve leaned on this year, too, is being able to change the trajectory with my driver more in a in a sense of driving like a low stingerish one. Less curve, not enough hang time to really get offline. And when it when it hits the ground, that thing’s chasing. That was real flat. That was nice. This whole location should fit his eye really nicely. Loves to fade it. Oh, what a golf shot by JJ. So, in your approach distance on the PJ tour, you’ve gone from 132nd to 7th with your approach distance really shrinking down to just over 10 ft at 10.5 in. What do you attribute that ability to improve that? Yeah, so it’s actually funny from that distance 50 to 75 yards, you know, it was actually a number that I was avoiding, you know, about four or five years ago where I I did look at my shotling data and I was very poor from 50 yards to 60 yardish. But I think the difference is I’ve I found a nice little recipe with my practice regimen. I like to bring my Trackman out and I have a combine setup where I religiously do wedges from 30 yards to about 110. But also, you know, I I hone in 50 to 75 yards cuz I knew that was my weakness. Well, uh why don’t we see you hit a few of those wedge shots then. All right. So, there’s 50 to 80. That’s the the combine we call it that I do. Let’s start it up. All right. So, we got 63. I might be short. Ah, 64 and a half. 4 feet from the hole. It says I gained 04. Anything in the positive strokes gain, you’re doing really well. All right, so we got 51. That is short short of 3 ft. You’re a little hard on yourself when you I you know, calling your shot here. There’s pressure. Uh, I’m feeling it already. It’s actually funny. My caddy, he calls me combine man cuz it’s combine. That’s just kind of what I do to to get dialed. This helps apply a little bit of pressure to your practice, right? If I don’t get like a plus two strokes gain total for this game, I’ll do it again. Especially anything in the red, if I get negative strokes, I’m definitely doing it one or two more times. Yeah, that’s a tough pin you got there. Uh yeah, back right. Long’s dead. 63.3 2 ft from the pin. Yeah, pretty good. I still got it. Still got it. [Music]