Peter Finch’s Wedge Swing Was Struggling – This Lesson Changed Everything

In this detailed wedge lesson with Peter Finch, we address a common issue, using long game techniques in the short game, which leads to inconsistent strike and poor control.

Peter was struggling with crisp contact and predictable ball flight because he applied the same swing to wedges as to full shots. In this 20-minute lesson, we show a surprising, different approach that created instant improvement.

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Oh, sexy that was. Peter Finch is a good friend of ours and a great golfer, but he came to us for a lesson because he was struggling with his wedge play, mainly because he was treating it the same as his long game. Now, in this lesson, we showed him something that no one really talks about that helped him improve his launch, his spin, and his distance control. Hopefully, this can help you, too. Okay, Peter Finch, welcome back to the channel. You’ve been playing some really good golf lately. Let’s go, baby.
It’s It’s been It’s been getting better. Slowly but surely. After many years within this game, I’m finally happy to call myself an above average golfer. You looked at your world ranking earlier, didn’t you? Yeah,
I did. Yeah. Well, my 1,174th 1744.
1744.
He’s already crept up the ranking.
He’s already crept up the ranking.
Who’s caring?
Who’s carrying? Like, we all know the official World Golf ranking. 600. Absolutely sham, isn’t it? Well, it’s good to see you playing good. Obviously, we saw you last year over a year ago and did a little bit of work on the full swing. You’ve been doing some more work on that. Today, we’re going to look at distance and some finesse wedges. So, we’re around about 120 here.
We’ll creep down the fairway.
How would you rate this part of your game at the moment?
Um, fine. Fine, but inconsistent, which is the real key. like my my driving, my full swing, even to an extent, my putting has actually been getting better. But those are the areas that I’ve been working the most on. And then as soon as I get to like around around the greens, around the short pitches, and really from 130 yards and in, that’s where I’m finding kind of weaknesses. M like I’m still hitting some okay shots, but you know, realistically within this type of distance, this is where I should be like feeling very confident, where I should be feeling I should be able to attack. Where I’m over a lot of shots at the moment, I’m just not quite sure what’s going to what’s going to come out.
I think the one thing we’ll always see as well is that when you’ve done heavy work on the golf swing, as we get closer and closer to the green, that stuff becomes less relevant. Mhm.
So, what we’ll look at today is some of the things that you’ve done in your full swing. We’ll understand what they are and then we’ll see, well, what do you need now to do that’s slightly different from 130 in. I think we’ll see some different things. Okay, cool. Yeah.
Okay. So, we got full swing pointed that front right flag at 120. We’ve hit a few shots already. We’ve already figured out if we just aimed left, we’d actually hold a few. Yeah, that’s
just hit some shots for me and just we’ll just go through these. We’ll watch what you’re doing. I’ve already taken some slow-mo, so I know where I want to go with this.
Okay. Do you feel that distance control is the big thing here?
Yes. I mean because like I think with certainly obviously guys work with some really good players and you know Aaron is probably fantastic at this like just in that distance shot there like if he’s going to miss he’s going to miss pin high side to side whereas I’m missing online but front to back. Yeah.
Which kind of shows an issue strike and fly and all the rest.
So you’re absolutely right. You’re sort of um west and east is brilliant. North and south is long.
Exactly.
You know what I mean? I was very polite.
Long is a good thing sometimes, but maybe not in this shot.
All right, let’s watch you hit a few.
So, we’ve got Vokei. We got 49 degree on this. Yeah.
Yeah. So, is this a 135 club for youish?
Yeah. If I’m swinging it full like that’s just going to go behind, spin back, you know, to about to about six foot. So, that was a great strike. If I struck it like that all the time, then we wouldn’t need to be here.
We wouldn’t be here.
Like we could get into the club.
Be in the bar.
I’m going to be picking. It’s a little long. That is Pete. That’s like
we pitched 126, but it would have come back, you know, quite quite a bit. So again, look, it was a great strike though. 10,000 RPM. We know that you struck that one. Well, that’s good.
Yeah, Andy.
I’m just Look, I’m looking for the improvements. Come on. I know the standards that you’ve got.
It’s a great 7.
It was a really good 7.
Now you’re Now you’re in California. I thought you’d be all happy and relaxed now. Wow,
that was nice. It was That was a really That That’s the standard strike that we want, isn’t it?
Yeah.
Thanks, B. Okay, good.
We’ll play good cough, bad cough. That’s all it is. That’s all it is. What do you notice different about that shot when you hit it?
So, that’s
similar yardage, maybe a little further.
So, that’s just come out a little bit lower, a little bit hotter. Strike wise felt probably again better.
So, okay. So, it’s right up there from a strike point of view, but as you said, launches are different on that one. Um, you know, we’re going to see some different numbers launch wise and what have you. And that’s that when you’re trying to play the same shot and it looks different when you hit it, then obviously that’s difficult. Difficult obviously.
All right. Same thing again. Trying to hit it 120. We’re just 126 and 129.
Okay.
But strikes have both been good.
Yeah, that sounded nice.
That was nice. That’s a better height.
Definitely a better yardage as well on that one.
That was tasty. 23. And as you know, that’s going to come back a little bit. Okay, good. Let’s just go a couple more. See if we can find some of these not so nice shots. It’s going to be hard. Strike wise, these are actually coming out quite nice now. But it’s that kind of strike that that’s the one I’ve really been struggling with. one where it kind of feels like it’s actually hitting a little bit lower on the face, actually getting some interaction, not kind of coming creeping up.
So, absolutely correct. So, here’s the thing. So, what we’re looking for really, we want to be anywhere between grooves two I in my opinion between two and four. I think some people say two and five, but I think groove two and four is is a really good place on this. That’s going to help keep the launch down to a good number. The spin is going to be really high. There’s not a lot lot of crap getting in between the ball and the face,
but we’re going to see that ball flying in lower. The issue I see, and we saw a couple of the shots before on those ones that are short on the full swing.
Yeah.
Is when you get a little bit high on the face here.
Yeah.
So, your depth of your arc effectively is just a little bit too deep. So, as soon as we start getting up in grooves five and six potentially, they can still be decent shots. Yeah.
Depending on the line, unless it’s if it’s really tight, then it’s obviously a problem.
Yeah. And it like the biggest issue I’m having kind of recently again with these kind of shots is coming through, hitting, and I’m kind of looking down towards the target. um start to kind of lean back. It’s just popping out so high at times and it’s yeah,
it’s not ideal. Like you see see really good players are good wedge players.
If they want to hit it high, they’ll hit it high. But normally it’s just that beautiful little flighted kind of shot and that’s just not something that I’m really good at. That’s all that’s all strike location. Yeah, for you.
It’s not loft. It’s all strike location.
Yeah.
So like rehearsal swing all the things I’ve been working on my swing um really this year and this is driver irons everything. I’m just like blanket blanket it just to really kind of keep it consistent. It’s from the top of the swing moving down into my left knee. Basically feeling like my weight is traveling this way or pressure is traveling here. And then from that point moving the left hip round and out the way straightening the left leg. Keeping my chest over the ball impact right foot right side rolling in rather than getting up on the toe. And that’s all to stop this kind of movement, which is historically I I’ve be dramatic to say I’ve always done that.
You’ve always been a humper.
I’ve always been a humper. Yeah. These hips want to go forward. They don’t want to go back. So that’s always been a wee bit of an issue, but I’ve always played like that little fade.
Yeah.
Now I’m trying to shift it so it’s a little bit shallower. It’s a little bit more neutral coming into impact.
Okay.
Um and that’s kind of like the feel I’m having. So it’s all impact orientated. So sometimes on the course as well, I’m over it and I’m getting into this really exaggerated position and then I’m pretty much going straight into the full swing. Now, don’t move. Don’t move here. I’m just going to we’re just going to just highlight a couple of things for the camera here. Notice, Pete, look. No, notice how the the height is down. We’re also going to even notice this lead arm a little bit here and the shaft angle here. When we go through some things in a moment, you’ll see how this is harming your strike.
So, I’ve got a couple of lines here. We’ve got a purple line. We’ve got a yellow line. So, if we have a look as you swing, the purple line is on your belt loops. Mhm.
Yellow line is obviously on the outside of the lead leg. We call this the impact line. Let’s look at the yellow line first of all. So from here, pivot looks really nice, tidy. It’s a shorter back swing. We can see as you swing down, you’ve got no problem shifting. If anything though, the lead knee really overtakes the lead shoulder at this stage, which is fine and it’s it works nice in a lot of instances obviously. But okay, so that’s definitely something that we seeing that knee moving toward the target quite a bit. May want to question that a little bit. Just watch the height on your head as well as a result. But look at the head there. Sort of dropping just a little bit. But the thing for me is look at the purple line. Look at where your your belt loops are relative to that. Your belt loops lower below that.
So effectively what we’re doing is we’re sinking into the ground. Yeah.
If we’re sinking to the ground, what we’re going to do to the up and down on the club face, we’re going to make it a little bit more varied.
I mean, it does it does make sense as well. I mean, again, like swing wise, kind of getting this feeling moving in. Also, what tends to happen with me and my swing?
Me and my swing. Go. Is this the second channel?
Great name. This is the second channel.
Me and my swing. Well, moving into here. And the whole point of like as well as like clearing and straightening this left leg is so my upper body actually kind of moves around as well. Now, if I’m sinking into that knee and it’s not straightening, then I’m just going to chase on my arms.
Correct.
So,
and drive down.
And drive down. So, okay, that makes that makes sense. I would love to see you and bearing in mind everything you’ve said about the the the the early extension and the right leg coming in. I’d love to see if we can find a way because I feel like you want to keep your forward bend
and you want to be able to keep your side bend. So, you want to be able to keep those moves going down,
but is there a way that we can actually find a way and this is why I highlighted the belts.
Can we find a way of the belt coming up as you play this?
So, basically, can you straighten both legs quicker?
I I think I can. All I’ll need to do is certainly pass anything to go by is just ensure that I’m still making this kind of movement here. Yeah.
Rather than going straight into it. As soon as I start to straighten both legs.
Yeah.
This is where I’ll come here.
So, I need to just get that timing.
So, you need to move this way still diagonally to the right of the target with the feeling in the low body and shifting the pressure that way to then come up.
Do me a favor. randomly just hit me a shot and I’m gonna tell you something to do in your setup just before you do it.
Okay. Something really radical. I want to just see what happens to the contact.
Take tennis probably.
So, you’re going to stay flex forward.
Yeah.
Straighten your legs for me. Totally straight.
And just hit me a shot with your legs totally straight. He’s like, “What do I do with them? What? What? What do I do now?” [Laughter] Even if he goes a little bit short, I’m okay. Okay, let’s just see what happens to the strike.
Jeez.
Okay, so that’s really weird obviously, but what you’ll find from there is
look at the ground interaction straight away. That’s the other extreme of where we went. So, we’ve gone from
super low to super tall, but still maintaining everything from the upper body that you want to. So, that would be where I would start just to go end range.
You’re here. Where’s the middle?
Okay.
Do another one. I’m actually going to slow that and not fall over.
Do you want me to try and hit? Yes, please. I like the way you said try.
So that one again, this is obviously extreme, but there’s nothing with that belt loop. If anything, the belt loop goes up and it already starts up as well. So that that look, that’s the extreme.
Let’s go for now just just feeling some practice swings. Knowing what you know now, how do you translate that into a shot?
Okay. And we want you to try and thin it. I want to create height somewhere.
Yeah. Okay.
If we can do it in the lower body, then great.
I think I think I can. And I think I can do it around that left leg. Okay.
Around that droopy left leg there. Get rid of the droopy left leg. That was tasty.
Nice. A little higher as well, which was good.
Yeah.
I think the one the one thing that I I just want to have a play with as well, Pete, for you. When you do your rehearsals, when you do your rehearsals now, can you do the same feeling without going down? So, can you push into this leg? Okay. without you doing this. So, can you do a swing where you still feel that the the leg is being pushed into but without the actual loss of height where we actually just go into this leg? So, you still feel I still want you to feel the pressure push into that leg without you actually like forcing it down. Again, we don’t mind those clean ones at the moment.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s clean, but it’s like
I know like like strike wire is actually fine.
That’s like money, isn’t it? 118 9,000 spins still.
Again, this is like a long way like a long way away from where it was as far as like, you know, taking divots is not a not an issue. That’s nice.
I think that’s that’s phenomenal for me.
There’s the strike. Little bit less interaction with the ground again. And look at just look at the attack angle top left on that Pete. Yeah.
4.3 strike. I mean, you nailed the distance 120 and still spinning it like 10,000.
So, you’re hitting the numbers. The good thing is if you look at this chart now, we’ve made you a lot more consistent.
Yeah.
From north to south, but you you’re hitting it sideways relative to those other ones in the middle of them. Absolutely fine. Absolutely. But you can see your ability hopefully to control the strike on the face now as a result of that is is obviously a lot better.
Definitely. I mean, it makes like I said, it does make a lot of sense. as far as flightwise, just seeing seeing where it was at impact.
Okay. Pete, 57 yards.
Um, club for you 60
60 usually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Like generally within
within 70 yards, I will get my wobbage out. Now, if that’s a good or a bad thing, I I don’t think it’s either to be honest, but again, it’s the control flight, control the distance. So, let’s just let’s just hit a couple of shots. You know, you’ve got, you know, the direction that we want to go with these shots already, but let’s just play a couple of shots to that flag there. Let’s see see how close we get. That’s actually a much easier flag from at 120 than it is from this yardage, isn’t it?
So, that’s gone that’s gone 69 yards, that one. So,
yeah.
And just look I mean, look at that. That diver, man. That’s nice, isn’t it? That’s nice.
So D with the I’ve been struggling to like with consistency of of diver practice swing’s fine just like brushing the surface, but then as soon as it gets under a little bit of heat, soon as it’s a little bit tricky, that’s where I get more diggy. Probably because it’s just more comfortable like being in there. But now all of a sudden I can kind of feel again just from just from straightening up, from being a little bit taller, can kind of feel I can play a little bit of a different shot. And this is where really it’s like, okay, everything that we’ve been doing in in here down, lot of shaft lean, lot of loss of height isn’t necessarily good for this. So, what I want on these few shots now, what I want you to do on these shots, I want you to make a couple of practice swings.
Yeah.
I want you to brush the turf, but I want you to feel like you’re moving up. Good. I want I also want you to hit the turf. Nice. That was really nice. just moved that flag like five yards further on. But yeah, that’s great. And that that kind of strike is
I prefer that kind of strike cuz you said as soon as I start to get a little bit steep on it, that’s where the flight is a lot more uncontrollable for me.
Well, the thing is with you leaning that shaft forward as well quite a lot,
it’s coming off at high speed as well. So you you lean the shaft, you come up high ball speed, it’s so easy for you to do that. Whereas if we can get you presenting a little bit more of the loft on there, you’re still going to lean it forward a bit, but get that strike low, it’s still going to launch relatively low.
Yeah.
Whereas at the moment, if we just pop it up high off the face and you lean the shaft forward, you’re just you’re just getting a sort of a mixed bag.
Yeah.
Give me another rehearsal there. I want you to feel like you go up and I still want you to brush the ground. There you go. That’s a very different motion to what you’ve been doing, but this is now fitting to this finesse part. But now you’re using the club in a really good way.
You look like Cam Smith threw the ball now, which is good. Very nice to him today. Have you noticed?
Very skilled athlete.
I mean, like all sorts of good stuff today. Sticking up for him as well.
Wow. Like Cam Smith. Jeez. Same hairstyle and everything.
Yeah. There you go. Okay. Beautiful. Now, just look how much softer that comes off as well.
That’s such such a different a different sound.
It’s coming off at a different speed.
Still getting 7,000 RPM spin as well, which is what you need. You’re still four degrees down on it. That’s the thing like the probably something which I know you guys like done videos on but like it’s quite confusing to a lot of people how I could still strike down there not take a divot.
Yep.
Still produce that kind of spin. So
yeah,
you’re create basically for the easiest way to describe this is you’re creating a flat spot.
You’ve got to go down to get the club to the ground and then you just level it off. And the leveling off through the ground is the something coming up from the body.
Yeah.
Pulling the handle up. That’s beautiful.
Look at this now. Yeah.
It’s just so so much the strike on that is so much nicer.
That’s good, isn’t it? I think I think you’re just getting predictability on on the the height of the strike.
All I need to do now is figure out distance control and be absolutely fine.
Well, you got a chance now because now you’re tapping into some feel as opposed to driving everything.
Yeah.
Okay. Just give us uh just give us one more. See if we can get one close.
Yeah. Well, 50 yards. I’d say they used to be back in the day just half a swing, half to half and I love that. I much prefer you hitting that shot cuz that was low off the face.
Look at the spin on that one. 78 on the spin
and and low off the face. Hardly any divot. That’s what that’s what you’re going to see JT JT do this afternoon.
78 on a shot that carried 52 yards, by the way. And as you said, 5.5 degrees down. So you still
I’m actually a bit worried for JT now.
Are you taking him on as well?
Yeah. Yeah.
Just perfect timing, wasn’t it?
Good luck there.
Is that Is that Am I the new JT? Like I can play the high ones. I can play I can play the low ones. So let’s just look at the what’s going on with the level of the head now. So we’re not now driving down into that. We’re now working up. This is so much so much nicer. He’s not wrong with the finish there. It does look like uh Cam Smith, doesn’t it? Yeah. Very much sort of
chest the sky. Well, I think like his pitch in action is so nice. It’s just so nice.
Just moving to Yeah.
But you described it as well what you like to feel. Just jump over there by Sorry.
You described it as in you were wanting to feel as though you could almost get the club out working out in front of the hands like that. Now, the only way you’re going to get that is by the club moving like this. So, you’re moving the your chest is coming up. The head is rotating a little bit more now as a result. And the the the key for me is when you’re playing these shots now,
you can hit the ball in the same place a lot more often. Yeah.
If the divots look all look like this, it’s going to be really hard for you to not have the ball in the same place. So,
right, give us one more there, mate, and then you can go and take on JT.
I feel like master classes for one of the best in the world.
That’s it.
No problem. Oh, sexy. That was lovely.
Absolutely. There we go. Look at that. Closest one. Let’s look at the number.
54.
54 carry. Still six and a half spin. That’s beautiful.
Three and a half down. Beautiful.
Easy.
There you go, mate. You ready? You’re ready to roll. Good
see, mate. You’re all prepped. Make sure you beat him now.
It’s not going to be a problem.
Okay, guys. Hope you enjoyed that. Make sure you head over to Peter Peter’s channel and keep up to date with what he’s doing. He’s qualifying for the open.
Qualified already in my mind. Yes. Yes, he he will do now. He will do now. But make sure you follow his channel and if you want to see more of us, head over to me andmygolf.com to check out all our plans to help every single part of the game. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you soon.