For years I have listened to golf tournament commentators, tour pros and teachers, preach the principle of laying up to a yardage that is close to your full sand wedge distance shot for more success on your approach shot. This sounds great, as many of us hit lots of full sand wedges on the practice tee or short game area. We pretty much have that swing and distance zoned in, so play to your strength and lay up to that distance.
Well, for all those years, believe it or not, I, The Surge, disagreed with that principle. Who would of thunk, that The Surge would have a differing opinion on a golf related topic. Differing opinions or thoughts are what makes the world turn, and brings on contemplation, mental interaction, and most importantly, study, research and discovery.
It is not enough to have a differing opinion just to be different. You have to have some sound reason or facts to back up your opposing position, which I naturally have. I have always believed, maintained and played (45 years playing experience) that 'the closer I lay up to the green, the better my odds are at getting it up and down.' I have held fast, over my years of teaching, to this closer lay up philosophy as opposed to those who preach the full wedge distance lay up.
Well, this past winter, I got some accurate and legitimate data on lay up statistics from the PGA Tour's new distance measurement system that they use to add and collect data about a player's rounds. They have a crew on every hole using surveying type devices in the tee shot landing area to measure the distances hit and distance to the green, the green approach shots and around the green for distances approach shots and then putt length.
Well, I saw a recap of these yardages and percentage of success in getting it up and down. The stats started around 110 yards to 90 yards as the first distances calculated. It stated that the PGA Tour players — the best wedge players in the world — got it up and down from the 100 yard range around 17 percent +/- of the time. That's all folks! Now, I'll give you one guess as to what happened to the up and down percentage as they got closer to the green. It went up significantly! When it reached 50 yards the percentage was around the mid 40's. A layup in the 30 yard range rose to an up and down percentage in the 50s and the 20 yard range was into the 60s and 10 yards got into the 70s. Lay up shots, from 30 to 20 yards in were definitely close to green high and greenside, which were shots actually hit going for the green or trying to get as close as possible.
So, what conclusion can we draw from these statistics. If the pin is not tucked right over a bunker or away in a corner, but relatively accessible, there is definitely a better lay up strategy than laying up to your full sand wedge distance, proven by stats. The closer you lay up to the green, The closer you get to the hole, the shot is easier, your odds of success go up and the higher your up and down percentage will be!
The Surge!