Here’s what creates trajectory — and how to increase it
Loft in the short game is almost all produced by one factor: where on the ball the club makes contact. The closer you hit to the bottom of the ball — accomplished by increasing the loft on the clubface — the higher the ball will go. You can create additional loft on a sand wedge by doing one of two things at address: opening the face or lowering the grip end of the club.
Open the face at least a little on all pitch shots because that limits the exposure of the club’s leading edge to the ground, reducing the possibility that the club will dig and catch the ball fat. With an open face, the ball will fly higher, but there’s a trade-off: The more you open it, the smaller the effective size of the clubface — and the more you lead with the shank-producing hosel, as you can see in the photo above.
The other way to add loft is to lower the grip end at address. This increases loft in much the same way as opening the face. The best example of this is on bunker shots, where a wider stance promotes a lower-than-standard hand position. One misconception to forget about on all pitch shots is that opening the face (or lowering the hands) makes the ball fly to the right. Hit the bottom part of the ball, and it will go straight — and high.
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