This article is about great wedge play and passive acceleration. In the next few months, you will hear “Passive Acceleration” used for the first time on network golf channels and in your lessons with instructors galore. Wait and see. And just as an FYI, “active” acceleration is moving the club as fast as possible with stretched muscle groups to create maximum clubhead speed, which requires effort. “Passive” acceleration is moving the minimum number of muscle groups just fast enough to stay out of the way of gravity while hitting a feel shot – like a wedge. Great wedge play requires passive acceleration.

By the time I hit wedges with Bruce Fleischer, I had taught myself to allow gravity to drive my downswing. Coincidentally, I recognized once my club was prepared, I had little else to do than stay out of the way into impact. I became VERY accurate with my wedges. Hitting the post as many as three times in a row from 60 yards – four out of five recently.

My realization was that as long as I allow gravity to create my speed, all I have to do is stay out of the way. The force of gravity accelerates an object from zero to 123mph at 9.6 meters per second squared. My acceleration stays ahead of gravity’s. Therefore, I accelerate ‘Passively’ into impact.

Often, golfers try to shorten their movement under the auspices of ‘efficiency’. Some professionals even tense their core or quads or glutes at this moment or that under the watchful eye of their guru – never realizing their drills are the reason their feel suffers. Hence, without realizing the force of gravity is a constant, passive, and therefore – most efficient, we create more work than necessary to hit short shots. In the process, we lose feel.

The key is to set up open to steepen and lean the shaft while gravity delivers on a promise made hundreds of years ago. Listening to “Experts” tell you how to move obfuscates the truth, as usual. Set up Open. Swing your leading arm along the target line, and get ready for gravity to fill in the speed variable. Next time, I’ll describe the leading arm in wedge play, unless another, more prescient topic, occurs to me.

The Key To Great Wedge Play Is Eye-solation

Why Tour Players’ Heads Move “Down” Through Impact

Ball Position With an Open Stance