Wedge Stance Width: How Your Feet Control Strike, Spin and Height

If you use a wedge with the same stance as your longer irons, you’re making it harder to strike the ball correctly. 

In this article we’ll discuss why stance width is so important for your wedges and how to ensure you’re getting the correct stance width for more consistency and improved strikes. 

 

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What Stance Width Actually Does For Your Swing

From Your Feet Up: How Stance Width Shapes Your Swing Arc

Stance width is your base of support. It also influences how far your body shifts during the downswing, and therefore how the club travels around you.

How stance width affects swing arc:

• Narrow stance: less lateral pressure shift → club comes in on a steeper, more V-shaped arc.
  
  

• Wider stance: more lateral pressure shift → club travels on a shallower, more U-shaped arc.
  
  

You can make the same “feeling” swing with a different stance width and get a totally different angle of attack and strike on the ball. 

How changing stance width effects swing arc

What Stance Width Does For Your Strike

Your New Tool to Change Your Angle of Attack

A wider stance with a more U-shaped arc means a lower (more sweeping) angle of attack into the ball. Good for fairway woods, but makes it harder to hit wedges. 

A narrower stance with a more V-shaped arc means a higher (steeper) angle of attack into the ball. Not so good for longer clubs, but key to striking wedges well. 

The basic idea behind wedges is that they have a higher loft to impart more spin on the ball, but are actually delofted more than other clubs so you can still get a controllable ball flight. 

If you have trouble with fat and thin shots then pay attention! 

While controlling your arc depth is definitely the most important factor in controlling fat and thin shots, increasing your angle of attack also gives you more room for error.

That means that a steeper angle of attack will help you hit more good shots. 

Steeper vs Shallower Angle of Attack (AoA) into the ball

So What Is The Correct Stance Width for Your Wedges?

Full shots compared to pitching and chipping. One size does not fit all.

The ideal strike for full wedge shots is a higher angle of attack, which means we need a narrower stance width than our longer clubs. 

Full wedge shots: 

• Take a narrower stance than the rest of your irons, often around the length of your foot wide, or 9-12 inches, depending on your height. 

• This will ensure you have a steeper angle of attack that will deloft the club more to bring your flight down, but still give you good spin. 

Pitch shots: 

• Stance around half the length of your foot wide, or 6-9 inches wide, depending on your height. 

• This will ensure you have a steep angle of attack into the ball, but also make it easier to get your weight onto your front foot, if you don’t have it there already. 

Chip shots:

• Stance around the width of your foot wide, or 4-6 inches wide, depending on your height. 

• This will ensure you have a steep angle of attack into the ball and keep your weight on your front foot throughout your swing, without getting too far out in front of the ball and trapping it.  

 

How Inconsistent Stance Width Wrecks Wedge Consistency

Same Club, Same Yardage… Totally Different Strike

Picture this: you’ve hit the perfect tee shot to your favourite stock yardage for a pitching wedge into the green. You’re excited at the prospect of hitting a perfect full wedge into the green. 

You stand over the ball and make your shot, only for the ball to balloon up into the air and drop short of the green. You think to yourself, “I wonder what happened there!? Maybe a gust of wind got hold of it.”

But little did you notice that your stance width and ball position was actually closer to your 7-iron than the correct stance width for your pitching wedge. This could have changed your angle of attack by 20% (if we look at LPGA Tour average AoA for PW compared with 7 iron). 

While not a huge change in raw numbers (-2.5° compared with -3.2°), it can have a noticeable impact on your carry distances, especially for approach shots. 

Now shaft length will also have an influence on this, but you get the point. Stance width is probably more important than you first thought. 

How to Practise Wedge Stance Width (So It Sticks)

Turn Your Wedge Stance Into Muscle Memory

There are not a lot of things in golf that are as easy to practice as stance width and ball position. 

All you need to do is introduce a consistent measure of the correct stance widths during your practice. And this can apply throughout your bag. 

This can be done a few ways:

• Marking an alignment stick with your preferred stance widths

• Bringing a tape measure with you to the range

• Or using a dedicated stance width and ball position tool, like Stance IQ. 

Start your practice off by working through your bag, ensuring you have the correct stance width and ball position for each of your club types: wedges, short irons, long irons, woods and driver.

If you make it a routine to familiarize yourself with these setup positions at the start of each practice session, it won’t be long until they’re second nature to you and that consistency will transfer with you to the course.