Dialing in the wedges
Harman has placed an emphasis on improving his wedge game after noticing he struggled from 50 to 125 yards. He’s ranked outside the top 100 in the category for several years, including No. 146 last season and No. 180 from that distance out of the rough.
“Wedges are about feel, and mine wasn’t good,” Harman said. “It was just due to a lack of work and a lack of a plan. We put a better plan in place. It’s definitely helping.”
To work on Harman’s distance control with partial wedges, Lumpkin has his student hit three shots with the same club (sand wedge, for instance) to three different distances (80, 90, 100 yards). Then he hits three shots from the same distance (90 yards) with three different clubs: lob wedge, sand wedge and gap wedge.
“If he can control the trajectory, the distance and the spin on the practice tee, he can do it on the course,” Lumpkin said. “I also will call out for him to leave it short of the hole or to the right or left of the hole. When you’re playing a wedge from 90 yards, you ought to be thinking about the putt you want to knock in.”
These days Harman checks the distance with TrackMan, but Lumpkin used to lay out towels at 10-yard increments starting at 90 yards – a low-tech version that still works – and make Harman announce which towel he was going to land his shot on before he hit. So far, so good this season but still room for improvement – Harman ranks No. 67 in approaches from 50-125 yards and No. 146 from the rough (as of March 2).