The Sunday Bag: Coat Hangers, Finding Straight Putts, Low Bounce Wedges
7/19/2026
Happy Sunday everyone.
This post comes out Sunday morning before The Open finishes. So, I’m going to make a prediction that Sam Burns holds on and wins his first major. Officially time stamped!
Hope I don’t look like an idiot when he finishes outside of the top 30 lol.
Anyway, here’s what’s in the bag:
Today’s quote:
“If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is.”
— Horace G. Hutchinson
All You Need is a Coat Hanger
How much did your last training aid cost? Whatever it was, I can assure you it wasn’t less than the one Wyndham Clark was using last week.
During the range sessions leading up to The Open, Wyndham Clark was spotted using a coat hanger on multiple occasions.
I’ll explain why it’s one of the best training aids you (likely) own, what it’s for, and how to use it.
What It’s For
The point of the coat hanger is to help golfers who struggle with a cupped wrist in the backswing, which Wyndham claims he does. You can watch a good explanation by @LKD_Golf HERE.
How To Use It
You place it alongside your club’s grip, and then grip both of them normally. The goal is to keep the coal hanger in contact with your left forearm.
For those who struggle with a cupped wrist, you’ll get immediate feedback on what a flat wrist angle is, and how to feel it.
For those looking to improve their swings, you’ll eventually find out how important wrist angles are, and the direct relationship they have with the club face.
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Finding Straight Putts
I recently watched a Rick Shiels YouTube video where he receives a putting lesson from the legendary Brad Faxon.
If you’d like to watch the full video, here it is:
What really stuck with me though, was one of the first things Faxon made him do was put a ball down and find a straight 15-foot putt.
It sounded easy, so I tried it myself. It’s surprisingly very difficult to find a perfectly straight line on the first try without any adjustments.
I’ve now made it the first thing I do to start my putting practice.
The reason this drill is so great is that it's an easy way to train yourself to identify “straight”. Once you can do that, it becomes much easier to recognize break everywhere else on the green.
Give it a try the next time you’re on the practice green.
This Week’s Premium Post
This week’s premium post will be on carry distances, and why overestimating them only hurts your game.
A preview:
As golfers, we are all prone to the occasional self-deception.
We justify the slippery two-footer as “gimme-range” and give it to ourselves. Or we round 80 down to 79 when recounting our score the next day with coworkers.
While these minor fabrications are largely inconsequential, the dynamic shifts when ego begins to obscure reality. Eventually, these small lies cross a threshold and evolve into a form of self-sabotage.
Today I want to talk about the most detrimental form of this self-deception:
The persistent lies we tell ourselves about our own distances.
This post will be for premium subs only. If you’d like to upgrade, I offer a special discount for The Sunday Bag readers HERE.
Low Bounce Wedges
Have you ever taken what felt like a perfect swing with your wedge only to chunk it?
That was rhetorical. Of course you have. We all have.
Well, you’ll be happy to know that it might not all be your fault!
Over on X, The Golf Engineer shared a fantastic visual of low bounce and high bounce wedges and how they interact with the turf.
So, if you’re playing on very soft turf and finding that your wedge shots are coming out a bit chunky, it’s possible the bounce on your wedge is too low, causing the leading edge to dig in.
I know this can be a confusing and overly complicated concept, but it’s something I had never fully considered before.
Many of you may already be doing this intuitively. For instance, when you’re on firmer turf, opening or closing the face alters that bounce to match the conditions.
Either way, I highly recommend clicking on the post and reading the comment thread. Very helpful stuff!
That’s all for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!
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I feel bad for Sam. Sure hope he doesn't or hasn't already gotten into his about majors.