The Sunday Bag: Leaning Flags, Three-Quarter Wedges, Club Behind You.
7/12/2026
Happy Sunday everyone. Hope you’ve all been enjoying your summertime golf and inflated carry distances from warmer weather :)
Let’s get into it.
Today’s quote:
“The secret of golf is to turn three shots into two.”
-Bobby Jones
Leaning Flags
If you’re on X and you don’t follow @engineeringolf, do yourself a favor and go follow him. If you subscribe to this newsletter then you’ll no doubt love his content.
Last week he shared this post on leaning flag sticks which I found to be very interesting:
I did a quick Grok search and asked if there was any validity to the claim. Here was what it said:
A leaning flag can create a visual reference or distraction that subtly alters perceived break and alignment for some golfers, consistent with sports vision principles where vertical objects act as plumb lines or introduce perspective distortion on contoured greens.
Validity is moderate and subjective: it supports personal preference for removal in many cases, but studies and pros note potential benefits of leaving it in for distance perception; no large peer-reviewed evidence isolates “optical illusion” specifically, though anecdotal and practical consensus aligns with the idea.
While the debate over leaving the flagstick in or out has been well-documented, the visual impact of a leaning flagstick appears to be unresearched.
I personally prefer taking the flag stick out on every single putt. Most of it is psychological, but I have seen a number of putts hit off the flag stick and miss that otherwise would have gone in.
Nonetheless, a leaning flag is an interesting offshoot of the larger flag debate, and one that I thought would be worthy of your attention.
Three-Quarter Wedge Shots
Something I have been doing a lot of recently is clubbing up and hitting a three-quarter shot with wedges.
The consistency in flight, spin, and contact with shorter swings have been a real game changer for me, and it’s something I highly recommend to everyone.
I posted this to my X followers, and nearly all of them responded claiming similar experiences:
To give you an example:
A full swing with my 60-degree wedge goes about 90 yards.
A full swing with my 56-degree wedge goes about 110 yards.
I have found that if I have roughly 90-yards to the pin, taking my 56-degree and hitting a 3/4 “punch” style shot will be much more consistent.
The aggressive 3/4 swing also allows the ball to take off much lower and check up with less dramatic spin.
Give it a try if you haven't.
This Week’s Premium Post
This week’s premium post will be on leveraging AI as your personal golf coach.
A preview:
Using AI as a personal golf coach and caddie is a brilliant strategy, and one most players have barely begun to scratch the surface of.
Personally, I’ve used AI to break down my launch monitor metrics and scoring data to see how my game stacks up. But data tracking is just the tip of the iceberg. AI-driven golf coaching is a wide-open frontier. It’s the Wild West of player development, and there are absolutely no rules.
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.
Getting The Club Behind You
I always hear instructors and coaches online talking about the feeling of getting the club out in front of your body. And then they always follow it up by warning you of the golf swing’s greatest bogeyman (no pun intended) — letting the club get behind you.
James Nicholas recently shared a clip of Justin Rose explaining some of his feels through impact:
I found it interesting to hear him say he likes the feeling of the club tracking from behind him.
The reason I’m sharing this is to make the point that you need to be very discerning about which swing “feels” you choose to copy from videos or other players.
Just because someone says they like the feeling of getting the club out in front of them doesn’t mean that’s the feeling your swing needs.
Feeling the club behind you might result in better contact for YOU.
Also, I’m not advocating getting the club “stuck”, but I digress…
That’s it for today. Hope you all have a great week and get out and play!
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If you haven’t read them yet, check out some of the most recent and popular Scoring Letter posts below:
