Welcome to Play Smart, a new game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from Director of Game Improvement content Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.

We've all been there before: you're sitting pretty in the center of the fairway, 95 yards from the green. It's a perfect yardage for the three-quarter swing. You address the ball, make a good pass, ...

The general assumption is tour players change out their wedges on a regular basis. Grooves wear down from hitting endless range balls, thereby accelerating the timeframe for a fresh set of scoring ...