Short iron problem

[AlanN]

Over the past few weeks, I have been practising to change the shape and timing of my swing. As a result, I am hitting the ball further and straighter than I have ever done (with the longer clubs).

I really want to get my handicap down from 20. In the last two rounds that I played, I have had 6 or 7 pars but, too many double or triple bogeys. It is some short iron shots that are wrecking my score card. Strangely enough, I don't have any difficulty with the LW, even off a tight lie.

The problem shot is a ball flight that is way too low. Unfortunately, this ball flight mostly seems to occur when I have to go over trees or water. The ball never gets higher than about 8-10 feet. The end result is crashing into the trees or splash!!

This is very frustrating as, before I changed my swing, I never had any difficulty with the short irons, apart from the very occasional s***k.

The changes I have made, to my swing may have some relevance to these low short iron shots. I have flattened my downswing, so that I am hitting in to out and I keep my weight on the back foot for a split second longer than I did previously. Also, I make a conscious effort to get a full shoulder turn.

Any ideas people? Thank you.

[steg90]

Re: Short iron problem

Hi,

Does the ball just fly lower or does it fly low and turn a little to the left ? Is the contact on the ball fine i.e. not thin ? A flatter swing generally will mean you will be coming into the ball on more of an inside attack which suggests you may be hitting the ball with a closed club face, although I could be wrong !

Regards,
Steve

[GregJWillis]

Re: Short iron problem

Flattening out the plane will get you lower (and as you saw longer irons). Keeping this plane flat is definatly what is causing the SW-PW to stay lower as well, but not 10 feet off the fround flat...there is something else going on there.

For these SW-PW shots, lets start with allowing your arms to raise up a little higher, not a lot, just enough to get the plane more upright.

Then, I suspect that you are not letting your clubface open up so the toe points to the sky when you take the club back and have the shaft parallel to the ground. This is not done with the hands. It is done by allowing your right arm to relax. The left arm will naturally fold over the right a little, and this causes the face to open up. This way, raising up the arms gets you a very simple gravity driven acceleration back down. The re-folding of the right arm back over the left will happen naturally where you will not even think about it.

Then the last item is the hands and the wrists. Allow them the ability to play a little more role of "Lets hit this shot" at impact. It's easy to try to let them completly overpower the overall swing, and that is always too much, they want to get involved just a little more then normal. This promotes a slightly steeper angle downwards getting the ball higher.

Hope this helps. Good luck. Great to hear you playing better! Simple stuff like this can make the scores drop a good percentage and that will feed the rest of the game...I know that getting mad at the opportunity you gave yourself after a great drive, only to hit a bad PW will do to the confidence.

[AlanN]

Re: Short iron problem

Thanks Steve and Greg.

Sorry guys. I forgot to mention that I'm a leftie. No problem; all my golfing life I have got used to transposing left for right and vice versa.

@ Steve. The clubface isn't closing. The ball is going straight but, low.

@ Greg. I will try and work on this. In fact, I've just come back from the driving range, in an effort to cure the problem. Still hit some low ones. As luck would have it, I didn't get your replies until I came back home

I may go over to our club practise ground, this afternoon, and work on your suggestion. I'm entered in an Open this Saturday. I know that I have a chance of winning, if only I can cure this damned low shot. I played a match, yesterday, and was 5 up after 9 holes. I was playing equivalent to a 10 handicapper. Then the low shot appeared and my confidence went on holiday for the next 9. My opponent levelled by the 17th. Fortunately, I managed a par at the last to win by 1. Not what I want or, should be doing!!!!!!

What a frustrating game this is.

[steg90]

Re: Short iron problem

Hi Chris,

Good luck with the comp !

Are you hands not getting too far ahead of the ball at impact ?

Regards,
Steve

[AlanN]

Re: Short iron problem

Greg,

I went over to my club practise ground, this afternoon, armed with a tube of balls and a PW. You were spot on with your fault diagnosis. For some strange reason, I was taking the club back with the face closed, with the short irons. I had no idea I was doing this.

The only hiccup was that when I got my hands higher, I tended to hit very fat. Was this an over compensation from too flat to too steep? I flattened the swing very slightly to stop this and began to hit the ball very solidly.

The odd low one came from coming out of the shot slightly early, which resulted in me not getting to the bottom of the ball.

Thanks a million.

[AlanN]

Re: Short iron problem

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your help and good wishes.

I assume your post was for me, but you said Chris, so I wasn't sure

[steg90]

Re: Short iron problem

Ooops, sorry ! It was for you Alan, think I had been posting previously to Chris in another thread.

Best regards,
Steve

[msklar92]

Re: Short iron problem

If your hitting your other clubs well, it may be a matter of ball position for the shorter clubs. You maybe be reaching for the ball on your short irons. Reaching can lead to a flatter swing becuase when the shoulders turn the club head goes too far inside the target line. Make sure there is an angle at the wrist joint at address.

[AlanN]

Re: Short iron problem

Thanks Msklar.

I'm confident that Greg's advice, to fix the fault, has done the trick. It, certainly, seemed to make a huge difference when practising. I'll find out tomorrow, when every shot counts.

[AlanN]

Re: Short iron problem

Greg,

Pleased to report that I got my short irons up in the air,today. As a result, I came 6th of 77, in this open comp. Shot 17 over and have had my handicap cut from 20 to 19. Hooray

Thanks a lot.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Short iron problem

Great job! Glad to hear it helped.