Iron play

[Collie]

Hi guys - my problem is consistency and distance with my irons. Can't seem to "trap" the ball on the downswing, which means hands behing ball right? My ballflight is also not very good - up and high.... I am hitting my 7i about 140m , but i'm 6ft3inch tall , and get lots of distance with my woods. Please help.

[GreeBoman]

Re: Iron play

you think thats bad, right now Im
7iron = 120m
driver = 250m
5wood = 215m

The pain of ripping it down the fairway only to collapse over a 3iron from 150m...

[pnearn]

Re: Iron play

My guess is you are scooping the ball in the air rather than compressing it

I would suggest a number of things to work on

1. Playing the ball in the middle of your stance
2. At address make sure your weight is evenly balanced on both feet and dont 'lean' to the right.
3. Feel at address that your knees are pointed inwards a little such that you feel like your weight is on the insides of your feet or big toes
4. When you take the club back make very sure you turn your upper body around your spine and dont slide to the left. Feel as if your arms and hands are moving away from your left shoulder, dont let the left shoulder follow them sideways. Dont take the club straight back from the ball. Swing in a cirlce traced out by that turning motion. Keep that weight on the inside of the right foot and at the top try and keep the right knee pointed inside of your right foot. You should feel like your head and upper body stay more centered over the ball and a lot of coil/resistance in your right side
5. Swing down from there to a full finish with a light, tension free, connected swing of the arms

Scooping or hitting behind the ball (in my experience) was because I moved too far off the ball in the backswing in a misguided attempt to build width. This means you hang on your right side in the downswing and dont get ahead of the ball at impact. Width comes naturally from a good turn in the backswing (turn in a barrel) with the club low to the ground and arm/chest connection

If you stay centered over the ball then when you swing down, the swing arc will be naturally steeper as your weight moves onto your left side, meaning the bottom of your swing arc will now be in front of the ball, meaning you compress it into the turf meaning more distance/accuracy. Again dont force this move to the left with a violent slide, swing the connected arms (core) and your body will naturally shift the weight to the left leg (it has to)

As with everything try this with half swings first. My guess is once you get this centered feeling and compression at impact, you will start hititng your 7i more than 120 with a half swing

[OOM]

Re: Iron play -trapping

Collie

Trapping the ball means having your hands in front of the ball not behind it. If you can get hold of a copy of Ben Hogans Modern Fundamentals of Golf the position of the hands at impact is well illustrated. Having said that many players have harmed their game by trying to supinate.

A good mental picture to have is to visualise the creases on the back (not palm side) of your right wrist being creased at impact and then to hit through the ball taking a thin divot after the ball.

By the way this technique doesn't work very well on lush kikuyu fairways but at Fancourt where they're normally very short it should be OK.

Good luck

[Collie]

Re: Iron play

Thanks PNEARN , brilliant advice you gave me. Have to work on it but the couple of shots Iv'e hit were pretty darn good.