Aiming for GIR

[prakcom]

Hello!
I am hitting my shorts straight without fade/draw. But somehow my shots are hitting left or right of the green (about 10 yards from the flag). There seems to some mistake in my foot placement in my address.

I keep my Right foot perpendicular to the target line and left foot about 20 degree towards the target and in this situation the ball fly straight to the right.
If I keep both feet perpendicular to the target line the ball fly towards the left of the flag.

Is this a problem due to this foot angle or posibility of my shift of weight lagging/leading the club head.

This problem is with the mid and long irons only.

Please advise how to correct this problem, as I am missing GIR all the times, due to this new development in my game.
Thanks in advance

[GoNavy]

Re: Aiming for GIR

The left shot when you close the left foot is causing the hip to lock or slow to turn as you get to impact, usually this makes the hands roll over quickly closing the clubface. Short iron require the lower body to really have to move and get out of the way. My suggestion is keep the foot flared, but open the stance slightly this allows the hips to get out of the way faster and your right of green will probably begin to go more on line. I use a slightly open stance all the way to an 8 iron for this same reason, because of the backspin put on the ball with these shorter irons drawing and fading is much more difficult to do..i.e..requires a much more acute angle of path to face alignment, so the cut action of the open stance is not really going to affet you that much over the benifit of getting the left hip out of the way faster.

[BrianW]

Re: Aiming for GIR

The ball direction tends to follow the line of the shoulders, maybe you are turning your shoulders as you adjust your feet. Cmays has the right idea in checking your alignment with a club across your shoulders and hips.

[BrianW]

Re: Aiming for GIR

Cmays,

I don't disagree at all. I was only suggesting that some players have a tendency to point their shoulders differently to the line of their feet and hips. GoNavy has made a good point in the hips blocking.

[CHRISMIKAYLA]

Re: Aiming for GIR

I am a newbie, what exactly is GIR and how do you calculate it? Is this something I should consciously keep track of on the course? I already keep up with fairways hit and putts per hole.

[prakcom]

Re: Aiming for GIR

The ball direction tends to follow the line of the shoulders, maybe you are turning your shoulders as you adjust your feet. Cmays has the right idea in checking your alignment with a club across your shoulders and hips.

Thank you all for the advise.
My shoulders are aligned correctly (as I tilt my spine away from the target slightly to compesate the drop in right hand grip).

GoNavy, can you please explain the "hip locking" in detail ... it seems my problem is more due to body shift. Btw, my driver gives me 250 carry straight drives, the problem is basically the directional precision of mid+long irons.

[GoNavy]

Re: Aiming for GIR

Thank you all for the advise.
My shoulders are aligned correctly (as I tilt my spine away from the target slightly to compesate the drop in right hand grip).

GoNavy, can you please explain the "hip locking" in detail ... it seems my problem is more due to body shift. Btw, my driver gives me 250 carry straight drives, the problem is basically the directional precision of mid+long irons.

Most directional problems with long irons are nothing more then just bad ball position.

As for hip locking, to get the idea, stand straight up with feet shoulder width a feet square (inside line on feet 90 degrees to toe line) now turn the hips left then right without allowing the knees to move. Notice you can only turn so far, then it locks, can't go any further. Now turn out one of the toes, flare the foot out, withever foot you turn, you can now turn that hip much further, but you will also notice you have limited the other side, it won't turn as much. The reason you set the right foot square is to limit the backswing, and you flare the left foot around 20 degrees to open the left hip. The mistake made is flaring the left foot 45 degrees thinking this will really help the hip open, and it will, but people forget that by doing that they just block the right hip from making the neccessary turn back. People overlook the fact that their feet can and do limit body action, you can set the feet to block or limit your body for almost anything, learning these limits can be very helpfull.

An example I gave on another thread about a three quarter swing, was to limit my hip turn, this results in a limit of my shoulder turn. I limited my hip turn by flaring my left foot more then 20 degrees and openning my stance. It is the old kids ryme, foot bone connected to the ankle bone, ankle bone connected to the leg bone...etc...

Why try to make yourself hit some imagenary point in space in a swing, when I can simply setup my body to only go so far then stop on it's own, now when I bang up against a limit the club is where I want it, don't have to think about it.