Do you dream of breaking 80 consistently? Sure. We all do. But to do it, you must learn to control ball flight with your irons. That way you can adapt your swing to the hole you’re playing. If you need to hit a fade, you can hit a fade. If you need to hit a draw, you can hit a draw.
Step one in controlling ball flight is hit crisp irons. This isn’t easy. In fact, it can be a real challenge for some players. But there is a small distinct set of commonalities that run through all good iron swings. We call these commonalities “keys.” Incorporating them in your swing helps you hit crisp irons consistently
Below are the five keys you need to master to hit crisp irons.
- Keep your head steady
This makes everything much easier. The average PGA Tour player moves his head about an inch during a swing. The average player in our golf lessons moves his or her head much more than an inch when they swing. We’re talking side-to-side motion here not downward during the swing. That’s okay.
Keeping your head steady does three things: It lets you see the ball without relying on peripheral vision. It helps you to make a 90-degree shoulder turn. And it sets the foundation for the rest of your swing. Put simply a steady head is critical to hitting irons solidly.
You must do this when hitting your irons. A PGA professional arrives at impact with 80-95% of his weight on his forward leg. The average weekend golfer at my golf instruction sessions arrives at impact with only about55% of her weight on the forward leg. That won’t work.
We train players at our golf lessons to shift their weight properly with this simple drill: Stick a training stick or old shaft in the ground about a hand’s width away from your front leg. If you bump into the stick when swinging, you’ve moved your weight forward correctly. Make sure you maintain the flex in your front leg when you move forward.
- Keep the front wrist flat
If you master the first two keys, achieving this key is much easier. A flat left wrist prevents the club passing the front arm prior to impact—a swing flaw that generates lots of fat and skulled shots. These flaws add shots to your scores and your golf handicap.
Here’s a proven drill that ingrains this move: Take a training stick and put it in the grip at the end of a club so that it sticks out about a foot. Now hit some balls. Practice hitting the ball first then the ground without letting the stick hit you in the stomach. If the stick hits you there, your left wrist wasn’t flat at impact.
- Hit along a diagonal sweet spot path
This key and the next helps you control flight path. You swing the club on a titled plane. It’s sort of like moving from a gutter on your house to the roof’s apex. In other words your backswing should follow a plane that goes back, up, and then in on the way down.
But when you come down, the club’s sweet spot travels diagonally forward, down, and then out toward the golf ball. Hit a few balls this way. Work on making good, solid contact when practicing this and forget about where the ball is going. That’s for the next key.
- Work on clubface control
After perfecting the key above, learning to control the clubface at impact is much easier. A golf ball starts in the direction the clubface is pointing at impact and travels away from that path. If the face is open at impact, the ball fades. If it’s closed at impact, the ball draws.
To hit a fade, the clubface must point left at impact if you’re right-handed. To hit a draw, the clubface must point right at impact if you’re right-handed. Vice versa for left-handers. Let the hole dictate what flight path to use.
Mastering ballflight is the last key to hitting crisp irons. Doing so will help you hit pinpoint approach shots, chop strokes from your scores, and whittle down your golf handicap. More important, hitting crisp irons will help you break 80 consistently.
I was wondering what you think of some of the new golf swing analyzers with apps that allow you to review swing plane, club head speed etc. Do you think they are worth the investment?