With irons, need to make clean, crisp contact at impact. But that’s easier said than done—especially for weekend golfers. As a member of this group, you don’t play as often as a professional golfer. Nor do you practice as much. So it’s easy for you to form bad habits that prevent you from making solid contact at impact. You need to change this if you want to break 80.
Below are five keys to making solid impact:
1. Position the ball correctly at address
2. Keep your head behind the point of contact
3. Open your shoulders at impact
4. Strike the ball with a descending blow
5. Lift your back heel to transfer your weight
You’ll see many different iron swings on the course. But the best players all have almost identical positions at impact. Here are the keys to making clean contact at impact.
• Good impact starts with correct ball positioning at address. If you position the ball too far forward, you’ll probably hit it “heavy.” If you position it too far back, you’ll probably hit it “thin.”
• At impact, your head is behind the ball—with your body weight flowing forward and your hands leading the clubhead into the ball at impact.
• Your hips and shoulders are open at impact. That creates room for your arms to re-lease the clubhead down the correct path through the ball. Your head and upper body are over the ball.
• Iron shots are struck with a descending low. A ball-then-turf strike produces crisp, clean contact.
• Iron swings end with you lifting your back heel as you transfer your weight forward. Kick in your back knee at impact as well.
Work on this drill to keep iron strikes clean and crisp at impact:
Address the ball in the ideal impact position. Move through the backswing, shifting your weight onto the front side. Return your body weight to front side, swinging through origi-nal address position. Move through a balanced position. Your weight should be on your front foot when you complete the swing.