Category Archives: Golf Swing Tips – The Irons

Are You Thinning Your Wedge Shots?

  By golfer | February 23, 2012 - 2:37 pm | Golf Swing Tips, Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

If you are thinning your wedge shots, the chances are you might be swinging the same way you hit your drives. It goes without saying that the angle of approach on the down swing for wedge shots needs to be more acute than with the driver. The driver golf swing is essentially a sweeping motion, while playing wedge shots with a driver swing results in thinned shots, and as we all know to our cost, these can have disastrous consequences on the scorecard. Assuming everyone has hit this kind of golf shot at some point in their golfing career.

Specifically:

“When hitting a shorter club, the angle of attack has to be between 6 and 7 degrees downward and the path has to be slightly out-to-in. This means the club has to travel to left after impact.

If you open your stance and try to hit down on the ball, you will be squaring the club to your target at impact. So the driver swing is totally different than the iron swing.

When you are on the practice tee go back and forth between the driver and the wedge. You should develop the technique for both clubs now that you know what to work on.”

Playing across the ball from out to in causes the ball to fly higher, and is just the golf shot you need to clear bunkers and other hazards. You never know when this shot is likely to be useful during a round of golf and it’s a good shot to try and perfect in advance.

Source 

How to hit a 6 iron – This Is The Way I Do It

  By golfer | March 16, 2011 - 9:42 pm | Golf Swing Tips, Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

This article is intended to give a general outline of how to hit a 6 iron. Whether this is off the fairway or from the tee, the method is the same.


If you are learning to play golf you soon realise that each club needs to be played differently. There are certain golf fundamentals that need to be in place to hit a golf ball correctly, then the golfer needs to be able to play each club in the bag to a competent degree.

I am not a golf teacher and this method of hitting a 6 iron is my own, but is written here in the hope it might help someone’s golf game.

Grip.

The grip is one of those fundamentals I mentioned above. I use my normal overlapping grip to play this club.

Stance.

There is lots of advice about how to stand to the ball, but for the 6 iron I like to have my weight mostly on my heels with my feet a shoulder width apart. I think this is a good rule of thumb for considering how far apart to have the feet at the address position, especially given that we are all physically different from one another, and of differing heights.

In normal weather conditions, I position the ball midway from my right heel at the mid point between my feet. I do this to give myself the best chance of hitting the ball before the turf. Every golfer dreads hitting the ground before the ball.

The Back Swing

Before beginning the backswing, I check that I am lining up the shot to the intended line of flight, with my feet square to the ball. This is the setup for a straight golf shot. When you get good at playing this club you can experiment playing an intentional draw or fade with a six iron. But first, you have to master the basics. I happen to believe that beginners at golf should first get used to playing at least one golf club well, before trying to play them all well at the same time.

I take the club back on the inside swing path and stop when my hands are at shoulder height. By then, my body weight will have shifted, to an extent, to the right leg, and while my left shoulder will be pointing to the ground, the hips will have rotated ninety degrees to the right.

Downswing

The down-swing is initiated by a leftward movement of the hips, and with the wrists still fully cocked until they are at the height of my hips, I then deliberately whip the club through the ball, and then follow through, keeping my head down. This uncoiling of the hips is the power base of the golf shot, and is where the power and accuracy of the shot originates. If you get this right, you will play good golf and you are on the way to a lower golf handicap.

The Golf Swing – How To Hit Irons Consistently

  By golfer | May 12, 2010 - 2:34 pm | Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

I don’t know about your golf game, but with mine I find the golf irons can let me down badly, sometimes. The problem is I lack a consistent swing speed. Sometimes I swing quickly, other times I slow my swing down. This is mainly because I have never learned how to hit irons consistently.

The irons are difficult to play, especially the long irons. The professionals and low handicap amateurs make it look easy. It should be easy. Seeing others hitting iron shots consistently is proof that it can be done. Why not by mid to high handicap golfers as well?

When I identify a problem with my golf swing I like to do some research, usually via books and videos, and then take to the practice ground and start hitting some shots using the new insights I have been learning about. I like to work on my golf swing rhythm in general, for all the clubs in the bag, because I know that if I can get a comfortable tempo going, then my golf shots with all the clubs will benefit.

Swing tempo is particulalry important with the golf irons. I believe that successfully hitting iron shots consistently is linked to a smooth and powerful golf swing. What I like to do to regain an even swing tempo with the irons is, pick up any iron club, address the ball, stand with the golf club well above the ground, holding the club out in front of me, and swing the club back and forth in a continuous motion.

By doing this I free up any feelings of tension, and I am concious of working on accelerating the club head through the ball at impact. This can be done without forcing it, if you are swinging the club smoothly.

For mid to high handicap golfers like myself, it is essential to learn how to hit iron shots consistently. I know if I don’t do this I am going to accumulate many wasted shots on my score card, and my round of golf is going to end being a frustrating experience.

Golf Swing Drills – How To Crunch Those Iron Shots

  By golfer | March 12, 2010 - 8:22 pm | Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

Would you like to know how to hit those crunching iron shots just like the pros hit them? If yes, then this is one of the best golf swing drills to teach you how to play them.

You might be wondering what I mean by crunching iron shots. It means striking the golf ball with the club shaft angled in front of the player, as you stand facing the golfer. Or, to put it another way, having your hands ahead of the ball at impact. When you strike the ball this way, you are effectively reducing the loft of the club.

Contrast this with reaching the bottom of the swing before the ball so that at impact the club shaft is angled away from the target. When you do this, you are trying to increase the loft of the club. The risk of hitting the shot fat or thin is greatly increased when this happens.

So how do you get the hands into the desired hitting position? The key to this is the position of the right hand at impact. The angle of the wrist of the right hand should be slightly hinged to the right as you look down at your hand position at the point of impact. This means that you will be squeezing the ball against the club face and the result will be a powerful strike of the golf ball. Put simply, keep your hands ahead of the ball at and through impact.

If you practice the correct hand position of the right wrist at impact enough times, you will find your brain will memorize it for you when you are playing on the course for real.

Now use this golf swing drill and go and hit those crunching iron shots.

Golf Iron Swing Tips – Learn How To Play The Golf Iron Shots

  By golfer | January 30, 2010 - 4:55 pm | Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

Many golfers lack consistency with the golf iron shots. This is hardly surprising when you look at the clubface of the long irons. The long irons particularly, have shallow and steep and faces, and the golfer needs to understand how to swing the club properly in order to play these clubs well and consistently.

This is the key to lower scores and a lower handicap. I am going to share with you three golf iron swing tips which will hopefully help to improve your golf game.

1. First, get yourself in the right frame of mind. I know from personal experience that a positive mental attitude has helped me to play the golf iron shots better. Believe that you can and need to play them well, because you do. Seeing the shot, from start to finish, in the mind first, helps me to focus on the shot and I am sure influences the outcome as well. If you do not focus on the shot before you play it, your mind could be all over the place.

2. The irons need a different kind of swing to the woods. You need to hit down on the golf ball, often taking a divot after striking the ball. The golf swing drills for the irons then need to be centred around practicing this action so that it becomes second nature on the golf course.

3. Study low handicap golfers, or golf professionals, and see how they punch their golf iron shots, taking a divot after the hitting the shot. This is a lesson in golf power and control. These raking iron shots come about by using strong hands and wrists, and by hitting the ball late on the downswing. The late hit, as it used to be known, is pivotal in hitting the golf irons effectively, so that is the mechanism you need to concentrate on most and try and improve on the practice range.

I hope these golf iron swing tips have started you thinking about how you can improve your golf game.

Golf Swing Tip – How To Hit Consistent Mid Golf Iron Shots

  By golfer | January 30, 2010 - 4:44 pm | Golf Swing Tips - The Irons
Comments Off

This golf swing tip is about lack of consistency with the golf irons, especially the mid golf iron shots. Does that strike a chord with you? That is when you are faced with a five or six iron shot into the green. There does not have to be a hazard in the way, and the golf shot should be easy enough for us golfers. But you know what happens as well as I do.

You hit the golf iron shot and the ball finishes somewhere to the right or left of the green, but not on the green, which is where we wanted it.

Even if you hit the golf ball straight, you still find yourself short of the green. If this is a regular part of your golf game, you definitely lack consistency with the golf irons. That said, you cannot expect to hit the green every time. Even Tiger Woods does not achieve that objective.

But you should reasonably expect to hit the golf green every other approach shot. That is not an unreasonable target for a mid handicap golfer. If you regularly miss the greens with your mid irons, here are a few thoughts to find out what is wrong.

In the example above where you hit a straight, but short of target, golf iron shot, the solution is obviously poor club selection. Do you know your distances with your golf irons? If not, try and chart those distances next time you are on the practice range, and document them for future reference on the golf course. The professional golfers do it, why not club golfers as well?

Check your alignment. That can so easily become off target and you do not always realise it. It is not easy to monitor this yourself, so ask a friend to check where your feet are pointing at the address.

Is there a consistent pattern to your shots that miss the green? Are they finishing to the left or right? Either one of those scenarios indicate a problem with the correct golf swing plane. You would need to analyse this for yourself, or with the help of a friend to see where the problem lies.

Be sure to check if you are keeping your wrists hinged until well into the downswing, as this will put you into the correct swing position at impact.

Don’t forget the mental golf attitude either. Adequate mental preparation before hitting a golf shot pays off because it reinforces what you have already visualised in the mind’s eye. If you see the golf ball landing on the green before you hit it, the odds of this actually happening are much higher. If you do not believe me, try just walking up to the golf ball and hitting it without any mental preparation at all, and see what happens.

In conclusion, if you are having problems with hitting the mid irons, go back to basics and check you are applying the correct fundamentals of golf.