Getting a little more distances with irons...

[onthehunt526]

I hit the hell out of my driver, I average about 250 (carry) off the tee, I have popped a few in recent weeks 280-290... My irons not so much... Possibly due to inconsistent contact my distances 4-iron thru gap wedge are as follows: 4-iron: 182 yards 5-iron: 172 yards 6-iron: 162 yards 7-iron: 151 yards 8-iron: 141 yards 9-iron: 131 yards PW: 120 yards GW: (50°) 100 yards When I get decent contact that is. My contact 7-PW is pretty consistent, just thinking I hit them a little weak... My impact is OK, but I think maybe I'm hitting them with not enough compression... I'm looking for around 180-185 with my 5-iron, or around 160-165 with my 7-iron... Tim Lane (he won the Ithaca City Golf Championship for the fifth time in a row this year)... Told me my trajectory isn't the problem. It's my impact... I know about the 5 swing keys... Are there any drills you guys know that would help me, improve my impact with my irons... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Shane

[Rich1212]

Stop swinging your irons like a driver.  I will bet your swinging your irons way to hard.

You can hit a ball as hard as you can and make perfect contact and it will go.  You can slow down your swing a little, make perfect contact, and there will not be more than 3 yards difference, so slow down and use a softer ball also that are also lower spin balls. The less a ball spins, the farther it will go.  We all dont have to hit ProVs.   Go to the range, take some practice swings and see EXACTLY where your club contacts the ground.  I mean each club.  Where ever your club hits the grass first, is where you need to play the ball.  I see people play the ball in the middle of their stance and consistently hit fat because the first contact is an inch behind the ball. Again, DONT SWING HARD LIKE A DRIVE.   Use a slower back swing to allow a smooth transition to the downswing and all should be well shortly.

The other misconception is distance.  I do not care how far a particular club goes, I just make sure it is in the middle of the fairway or green.

290 in 3 inch deep rough is not near as good as 240 in the cent of the fairway.

you might also try 17 degree 3 wood and 19 degree 5 wood for more air carry.

[onthehunt526]

Stop swinging your irons like a driver.  I will bet your swinging your irons way to hard.  You can hit a ball as hard as you can and make perfect contact and it will go.  You can slow down your swing a little, make perfect contact, and there will not be more than 3 yards difference, so slow down and use a softer ball also that are also lower spin balls. The less a ball spins, the farther it will go.  We all dont have to hit ProVs.   Go to the range, take some practice swings and see EXACTLY where your club contacts the ground.  I mean each club.  Where ever your club hits the grass first, is where you need to play the ball.  I see people play the ball in the middle of their stance and consistently hit fat because the first contact is an inch behind the ball. Again, DONT SWING HARD LIKE A DRIVE.   Use a slower back swing to allow a smooth transition to the downswing and all should be well shortly. The other misconception is distance.  I do not care how far a particular club goes, I just make sure it is in the middle of the fairway or green. 290 in 3 inch deep rough is not near as good as 240 in the cent of the fairway. you might also try 17 degree 3 wood and 19 degree 5 wood for more air carry.

I do tend to get quick on the transition with the irons... I'll try the smooth swing and find out where my ball position needs to be... It's a start... A small goal, that will help with my big goal. I've also heard soft relaxed wrists, helps make the sweet spot easier to contact... Is there anything that would help facilitate this feeling?

[Lastpick]

Go to a reputable instructor that can measure swing speed/ball speed(aka-smash factor).  If your swing is really good, then perhaps your shaft is incorrect or maybe a different ball.  If these distances are something you can consistently hit your irons, I don't see the problem.

[onthehunt526]

Go to a reputable instructor that can measure swing speed/ball speed(aka-smash factor).  If your swing is really good, then perhaps your shaft is incorrect or maybe a different ball.  If these distances are something you can consistently hit your irons, I don't see the problem.

I agree with that... I think it may be a contact issue though... @Rich1212 I tried the swinging easier and ball position tip that you gave me... It worked in the shorter irons 7-AW very well, the 5 and 6 pretty well, and the 4-iron well... I was getting about 5-7 yards per club on average only doing ¾ swings with every club... I'm going to try slightly longer swings tomorrow... See if I can't get it to be 160-165 with my 7-iron.

[snackdaddy]

I'm far from an accomplished golfer.  I struggle to break 90 most times.  And I watch so many training videos on youtube, golf channel, etc. and so many of those just don't sink in with me.  But there was one tip from a youtube instructor that seemed to click for me.  He said to pretend your club is a whip.  If you take a whip and swing the motion like a golf swing the part of the rope closest to your hands will be in front of the tail end.  Then the tail end catches up and whips through the imaginary ball.

I was having trouble with cutting across the ball and causing sharp slices losing distance.  Or over correcting and causing a snap hook.  So I went out to the range and tried swinging the clubs like it was a whip with my hands being part of that whip. And I'll be danged, it went to an immediate draw on the 7 iron.  I slowed my swing down and it went straight.  So I did this with all the clubs and everything was so much better.

I did have to sacrifice distance with slowing down the swing in the beginning.  I started trying to hit everything at 2/3 distance by slowing everything down.  But before long the distance came as long as I focus on the right swing speed.  Too fast and it doesn't go straight.  Too slow and it loses distance.  But when I get a good rhythm my contact is better and the distance is fine.  My 7 was about 150 with my old swing but all over the place.  It went down some when I slowed down a lot.  Now its back to 150 but smoother feeling.  And contact is more consistent.  Less mishits.  I just gotta keep practicing that rhythm and whip motion.  Its not as easy as one would think to slow it down just right on a consistent basis.

I don't know if this works for anybody else, but it helped me.  And the slower swing speed means I don't get worn out hitting a larger bucket of balls.  I used to use a smaller bucket because that aggressive swing would wear me out.  Last time I went out I felt like I wasn't finished.  I still had plenty of stamina.   Before I would hit the last 20-30 balls with the pitching wedge just trying to pitch it 30 yards because I was so tired from trying to kill it.

[onthehunt526]

Stop swinging your irons like a driver.  I will bet your swinging your irons way to hard.  You can hit a ball as hard as you can and make perfect contact and it will go.  You can slow down your swing a little, make perfect contact, and there will not be more than 3 yards difference, so slow down and use a softer ball also that are also lower spin balls. The less a ball spins, the farther it will go.  We all dont have to hit ProVs.   Go to the range, take some practice swings and see EXACTLY where your club contacts the ground.  I mean each club.  Where ever your club hits the grass first, is where you need to play the ball.  I see people play the ball in the middle of their stance and consistently hit fat because the first contact is an inch behind the ball. Again, DONT SWING HARD LIKE A DRIVE.   Use a slower back swing to allow a smooth transition to the downswing and all should be well shortly. The other misconception is distance.  I do not care how far a particular club goes, I just make sure it is in the middle of the fairway or green. 290 in 3 inch deep rough is not near as good as 240 in the cent of the fairway. you might also try 17 degree 3 wood and 19 degree 5 wood for more air carry.

It works, I do get more solid contact and more distance with an easier swing... I found when hitting most of my irons I was playing the ball marginally too far forward, like about a ball or so... I am now consistently in the last two sessions a club longer, swinging smoothly, but aggresively... At first, I was pulling it a little, and such, now I'm more solid, mishits are still a little short but it's better... Now my distances are better: 4-iron: 192 5-iron: 182 6-iron: 171 7-iron: 161 8-iron: 150 9-iron: 139 PW: 127 GW: 110 (I was maxing at 120 with this with nice contact)

[marklemcd]

I'm currently in a similar place as the OP.  In my lessons we worked a ton on keeping my head steady.  That got all my contact to be much better, and we've transitioned to getting my weight forward and turning properly in the backswing.  My driver distance has gone from 215 to 250 regularly and sometimes I can bomb in out there (relative) 270.  It didn't immediately translate to my irons until we worked on it.  Irons are different that the driver, and I wasn't getting my weight forward correctly.

I've been "feeling" like I'm doing 3/4 swings with the irons where I concentrate on weight forward.  It's working.  My 5 iron is going 190 right now.