I need help getting back to basics!

Basically every year this time of year I lose all of my game. This year my irons have deserted me 100%. I'm currently hitting half of my iron shots almost side ways to the right. When I do make an okay swing I'm getting no distance, and I'm making huge divots. I'm hitting the ball better left handed right now. Less then 6 weeks ago I considered my irons a strength. What can I do to get back to the basics of just hitting the ball in the air?

Here's what I do when I lose my swing.

Setup then slowly go to 9:00 in the backswing, pause and check the angles (club plane, left wrist set, left arm straight, turned into right leg/thigh/ground, spine inclined & tilted away from target). At that point my swing is effectively over. Just resume the shoulder turn back and rotate the hips through while trying to maintain those angles.

This is not a bad tip. I had a terrible problem with the shanks lately and the only thing to cure it was to greatly decrease my swing. Club down a few clubs and take smooth half swings so you can make contact and keep it in play. You'll be surprised how far the ball will travel and compared to what you were doing, you will make some shots. As your confidence grows you unconsciously start to lengthen your swing and still hit the ball well. When the swing goes off again, shorten it again and slow down until you get the confidence back. Through this process of slowing down and shortening your swing, you'll probably find out some fundamental things you were doing wrong and correct them.

i have been having the same exact problem this year with my irons. i was at the range yesterday evening and after i hit about 1 bucket of balls poorly i set up to hit my PW and looked down and noticed that i was setting the ball up way too far back in my stance

i laughed and asked if it could be that simple and sure enough i hit the other bucket of balls a lot better than the first.

so for me it was just simply how far back i had the ball in my stance.

I'm having the same problem. I hit about 20 balls in a row as good as I can possibly hit them, and then I shank everything off to the right for the next 20 balls or so......It's extremely frustrating. ANY advice, tips or drills would be extremely helpful to me as well.

A lot of this may have to do with your timing and tempo, the most fundamental of the fundamentals. Tour pros are always working on tempo. Try to feel that you are in good rhythm with your backswing and downswing. Your swing might not be bad, you might just be getting to quick from the top or deccelerating, both of which lead to all kinds of problems. If you were hitting it well and all of the sudden are hacking it around, then it is more likely a timing problem than a mechanical problem. They say that if your swing feels off for a few weeks, then it is a good idea to go get a lesson from a pro you like. That will help you more then us duffers giving you advice on the net .

I, too, have been having the same problem. I just started this year and at first i could hit my irons fine and my driver half way decent but i had no short game. Now i'm pretty decent on and around the green but i can't hit my irons at all. One thing that sometimes works for me is just telling myself to just let the club do the work. It stops me from trying to hit it to hard, which leads to me over rotating my sholders and then hitting it fat.

Similar thing happened to me and i just got it fixed,i completely lost my driver swing yet my irons and wedges were good,it lasted for about 5 rounds,i was hitting weak drives 60 yards plus shorter than i usually could all the time out of the t-box and pulling some of them to the left,i basically lost complete confidence in my driver and pure frustration was eating me up.Watching my buddies hitting 3 clubs less or more on the same holes while i should be hitting the same.What happened me was my swing got very flat and no hip turn and on the down swing i was pulling across my body and finishing with weight on my back foot(reverse pivot)I new i was doing the reverse pivot but just couldn't stop it.So last week at the range i was hitting my sand wedge
really good and after about 30 hits i stopped my swing just as i started my downswing,i took note of everything.My head was looking over my left shoulder and my left shoulder was pointing directly at ball and the rest of my body was perfect.I took my driver out and choked down on it to the bottom of the grip and started hitting it like my wedge,Moved back to the normal grip position and started banging them out,played a round yesterday and every drive was crushed and i have full confidence back in my driver now.So moral of story is if your hitting your wedges good do what i did.What happened me was frustration and basically i started lashing at the ball and trying to help it out there unknown to myself.Sorry about the long post.

Alright, so I went out to the range with a buddy of mine who is about a 3 handicapper. We golf together frequently, and he looks at me and just said that I wasn't shifting my weight during my swing, all of my weight was distributed backwards. Anyways, I started shifting my weight forward at an appropriate time and voila, it appears to be fixed.

What a great/frustrating game. On a positive note I went out and shot an 80 after hitting some range balls. With 7 drives over 300 yds. GPS verified.

Granted I'm in Denver, CO so my drives were probably 270-280 in real terms :)

Turn back fully against a firm right knee, swing directly down at the top not out, maintain your spine and leg angles through impact. In a nutshell your not doing one or more of these for some reason. Disconnect the head, keep it up in line with your spine and allow it to move freely back with the coil back.

Time for a long wedge session!