Great off the tee, strong short game... can't hit my irons anymore!

[DDBowdoin]

I'm being told that "I'm cupping my wrists"... and I'm not exactly sure what that means but this season I have not been hitting my irons my normal distances. I'm hitting every iron a mile in the air but am losing consistency and distance.

I have a killer short game which helps my scores but I'm not hitting greens! my scores are deceptive because I have to rely on my wedge game to get in tight, which I'm pretty confident with, but I have seen more and more bogeys due to 5-8ft putts which I'm not always 100% about

I'll try to post a video at the range this week but am waiting for the small heatwave to pass through

anyone else experience this or sound familiar?

[sonicblue]

Driver can be very forgiving. I think a full iron shot is the least forgiving of all. I have a friend who has a severe upward swing - he crushes towering drives, but constantly chunks irons/full wedges. His short game is coming around because he's finally learning half-swings, in which he can tilt his plane downward.

Are you cupping on your backswing or at impact? If cupping on the backswing, it's likely your plane is too steep, and it's very hard to hit irons coming in steep. If cupping at impact, which sounds more likely given your symptoms, it will absolutely increase loft to the clubface, but it means you've completely lost wrist lag, so you'll hit with no power, leading to high, short shots (usually pushed right as well).

Take your address position as normal. From there, open your hips just slightly, open your shoulders slightly, get your weight about 75% on your front foot and press your hands toward the target slightly. That's your just-before-impact position.

You can do this in your living room. Set up to a ball and put a big couch cushion or something right in front of the ball (like 6"). Then, tweak your setup as described to your impact position. Take the club back just a little, maybe 12-18", using just a very slight wrist cock, then bring your hands back to impact, with that same "forward press" hands position, and hit the ball into the cushion, and follow it so your club hits the cushion as well, all while keeping that proper hands position at impact. This will get you to feel the proper delofted position at impact (and I think you'll also be surprised at how firmly you can strike the ball with such a tiny motion).

[Sickman]

I've been having serious problems with my iron play recently. Routinely hitting 8+ fairways and less than 4 greens. Funny thing is, my short game is the best it has ever been. Someone told me it's because when you don't hit greens, the short game gets lots of practice. Makes sense, but I'd rather have some birdie putts.

[beung]

Where are your misses, left or right - or are you just coming up short?