Longer Club Dilemma

[Keith412]

So i had been shooting around 100 for a while now (this is my first full season of golf). Last week i shot a 95 and a 96 and finally broke the barrier..... but was very inconsistent off the tee with hybrids/woods/driver so i made a decision to use a comfortable club. So....I used my 6 iron off the tee on all holes minus the shorter par 3's (my 3 4 5 clubs are all hybrids, i have the cleveland launcher set).

I hit the ball better than i ever have in my entire golf live and shot a 92. I had 11 bogeys (missed 6 par putts), 1 par and 6 double bogeys(2 on par 5's, and 3 on par 3's). On all of the par 4's minus the long ones i was around the green in 2 shots chipping/pitching on. I was giving myself more par opportunities than i ever have in my life and it felt great. My dilemma is, what is the best approach to work in the longer clubs? One at a time? The longer clubs i find msyelf slicing the ball OOB or short and weak. I hit my 6 further off the tee and in the fairway than the rest of the clubs in my bag right now

Suggestions? Thoughts? Anyone else in similar situation (My course is only 5,600 yards so using the 6 didn't hurt myself all that bad). I was never reaching any greens in regulation with a driver/wood/hybrid due to weak shots

[WUTiger]

Possibly you are letting your hips get ahead of your hands on the longer clubs. Played the first time last week and had three banana slices off the tee - including two "play it safe" 3 woods.

Told my pro what happened, and he said to make sure I started with a smooth hand drop on my downswing. Went to the range, did a hand drop drill, and then started nailing good drives.

Lots of 20 HDCP golfers feel the need to "help" the longer clubs, rather than just swinging them smoothly.

[The Recreational Golfer]

If you can hit a 6-iron, there's no reason you can't hit a 5-iron. Hit it into the more forgiving fairways and say to yourself, "This is my 6-iron." Soon it will be a good friend and you can use it for all your tee shots. Then build in your next longest club in the same way. And so on.

[drglew]

Keith412,

your description sounds pretty common....longer clubs are harder to control, esp if your swing isn't so technically sound. Obvious answer is some lessons and/or video to groove a better swing (a common fault from your description is coming from too far over-the-top).

Quick fixes you might try are choking down on the longer clubs -- they will be easier to control (hey, Anthony Kim even does this). Also, for hybrids in particular it took me a while to convince myself to hit down on the ball more like an iron, probably just because of the chunkier clubhead. When i remind myself "hit down" i get much better hybrid (or even fairway wood) results than the topped worm-burners i used to hit.