Watson's 4-iron Practice

[McGolf-Doggie]

Decided to try Tom Watson's trick of starting out with 4 iron. Just small and partial swings,
to start.

Hey, it adds another bump and run, or low flying green seeking missle to the repertoire, I'm all for it. Forgot to use the word "if". But that's not the point. His point was that if he got his 4 iron going, he knew he was going to have a good day with the rest of the clubs.

Well I got the 4 iron going, but it didn;t exactly translate as hoped for.

1/3 and half swings to begin with and built up to a full swing. Started out pushing everything right, OR mis-aligned.

As those came under control, I shifted to the full swing and, things went surprisingly well for a 4 iron.

Even rolled two out to the target mound 190 yds away into a hefty 2-club wind. Carry wasn't that good 155-160 maybe, but there was a ton of roll because of the now-dry ground.

Usually there's a draw (or unseemly hook :( ) in my stroke so I know it's usually going to roll.

Don't usually hit the 4 iron that accurately. But once I figured out where I was aligned and going, things fell into place. Wonder if I can replicate.

Should have known the other clubs were going to be a battle today!

Shifted to the 7-iron and was suddenly fighting the hook again.

5 wood was just erratic and not as long as the 4 iron, as I was hitting them high today and they were dying in the wind.

Came out with some good old fashioned tweaked back muscles. hurting. Tomorrow's another day. .... For putting.

[i-Guy]

I staretd doing some version of this last year (useing a 7 iron) as my coach and I discussed how swinging a short iron to start forces your lower muscles to get invovled while being bent over etc...a long or mid iron to warm up just makes a lot of sense and in my humble opinion should only be used to warm up your muscles and to think about sequence...forget about results...after 10-15 balls like this then maybe go to a PW or 9 iron and start making full swigns with a purpose of finding your tempo for the day...just my 2 cents...

[McGolf-Doggie]

I hear you.

My point of reference when doing swing work is the 7-iron my instructor suggested. It falls nicely between all the others, and it provides a sufficiently long and revealing ball flight path. That in turn hopefully gives one an idea of the mysteries of what is going on at impact — i.e. what combination of swingpath and clubface angle is producing that phenomenal uber-draw that I can't seem to get rid of unless I make a conscious attempt to slice. But that's another story for another blog entry.


For me that's just an idea.

[McGolf-Doggie]

I hear you.

My point of reference when doing swing work is the 7-iron my instructor suggested.

The 7 falls nicely between all the others, and it provides a sufficiently long and revealing ball flight path. Sometimes the 6, sometimes the 8 when I want to give the 7 a rest.

That ballflight, in turn, hopefully gives the culprit an idea of the mysteries of what is going on at impact — i.e. what combination of swingpath and clubface angle is producing that phenomenal uber-draw that I can't seem to get rid of .... unless I make a conscious attempt to slice.

But that's another story for another blog entry.