Help with swing!

[MichaelScarn]

Hi there,

I went to the course yesterday and had the worst time with my irons and wedges. Usually those are the clubs I feel most confident and comfortable with but yesterday was just awful. I'm still new and have never gotten a lesson but plan on going to one in the following week now that I'm becoming more serious about golf. The ball would zoom out at a low trajectory to my right (i'm a righty) and just roll maybe 50 or so yards no matter what club I used. I was 75 yards from the hole and got my wedge out and the ball zooms off to the right and almost hit someone!

I don't have a video of my swing, but what usually causes this type of problem? Is it because my grip isn't strong enough? Open club face? Not looking down on the ball?

It was very frustrating trying to do a nice little wedge shot from 50 yards out and the ball zooming into the trees. :(

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

[RPMPIRE]

There are plenty of reasons that the ball could be doing that. The most obvious I can imagine is you may be coming off your stance on impact. Basically, you stand up as you come down to hit the ball.

Another reason is there is no weight transfer from your back foot your forward foot. (If you're using a traditional swing and not S&T;). Of course, without a video it's hard to say.

One practice technique I do to keep me from standing up and also keeps my shoulder square at impact is on the start of my downswing, I "feel" like I'm trying to keep my back facing the target. Also, work on tempo because when I was a beginner, I always rushed by downswing. With short irons, especially wedges, you don't need to have a lightning fast swing.

If you can post a video, we can take a better look at whats wrong.

[MichaelScarn]

I just went to the driving range and worked on my wedges and irons. I put some duck tape on the face of the club to see where I was hitting it. Whenever I had a crappy shot that I described above the indentation was always right on the heel of the club near the connection of the shaft. I think I've just been mishitting the ball. When I tried to reduce my backswing and not go so far back and follow through with a nice easy swing I noticed that my balls were flying a lot straighter and i was making solid contact on the face of the club. Thanks for the advice!