Tour Striker Pro 7 Iron question

[kleraudio]

So I received this training club in the mail today and went straight to the range.  Hit a few grounders but then everything started taking off pretty nicely.

Problem is the club made contact with the ground before the ball.  Divot's deepest point was most definitely in front of the ball, but still hit a little bit of ground before the ball yet it still got up in the air nicely.  I thought this club was supposed to make you hit ball first before it took off?

Now I didn't put a divot in the ground before the ball or anything, just flattened a little grass.

The range was a fairway cut, on grass, so no fluffy lies or anything like that.

My irons shots with the regular clubs were definitely better after a half hour with the tour striker, but still, I thought it'd be a lot harder to hit than it was.

Any ideas?

[Vinsk]

I've hit this club too. I didn't experience hitting the ground first. But I tend to hit down pretty well on the ball and this club made me believe that. I found it quite easy to hit too. I figured my first few attempts would be blades but I hit it nicely from the very first outing with it. Did you notice if you were hitting the tour striker further than your regular 7i? I'm wondering if you were "sweeping" a bit? So a downward blow but planed out quickly at ground level? Hope I didn't confuse you.

[SCC4380]

How well you hit it out of the box depends on your swing. Some people will hit it well because they have a shallow angle of attack and forward shaft lean at impact. Anyone who doesn't have forward shaft lean or who is hitting behind the ball or trying to hit up on the ball will struggle with it for a long time. If you have a shallow angle of attack it is possible to touch the grass just behind the ball with the sole of the club and still get good contact, but that doesn't work if you have a steep angle of attack or hit well behind the ball.

[kleraudio]

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean by the sweeping? I was taking some pretty deep chunks out of the ground in front of the ball with both the tour striker and my regular 7. My regular 7 was going a little bit farther than the tour striker but my regular 7 is an RBZ iron so it's strong lofted. Can you explain the downward blow but planed quickly? :) I definitely noticed an improvement with my regular 7i right away but still.....

[kleraudio]

Scc, so touching some grass behind the ball is ok then? I just want consistency in my iron game :). The shots went off well so I'm guessing it's fine but I thought this tour striker would punish me till I got it perfect, that's why I bought it! :)

[Vinsk]

Well as SCC4380 said, you have forward lean of the shaft but a shallow AOA (angle of attack). So the face is striking the ball at an acceptable angle, but you're not optimizing your strike by hitting the ball FIRST with a DESCENDING blow. You're achieving this by having forward lean but with a shallow angle.

[jclark]

I would assume the opposite. If he is taking deep divots then I would think he is coming in too steep. Almost need to look at video to see what's going on. Just my 2 cents :-)

[Vinsk]

Video...def. But the way the club is made pretty easy to chunk ground even on a shallow angle if you're leaning the shaft. Could just be be ball positioning. If he's moving sod before the ball I'm surprised he's getting any decent strikes with the striker club.

[iacas]

What's the ball position like?

The simple fact is the bottom of the club and the ball will be contacted at almost the same time, the point is mainly to get the shaft leaning forward to hit the ball above the curved part that produces grounders or line drives.

Though I will say in softer soil you can "flip" and because the sole will go into the ground, you can still hit the ball above that "line" and on the "clubface" to hit it in the air, but it's not really doing it properly. Find a firm mat at the very least, or the firmest ground you can find.

[kleraudio]

Ball position in middle of stance just like my usual 7i. Club wasn't digging before the ball but I could see that I brushed just a tad before the ball. The divots didn't start till at or in front of the ball. If that makes sense?

[iacas]

Ball position in middle of stance just like my usual 7i. Club wasn't digging before the ball but I could see that I brushed just a tad before the ball. The divots didn't start till at or in front of the ball.

If that makes sense?

Okay. Seems fine then.

But move the ball forward a bit. It shouldn't be in the middle with a 7-iron.

[kleraudio]

So contacting the ground just before the ball with no divot is ok? I'll try to move the ball forward a bit and see how that goes. Love this place!!