Pushing irons, but not woods

[EThePT]

I pretty consistently am pushing my iron shots out right, but my 5 wood is usually dead on straight. What might I be doing wrong?

[jcjim]

Knowing what creates a push is key...

1...A push is a club head that is traveling in to out just to the right of the target line with a square face to your path but it may be open to your target line...

2...A push fade is the above with a open face to you path...

Another possibility is you are sliding ahead of the ball before impact no 1 still applies...

What to do...if it is No 2... then what is probably happening is your left forearm is not rotating to square the club it's leaving the blade open....try hitting some balls rotating the left forearm counter clockwise in little increments...before impact...

If it's no 1..it depends on how far right [ if you are right swinger] it's going.. if it isn't radical you need to swing less to the right across the line..What to do get a 2x4 about 3 feet long...set the 2x4 long wise pointing in the direction of your target..Place a ball to hit 3 inches inside the 2x4 about in the middle of the 2x4...and hit balls...What you are doing is.. if you swing to inside out you will hit the 2x4...It will make you swing down the line more once you can hit balls without hitting the 2x4 and making good contact...This will teach you fast because you'll get instant feed back

Lastly if you are sliding ahead of the ball then you need to get a shaft stick it into the ground just outside your left foot [ for a righty ] hit a ball and if you hit the shaft you are sliding ahead of the ball ...You need to learn how to swing without hitting the shaft..in other words turn your hips more...Alittle slide is good but not more that about 3 inches...

[Keith White]

Take the club away as wide as you can, and start by drawing it back on the target line.  Keep the body still and feel as though your arms are as far as possible from the body, a big wide swing out and naturally coming back.  It may sound as though it would make it worse but golfs a game of opposites and it worked for me.

[saevel25]

I pretty consistently am pushing my iron shots out right, but my 5 wood is usually dead on straight. What might I be doing wrong?

Don't worry about hitting the ball straight. Most all golfers curve the ball a bit. If you hit a push with your irons then adjust your aim so the ball lands on the green. Nothing wrong with hitting a push. If it bugs you then I would post a video of your swing by creating a My Swing thread on the forum.

http://thesandtrap.com/f/4180/member-swings

[bm85]

Experiment!

If you feel you hit a particular club well, examine how you are doing that. In this case your 5w.

A sample outline of objectives I have used: Where is the ball located relative to the feet? Where is the shaft located relative to the body at address? Where are the hips and shoulders pointing? Come up with some more things yourself in regard to what you think causes your 5w to be good and straight. Once you have made note of all these things, strictly try and apply them to another club.

Attempt to keep as many things constant as possible when you're trying to isolate a problem (in your case a push that's undesirable) and make changes piecemeal. For example, avoid taking the club back one way with woods, and another way with your irons and then also doing something wonky with your hands to get a draw.

My preference is simplicity as a beginner and that is best achieved for me by keeping everything homogeneous. I like straight shots, and I desire roughly: the same address position, the same takeaway, the same ball position and so on to hit them throughout my bag. The only thing on my mind right now is first and foremost setup/alignment, then it's just moving my right hip back and up and keeping both hands in sync and boom. While rotating 3w/6i/Sw, and honing various targets I hit an entire bucket (100 balls) without dramatic error today.