Iron tee shots

[Rdangeau]

I am a 38 year old new golfer.  3 months into it.  Looking for suggestions on a problem I'm having.  When hitting my irons I have a lot of consistency problems, mishits,shanks etc.  But as soon as i tee the ball up I strike the ball really well.  Any suggestions on where I may be doing wrong. I'm hardly teeing the ball up at all just a little. I'm thinking its in my address or could be swaying on backswing 

[Artbij]

You just started to play golf. It is completely normal that you balls goes everywhere.

Nobody can tell you whats goes wrong just knowing the effect of the problem, is its nearly impossible to tell what the cause is.

 

Best generic tip: keep practicing!

 

Edited January 18, 2016 by Artbij

[DrvFrShow]

Good luck. Talk to some better golfers in your area and get some recommendations for good instructors. Sign up for some lessons to get started. 

 

[9wood]

2 hours ago, Rdangeau said:

I am a 38 year old new golfer.  3 months into it.  Looking for suggestions on a problem I'm having.  When hitting my irons I have a lot of consistency problems, mishits,shanks etc.  But as soon as i tee the ball up I strike the ball really well.  Any suggestions on where I may be doing wrong. I'm hardly teeing the ball up at all just a little. I'm thinking its in my address or could be swaying on backswing 

Been there done that. Best advice I could give someone is to keep your head down. The normal tendency is to want to look up and see where your ball is going. That's what causes many ball striking and directional problems. Focus on watching the blades of grass move as you swing through the ball rather than being in a hurry to pick up your head. You would be amazed at the difference this can make. Give it a try and see for yourself. 

Edited January 18, 2016 by 9wood

[Dave325]

As @9wood stated, the head is a big thing... You may want to review the videos for the first 2 keys... Have a steady head and weight forward. If your weight isn't coming forward it can cause a lot of what you are experiencing... Tops, shanks and thin shots. I had a lot of that issues this summer.

I would suggest posting a swing of yours in the MySwing forum, as there a lot of great golfers here that can assist with your issues a lot better than I can.

[natureboy]

Obviously more information is needed to know why with some confidence. What is your typical impact (fat. thin, topped) and ballflight (slice, push, hook, foozle) like?

It could be as simple as you are a bit more relaxed and make a better swing knowing you have a little margin of error. If I had to guess I would say it's likely that you aren't extending down to the ball enough (worried about hitting fat) with a tendency to thin contact so teeing it up puts the ball closer to the center of the clubface on your 'typical' swing. Since it's working you might try hitting off a tee on the range and tee it marginally lower over a number of range sessions until you are hitting as flush from a lie on the ground to try to carry over some of that confidence.

Edited January 19, 2016 by natureboy

[allenc]

7 hours ago, 9wood said:

Been there done that. Best advice I could give someone is to keep your head down. The normal tendency is to want to look up and see where your ball is going. That's what causes many ball striking and directional problems. Focus on watching the blades of grass move as you swing through the ball rather than being in a hurry to pick up your head. You would be amazed at the difference this can make. Give it a try and see for yourself. 

Thats probably why neither of these guys are any longer #1 in the world.  Shoulda listened to this tip.

My opinion is that the teed up ball gives you a bit more confidence and you swing more freely.

7 hours ago, Dave325 said:

I would suggest posting a swing of yours in the MySwing forum, as there a lot of great golfers here that can assist with your issues a lot better than I can.

+1

Its the only way you'll get any relevant advice from a forum.

[TheDIYGolfer]

On January 18, 2016 at 5:48 PM, 9wood said:

Been there done that. Best advice I could give someone is to keep your head down. The normal tendency is to want to look up and see where your ball is going. That's what causes many ball striking and directional problems. Focus on watching the blades of grass move as you swing through the ball rather than being in a hurry to pick up your head. You would be amazed at the difference this can make. Give it a try and see for yourself. 

There is a BIG difference between keeping the head down on the backswing and at impact..

When you consciously try to keep your head down at impact you are only hurting yourself (literally in some cases if you hold it there too long!).  The head will stay down for that critical moment of impact naturally as a result of a proper swing.  

Go check out the instructional content here on the site for sure if you're just a beginner!

[DaveP043]

On 1/18/2016 at 3:16 PM, Rdangeau said:

When hitting my irons I have a lot of consistency problems, mishits,shanks etc.  But as soon as i tee the ball up I strike the ball really well.  

To me,this sounds like an issue with confidence.  When the ball is on the tee, its easy to trust that it will get in the air.  When its on the ground, I'd bet you're trying to "help" it get up in the air, and "helping" usually means some type of unnecessary (and usually subconscious) manipulation of the club.  

[Yukari]

Sounds like lack of confidence is leading to swaying, i.e., trying to see where the ball is going before impact.  IMHO, this is typical for those who lack confidence in their swing.  They try to see where the ball is going before the impact, leading to swaying of the head position and all kinds of mishits.

When someone says "keep your head down" it generally means you are swaying too much.  And majority of the time it is due to trying to see where the ball is going before the impact.

[Rdangeau]

Thanks for all the help.  If this makes any sense..........on any given shot that I might make any/every suggestion that was given here could apply.  I'm now realizing that i have been over practicing and fatigue has been playing a major role in my bad shots.  I have been going for quantity of practice shots instead of quality.  Been hitting anywhere from 100-200 balls daily if weather permitted. Gonna back down to max of 50. I believe fatigue cause me to not get a good full turn therefore I would start swinging with my arms. Everyone's input has been great.  Am I on the right track or delusional?

[DrvFrShow]

I can't handle hitting 150 balls a day or even every other day. 100 is my max every other day and I save about 30 for pitching and chipping. So that makes 70 full swings per session. 

I'd also consider looking up some competent professionals in your area for some lessons.

[Lihu]

6 hours ago, Rdangeau said:

Thanks for all the help.  If this makes any sense..........on any given shot that I might make any/every suggestion that was given here could apply.  I'm now realizing that i have been over practicing and fatigue has been playing a major role in my bad shots.  I have been going for quantity of practice shots instead of quality.  Been hitting anywhere from 100-200 balls daily if weather permitted. Gonna back down to max of 50. I believe fatigue cause me to not get a good full turn therefore I would start swinging with my arms. Everyone's input has been great.  Am I on the right track or delusional?

It's not a matter of quantity versus quality, if you want to improve you need quality first. Lessons and get information on this forum.

 

This is just one link, there are many more. . .

[sirhacksalot]

Most of the advice that I am about to give is what I didn't do, as you know hind sight is... You can read on this forum and endless resources on the internet of ball flight laws.  And I think that as an older golfer starting (32) for me we are more susceptible to these things because for some reason we feel like we missed out on something our whole lives and want to drastically improve.  This can cause a lot of over analyzing constant unneeded grip and swing changes, etc. Lessons are always good advice.  But try to find a good instructor whom you communicate well with.  

That being said to get back on topic.  At least for me it wasn't head lifting or sliding etc, albeit those may have been symptons, when I was doing exactly what you are are talking about. It was because of hitting the ground too far behind or in front of the ball. When I would tee up I would stand a bit taller and it would limit the miss, basically a too fat or thin shot would still fly.  Others on here will be able to give better advice. 

If you are hitting off mats they can be less revealing if your are hitting too far behind the ball, obviously if you are too far in front it you will top it and get that feed back.  Spray foot powder, the white kind not the clear kind, is a great tool to have in your bag.  ( I should use it a lot more than I do) not only will spraying on your clubs face will show you strike.  but you can spray a line on the matt that you can see, and place balls one and a half to two inches in front of the line and hit balls.  As mentioned on this site befire most practice drills would be better performed with quarter and half swings to get the motion before just wailing at it like we want.  You will be able to tell on the mats if you were hitting the foot powder first which would be a fat shot on the course. If its reall bad it would actually be a fat then a thin because you were so far behind the ball that your club had time to hit the ground and almost miss the ball. ( my specialty if I am worked up) 

Good luck! Golf is Hard! But there isn't anything that I'd rather be doing.

[RussUK]

I try to keep things a simple as possible. I often practice using half swings and my full swing "feels" about a 3/4 swing, as soon as i swing to what i think is a full backswing it all goes to pot. 

There are many swing methods around that "simplify" the swing and many of these may be watching to see if you can glean any tips from them should you wish (some are garbage however so beware!)

Like the foot powder @sirhacksalot suggests, masking/painters tape on the face is a great lowcost substitue for impact stickers.

Aside from all that the Pro's on this forum are like the fountain of knowledge, so use them and welcome to the site

 

[9wood]

16 hours ago, Rdangeau said:

  I'm now realizing that i have been over practicing and fatigue has been playing a major role in my bad shots. 

That's often true of me. Over-playing for this 67 year old results in bad scores and bad shots as well.

[Rdangeau]

I don't always go to driving range so  after hitting all of  those balls I get to enjoy shagging them. Which adds to fatigue 

[Tee2Trees]

The technical reason for your problem is that the low point of your swing is not far enough in front of the ball.  You can get away with this flaw when the ball is tee'd, but not when hitting it off the deck.  Work on making divots in front of the ball.  There is a line drill or a tee drill for this.  In either case you are visualizing a target on the ground in front of the ball, and "collecting" the ball as you drive through the forward target.  And most importantly, don't worry about your head while making a swing!