Can it be a bad thing to hit Irons "too" far?

[WUTiger]

Any chance  you had an adrenalyn rush because things were going well?

I heard about this a few years back when I played in a pro-am scramble. Our foursome had a club pro who had played in some regional PGA events. He said that when he was on the leaderboard, he had to make sure he didn't "overjuice" his irons because he was pumped up.

He told us how he was tied for the lead once and  faced a 160-yd. par 3 with an OB over the back. He said he hit a 7 iron, and went over the No. 17 green and landed OB on the fly (180 yds carry, 20 longer than normal).  If you're excited, he said, you might want to take one less club so you don't "overjuice it."

Just a thought.

[lastings]

The answer to this question is both yes and no.   it really depends on your swing speed.  

If your swing speed doesn't justify the distance, then you are, most likely, de-lofting your club too much at impact and basically turning your 8-iron into a 7 or even 6 iron.   If this is whats happening then the answer to your question is, unequivocally, yes you can hit your clubs too far.   If this is the case, you will want to the mechanical flaw creating in.   when you line up to the ball, are your hands way out in front of your club head?    are your wrists not snapping through at impact? 

That said, if you swing speed is like 98 mph with an 8-iron.  then, no.   you swing like a pro and your 8 should be pushing that distance and it probably has a nice high loft and lands nice and soft.  

 

 

[Liko81]

On 8/6/2016 at 2:31 PM, ajw426 said:

1.   Is there any reason why I shouldn't try to keep hitting my irons as far as possible as long as I'm not over swinging?  

2.  If so, how do you recommend one go about toning things back in an accurate and consistent manner?

Regarding #1, I can think of two things. First, you say you're hitting your driver 275 total, but your 8-iron goes 195 and your 7-iron will go 215 on a good day. So essentially, every club you have from the 8 through the driver, which is 8 clubs if you start your irons at 4 and have a 3w and 3h between irons and boomstick, is covering a distance span of just 80 yards. Yeah, that's an average 11.5-yard gap between them (7 gaps between 8 clubs) which isn't too bad in general, but you have your shorter gaps at the long end of your game. Unless you have a plethora of par-3s beyond 200 yards and long par-4s beyond 450 that require precision approaches at fairly long distance for birdie chances, you usually don't need that many weapons on that half of your game; the average golfer, or even the scratch player, might only have 3 or 4 weapons beyond 200 yards, while you have at least 7 in your bag.

Meanwhile, the other six clubs in your bag, including your putter, have to get you anywhere you need to be that's within 195 yards of your lie. From 0 to 195 is better than 60% of the strokes you'll make during the average round, especially if your driver through long iron game is as good as this, and you're expected to use just 5 clubs not counting your putter for any shot from off the green inside this distance. Assuming a minimum full-swing distance of 100 yards with your highest-loft club (pitching or chipping anything shorter), you're covering 95 yards with 5 clubs, for a 19-yard average gap between full-swing clubs. If the hole falls directly between the expected total distances of the two closest clubs you have, even if you select the club and hit the shot perfectly, you can expect to have to putt from as far as 28 feet away. Yes, you can close the gaps by learning 1/2 and 3/4 swings for lower iron numbers, but those shots will behave differently from the full swings as far as carry and total distance, which could leave you with gaps in carry distance because the shots that have the closest total distance to what you want do so with significant rollout that you don't have.

As for #2, I recommend two things. First, with these distances and rollouts, I expect you're swinging fast and sweeping the ball. Some golf coaches tell their players to tee/address every shot from the same place in their stance, giving the player the same look and the same swing, increasing consistency of ball striking. If you're playing your irons forward, even if you're narrowing your stance, then you'll launch higher and spin less. You didn't say what clubs you play, but if you're using GI irons designed to lower the sweet spot and launch higher, this can contribute to the problem.

The solution is to launch lower and spin more, and the go-to method for that (without spending a dime) is to address your iron shots further back in your stance so that you hit down on them. When the clubhead's moving downward relative to the ball at impact, it will impart extra backspin, and with the club further back in your swing path at impact, the face will be delofted to launch lower. Just make small moves in your stance, so you can adjust your swing path to keep it straight (and avoid topping the ball by swinging too far in front of it), and watch what happens to the launch, carry and landing/rollout.

Second, if your ball striking is solid and consistent and your swing speed is high enough to get you the raw distances you state, but you're still hitting duffhammers (GI/SGI clubs) like Ping G-series, Titleist AP1 or Mizuno JPX base-levels, you should probably look into trading up. High iron swing speeds and consistent ball striking typically call for a "better player" iron marketed to the single-digit and low-double-digit cap crowd. There's a lot of selection available here depending on exactly what you want (between 5 and 15 handicap is the most targeted range of players by manufacturers in the sport, because these are the guys good enough to want to spend serious money getting better), but generally, irons in this class will have higher centers of mass and higher angles of loft for a given club, which with a higher average swing speed (7-iron in the high 90s or low 100s) will give you a lower launch and more spin than a GI/SGI iron intended to give those of us swinging our irons in the 80s enough pure distance to still play from the blues. You can still get "forgiveness" at the better-player level with cavities and stabilizers, but the irons will be designed with priorities given to the feel, accuracy and workability of the club instead of the pure distance and forgiveness that GIs are designed to provide.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Liko81

[natureboy]

On 8/6/2016 at 9:47 PM, billchao said:

Spin rate won't matter as much if the trajectory is good. High apex height and descent angle will more than make up for lower spin for holding greens, which is generally how irons are designed these days.

I think it also depends on green conditions too. Firmer greens with significant contour can tend to knock even a steeply descending ball with lower spin far from the landing spot due to the extra energy from the height being deflected laterally by the slope angle at the landing spot (unless the slope acts as a backstop).

A lower trajectory 2-hop & stop shot with lots of spin may tend to hold more contoured, firmer greens better as they meet the slope at a shallower angle with less vertical speed reducing chances for lateral deflection due to the slope angle. The surface friction from spin opposing the horizontal speed of the ball is what holds the ball near the landing spot. If the green is relatively flat then height usually helps even if the greens are firm.