Golf Drill Tips: Irons flying too high - Ball too far forward (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Drill Tips: Irons flying too high - Ball too far forward (Video) - by Pete Styles

When you are playing golf, I think we all like to see that lovely high flying golf ball, the one that just arcs up into the sky, seems to take forever to come down before it lands on the green, but there can be issues where you are actually hitting the ball too high. So you are taking an iron and shot into the green but the ball actually goes too high. Now the issues related to that might be that when it goes too high the wind can have too much an effect on it, it can blow off sideways or if there is a headwind it will come down too short or if it goes too high, it might stall in the sky and actually come down too short and you are not getting the desired distance from any particular club. So in this next section of five videos, we are going to look at how hitting the golf ball too high with an iron can be a problem and how we can cure that if you have that fault.

So the thing that causes the ball to go high in the first place is generally going to be the loft on a designated golf club. So for example, here I have got a 7 iron and it is going to fly 7 iron height but if your friends are on the golf course hitting 7 irons at this level and your 7 iron levels are going up at this level, you might question whether that's working for you or actually working against you. Now if I take my 7 iron ball position as it should be, and then I get to my 7 iron impact position as it should be, you might just have a shaft that’s leaning slightly forwards of the club head. So it’s not straight vertical, it’s slightly ahead, and that’s a good impact position, so I am striking down on the golf ball slightly and that's going to give me a good contact.

So most iron shots that you hit don't hit the ball at the true loft on the natural club face, but actually de-loft by few degrees and that's a good thing. So if I now settled to this golf ball but have a pull ball position, and I have the ball too far forwards in my stance, its too near to my front foot, its almost like a driver or a three-wood position opposite my front instep, if I then make my swing and come back down to impact, there is a chance that my hands would be behind the golf ball at the impact position because the ball is too far forward its too near to my left side, I then implement more of a scooping action, scooping and lifting the golf ball from underneath, that's going to impart too much loft onto the club face hitting the ball too high into the air. So if you feel your iron shots are going too high, check the ball position.

The easiest way for that, lay the club down opposite the golf ball, think about having your pitching wedge and your sand wedge in the center of your stance, around about half an inch an adjustment for each club moving forward moving towards my front foot, half an inch per club, I am going to get to my driver. So my center position is pitching wedge in the center, 9-8-7, 7 iron just left of center and then its impact my hands would return just slightly ahead of the club head, de-lofting my club face by few degrees to give me a nice strong penetrating 7-iron rather than a scooping ball too far forward 7 iron that would go up into the air and not penetrate through the air, maybe get blown around by the wind and certainly losing distance. So check your ball position, if your ball is flying too high.

2013-03-22

When you are playing golf, I think we all like to see that lovely high flying golf ball, the one that just arcs up into the sky, seems to take forever to come down before it lands on the green, but there can be issues where you are actually hitting the ball too high. So you are taking an iron and shot into the green but the ball actually goes too high. Now the issues related to that might be that when it goes too high the wind can have too much an effect on it, it can blow off sideways or if there is a headwind it will come down too short or if it goes too high, it might stall in the sky and actually come down too short and you are not getting the desired distance from any particular club. So in this next section of five videos, we are going to look at how hitting the golf ball too high with an iron can be a problem and how we can cure that if you have that fault.

So the thing that causes the ball to go high in the first place is generally going to be the loft on a designated golf club. So for example, here I have got a 7 iron and it is going to fly 7 iron height but if your friends are on the golf course hitting 7 irons at this level and your 7 iron levels are going up at this level, you might question whether that's working for you or actually working against you. Now if I take my 7 iron ball position as it should be, and then I get to my 7 iron impact position as it should be, you might just have a shaft that’s leaning slightly forwards of the club head. So it’s not straight vertical, it’s slightly ahead, and that’s a good impact position, so I am striking down on the golf ball slightly and that's going to give me a good contact.

So most iron shots that you hit don't hit the ball at the true loft on the natural club face, but actually de-loft by few degrees and that's a good thing. So if I now settled to this golf ball but have a pull ball position, and I have the ball too far forwards in my stance, its too near to my front foot, its almost like a driver or a three-wood position opposite my front instep, if I then make my swing and come back down to impact, there is a chance that my hands would be behind the golf ball at the impact position because the ball is too far forward its too near to my left side, I then implement more of a scooping action, scooping and lifting the golf ball from underneath, that's going to impart too much loft onto the club face hitting the ball too high into the air. So if you feel your iron shots are going too high, check the ball position.

The easiest way for that, lay the club down opposite the golf ball, think about having your pitching wedge and your sand wedge in the center of your stance, around about half an inch an adjustment for each club moving forward moving towards my front foot, half an inch per club, I am going to get to my driver. So my center position is pitching wedge in the center, 9-8-7, 7 iron just left of center and then its impact my hands would return just slightly ahead of the club head, de-lofting my club face by few degrees to give me a nice strong penetrating 7-iron rather than a scooping ball too far forward 7 iron that would go up into the air and not penetrate through the air, maybe get blown around by the wind and certainly losing distance. So check your ball position, if your ball is flying too high.