Should I Hit The Ground When Playing A Golf Iron Shot? (Video) - by Natalie Adams
Should I Hit The Ground When Playing A Golf Iron Shot? (Video) - by Natalie Adams

Should I hit the ground when playing an iron golf shot? The answer to this question is, yes. You need to be making a downward striking action with an iron to get the ball up into the air. If we look at how the club is designed, because as golfers we play with the ball it’s already on the ground, we can’t allow the club head to go lower than the ball before we hit the ball. If it does we are going to take too much ground, the club can’t get onto the ball to make an upward action. So you – and to get the ball into the air, so your golf iron has been designed in a way that this angle, the loft on the club face will get the ball in the air for you.

But in order for that to work, you need to present the club, so that the club face here strikes the ball, so we’ve got to work on getting the soul or the lead and edge of the club to strike the ground so that the ball connects correctly on that club face. If we get that downward striking action, then we are going to get the ball up into the air. If you make an upward striking action, you’re going to hit the top of the ball, so to get the downward striking action, the best way to do it is to make sure that you do hit the ground. However you don’t want to hit the ground before the ball, if you hit the ground before ball, all the club head spade is going to get transferred into the ground rather than the ball and the ball won’t travel very far. So here’s a great tip for you to work on. The next time that you’re at the range, especially if you’re hitting off the tuff, just take a Tee peg and place it opposite, where you are going to play the ball from. And what you want to look for is if you’re a right handed golfer, you want to look at how you take in your divots relative to that Tee peg. If the majority of your divot is on the right hand side of that Tee peg when you’re looking at it, you’re hitting the ground too early. If you’re not taking divot at all, you’re not making enough of a downward action. What you want to see is that you’re striking the ball and then taking the divot, then hitting the ground. So you’d be looking to hit the ground, just on the left hand side of that Tee peg. So when you’re at the practice range next, put the Tee peg in to give you a marker for where the ball was positioned, set yourself up to play the iron shot, strike the iron, and then once you’ve had a look at the shots and you’ve got the information back from there, then get some information from where the divot has been left, as I said if you haven’t taken a divot, you’ve not made enough of a downward striking action. If the divot is on this side of the ball, you’ve hit the ground too early, so you’ve lost distance on your shot, we want to see the divots taken from the Tee peg to the left. That will get you making a really good downward striking action, you’ll be hitting the ball first then the ground, you’ll be hitting some really nice crisp iron shots. 2014-05-20

Should I hit the ground when playing an iron golf shot? The answer to this question is, yes. You need to be making a downward striking action with an iron to get the ball up into the air. If we look at how the club is designed, because as golfers we play with the ball it’s already on the ground, we can’t allow the club head to go lower than the ball before we hit the ball. If it does we are going to take too much ground, the club can’t get onto the ball to make an upward action. So you – and to get the ball into the air, so your golf iron has been designed in a way that this angle, the loft on the club face will get the ball in the air for you.

But in order for that to work, you need to present the club, so that the club face here strikes the ball, so we’ve got to work on getting the soul or the lead and edge of the club to strike the ground so that the ball connects correctly on that club face. If we get that downward striking action, then we are going to get the ball up into the air. If you make an upward striking action, you’re going to hit the top of the ball, so to get the downward striking action, the best way to do it is to make sure that you do hit the ground. However you don’t want to hit the ground before the ball, if you hit the ground before ball, all the club head spade is going to get transferred into the ground rather than the ball and the ball won’t travel very far.

So here’s a great tip for you to work on. The next time that you’re at the range, especially if you’re hitting off the tuff, just take a Tee peg and place it opposite, where you are going to play the ball from. And what you want to look for is if you’re a right handed golfer, you want to look at how you take in your divots relative to that Tee peg. If the majority of your divot is on the right hand side of that Tee peg when you’re looking at it, you’re hitting the ground too early. If you’re not taking divot at all, you’re not making enough of a downward action. What you want to see is that you’re striking the ball and then taking the divot, then hitting the ground. So you’d be looking to hit the ground, just on the left hand side of that Tee peg.

So when you’re at the practice range next, put the Tee peg in to give you a marker for where the ball was positioned, set yourself up to play the iron shot, strike the iron, and then once you’ve had a look at the shots and you’ve got the information back from there, then get some information from where the divot has been left, as I said if you haven’t taken a divot, you’ve not made enough of a downward striking action. If the divot is on this side of the ball, you’ve hit the ground too early, so you’ve lost distance on your shot, we want to see the divots taken from the Tee peg to the left. That will get you making a really good downward striking action, you’ll be hitting the ball first then the ground, you’ll be hitting some really nice crisp iron shots.