Golf Drill Tip: Irons flying too high - Hitting too hard (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Drill Tip: Irons flying too high - Hitting too hard (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if you feel that you have issues where the golf ball is flying too high, particularly with your mid to short iron shots and its mainly going to be a problem on windy days. So if you got a big crosswind or a big headwind and the wind is going to disrupt the ball flight, you know, when it is strong enough the flags are really blowing out sideways and you think if I hit that ball up into the wind its going to swirl around and it is more difficult to judge. If you want to hit the ball fly it a little bit lower. One of the issues you may have is that you might have too lofted a club, so too high a numbered iron that you are then trying to hit too hard, so from 150 into a headwind if I have got a 9 iron or an 8 iron I am thinking, I will hit it into the wind, I will just hit it harder. What that really does is generate more back spin, more launch and it flies higher and higher and higher and into a headwind it will just hit the wind and just stall on the wind and then come down again, and it won't penetrate the air at all, so it will be much better if you are hitting your iron shots too hard, try to hit them softer but go up a couple of clubs.

So if the wind is quite strong, you might say its a two-club wind so it would be a smooth 6 rather than a hard 8, the hard 8 spins up in the air too much, stalls in the air and stops the smooth 6, generates a lower launch, a lower back spin as well and its going to fly through the air with a more penetrating trajectory coming down, therefore I need to allow for the wind less, so I don't have to aim across the side of the green over a bunker and expect the wind to blow it back in, I can hit a more straighter a profile of shot that would stay over the green and land on rather than out and around, so if you feel your iron shots are going too high, particularly on windy days, just be conscious that you are not trying to hit them too hard, go up a couple of clubs, make a little sort of three-quarts of knock down shot, try and play the ball lower and under the wind and just keep it a little bit more on target rather than allowing for the big swing as the one that has the stall on the breeze because it is into a headwind. So swing smoothly in the high wind, keep the ball flight down a little bit.

 2013-03-22

So if you feel that you have issues where the golf ball is flying too high, particularly with your mid to short iron shots and its mainly going to be a problem on windy days. So if you got a big crosswind or a big headwind and the wind is going to disrupt the ball flight, you know, when it is strong enough the flags are really blowing out sideways and you think if I hit that ball up into the wind its going to swirl around and it is more difficult to judge. If you want to hit the ball fly it a little bit lower. One of the issues you may have is that you might have too lofted a club, so too high a numbered iron that you are then trying to hit too hard, so from 150 into a headwind if I have got a 9 iron or an 8 iron I am thinking, I will hit it into the wind, I will just hit it harder. What that really does is generate more back spin, more launch and it flies higher and higher and higher and into a headwind it will just hit the wind and just stall on the wind and then come down again, and it won't penetrate the air at all, so it will be much better if you are hitting your iron shots too hard, try to hit them softer but go up a couple of clubs.

So if the wind is quite strong, you might say its a two-club wind so it would be a smooth 6 rather than a hard 8, the hard 8 spins up in the air too much, stalls in the air and stops the smooth 6, generates a lower launch, a lower back spin as well and its going to fly through the air with a more penetrating trajectory coming down, therefore I need to allow for the wind less, so I don't have to aim across the side of the green over a bunker and expect the wind to blow it back in, I can hit a more straighter a profile of shot that would stay over the green and land on rather than out and around, so if you feel your iron shots are going too high, particularly on windy days, just be conscious that you are not trying to hit them too hard, go up a couple of clubs, make a little sort of three-quarts of knock down shot, try and play the ball lower and under the wind and just keep it a little bit more on target rather than allowing for the big swing as the one that has the stall on the breeze because it is into a headwind. So swing smoothly in the high wind, keep the ball flight down a little bit.