Quite often golfers will ask me how can I hit my iron shots higher Pete? I really want to see those balls that shoot high up in the air and fly a long way and land and stop on the green when they come down, when all I can do is just scoff it in across the floor and it has to roll. So if you want to try and fly the ball a bit higher, we’ve got to consider two really key things. First one is correct ball position. Now ball position is a bit awkward sometimes because it’s not set exactly the same, with every single club. We have a slightly moving ball position for different clubs. So very simply, we’re going to start with your wedges in the exact centre of your stance and then try and move half an inch per club as you go through your bag. So we’ll have nine, eight, seven, six, five moving across with your longer irons to your driver so the driver sits right up on the instant. So it’s a gradual moving part in the ball position. So I’ve got an eight iron here, so I’m just going to have it just an inch ahead of centre.

Now having a good ball position will help me get a good strike and should help me get the ball up in the air. And the one last way that you can encourage a good high flight on your golf balls, is maybe slightly counter intuitive. A lot of people think to hit the ball high they need to be leaning back and scooping the ball. The reality of that is they’re probably not going to strike it very well. They’re going to hit the ground first or top the golf ball. Maybe if the ball was up on a tee peg leaning back and hitting from underneath would work. But most of your iron shots are played straight from the ground. So the best way to actually get the ball airborne is to trust that the club will do that a bit for you, as long as you get a good angle of attack and a good strike.

So to get a good angle of attack, we actually want to be hitting downwards onto the golf ball. Moving the body weight into the left side and the club is descending through the impact zone, hitting the ball, then hitting down into the tuff. So I’m going to set myself up nicely now with the ball just slightly ahead of centre, I’m going to be striking down so the club head is going into the floor, hitting the ball then a divot and that will produce a nice high flight because I’ve got an A time, my A time will always hit the ball in the air, it’s still in the air, still in the air, still in the air, now it lands. So you can appreciate by the time that was in the air, is quite a high long flying golf shot. So when you’re striking down and you want to hear the ball go higher, good solid ball position, nice strike down into the ball, pop it up with a good divot, and that will give you plenty height on your shots. Avoid leaning back and trying to scoop, that’s not going to work for you.