Minor Adjustments For Golf Long Irons (Video) - by Pete Styles
Minor Adjustments For Golf Long Irons (Video) - by Pete Styles

So a couple of things that you could consider when you're trying to put a long iron back into play, a couple of things that you've got to do maybe slightly differently with your swing. The first thing I'd like to consider is the fact that you need to give yourself time. This is a long golf club. Potentially one of the harder clubs to hit because compared to the driver, the 3 wood might be longer. Generally they're going to have a tee peg behind them or underneath them. But actually with a long iron, a very difficult shot to hit. What we don't want to see you do is get quick and nervous and then rush your swing.

Because this club is long, it wants to be swung on a nice long arc. And a nice wide long arc would actually give you more time to strike the ball correctly. The next thing we've got to consider doing with this long iron is not trying to force it, and not trying to lift it. Generally you are going to be playing a long iron when you're a long way from the hole. So the feeling might be here that you need to force it. You need to hit it harder than you're comfortable with doing. You start trying to hit it really hard. You are generally going to find yourself quite off balance. Not making good balanced golf swings, not striking the center of the club is going to be quite a big issue. The one other consideration that I'd like you to have when you're hitting your long irons is just to focus on correct ball position. Now if you have the golf ball a little bit too far back in your stance during the setup phase, yes you might get a good contact. But by having the ball back, you are generally going to deloft it. Now notoriously long irons don't have a great deal of loft. And they are going to give you quite a low ball flight. So by having the ball too far back in the stance and hitting down on it could just encourage that too low ball flight, and it comes down before it reaches its optimum trajectory and it rolls out but not very far. So I’d like you to have the golf ball position just moved up in your stance a little bit. Potentially having it if it's on a good lie, this sort of position here, just a couple of inches from the in-step if it's a decent lie. Therefore we can play more of a sweeping blow, so turning back nicely, sweeping the ball into the air with a nice contact. So take your time with your long irons. Don't try and force it and just move the ball position up in your stance a little bit and that should help you get those long irons away nice and successfully. 2016-07-08

So a couple of things that you could consider when you're trying to put a long iron back into play, a couple of things that you've got to do maybe slightly differently with your swing. The first thing I'd like to consider is the fact that you need to give yourself time. This is a long golf club. Potentially one of the harder clubs to hit because compared to the driver, the 3 wood might be longer. Generally they're going to have a tee peg behind them or underneath them. But actually with a long iron, a very difficult shot to hit. What we don't want to see you do is get quick and nervous and then rush your swing.

Because this club is long, it wants to be swung on a nice long arc. And a nice wide long arc would actually give you more time to strike the ball correctly. The next thing we've got to consider doing with this long iron is not trying to force it, and not trying to lift it. Generally you are going to be playing a long iron when you're a long way from the hole. So the feeling might be here that you need to force it. You need to hit it harder than you're comfortable with doing. You start trying to hit it really hard. You are generally going to find yourself quite off balance.

Not making good balanced golf swings, not striking the center of the club is going to be quite a big issue. The one other consideration that I'd like you to have when you're hitting your long irons is just to focus on correct ball position. Now if you have the golf ball a little bit too far back in your stance during the setup phase, yes you might get a good contact. But by having the ball back, you are generally going to deloft it. Now notoriously long irons don't have a great deal of loft. And they are going to give you quite a low ball flight.

So by having the ball too far back in the stance and hitting down on it could just encourage that too low ball flight, and it comes down before it reaches its optimum trajectory and it rolls out but not very far. So I’d like you to have the golf ball position just moved up in your stance a little bit. Potentially having it if it's on a good lie, this sort of position here, just a couple of inches from the in-step if it's a decent lie. Therefore we can play more of a sweeping blow, so turning back nicely, sweeping the ball into the air with a nice contact.

So take your time with your long irons. Don't try and force it and just move the ball position up in your stance a little bit and that should help you get those long irons away nice and successfully.