How To Crunch Your Irons – by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
How To Crunch Your Irons – by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will show you how best to crunch your iron shots. Improve the strike of your golf irons by utilizing a technique of taking a divot after the golf ball, which will help you to understand how you strike the ball before the turf. You'll improve the ball striking by utilizing practice swing drills to encourage correct bodyweight motion which will also help get the feeling of the correct body movement.

One of the key differences that we often see between club golfers and professional golfers is how they take a divot. So often we see golfers who think so the beginning golfers and early stage club golfers feel that divots are bad if it should be should be some frowned upon. An anomaly because of bad golfers take divots. Now when you watch the guys on T.V. you look back away walking around he's out you know a great big piece of the turf on the line. So we know that good players take divots. Yes I think the difference is good players know where to take divots which clubs to take a divot and how that divot should look. A lot of club amateur golfers maybe they take divot and they associate it with bad shots, yes I'd agree yeah. Why's that why does that if not look the same as back always do it's where I should alluded to there where they're actually connecting with the golf ball where the clubs bottoming out relative to that golf ball with your beginner or you know high handicap or what we're seeing is that the club bottoms out before the golf ball. Once you went and stood on any tour range what you'd see is like you say ball then turf connection of it is coming after the ball. We're getting that solid compression right where the club actually just bottoms out just slightly underneath the golf ball and it doesn't have to be the biggest divot just so you know. Sometimes taking nice little ones just bruising that turf but it's always ball than turf. So if the club is coming down and it hits the ball no turf even though it takes it to the ball still flies full this still going strong maximum force imparted on it. If the club is coming down it hits the ground 1st what things we're going to see that are going to see a lot a lot of distance loss from that shot might sometimes you know and worst case scenarios the divot will go over the ball and it will just trickle off a couple of yards.

Generally what we'd see is one where let's say your hitting 7 iron and it goes a 130 yards it's probably going to go about 70 yards because the force you generated in your back swing and you downswing is actually imparted into the ground before it actually gets to the ball. So it's all a loss of 50 percent loss in divot. Yeah it's a yeah definitely might quite well quite straight in the air you know it's hard yeah that might be a reason why a lot of club golfers are thinking why don't they hit 7 iron half way round 1st contact having a go. Exactly and it actually only has to be a quarter of an inch and sometimes and you think it's oh that felt OK Why has it gone that way and is that turf obviously. As teaching professionals even on the mats as you go on practice you'll hear a contact you know if you stood listening to a good player just feel like a nice little swoosh on the mat every time, and the guy who gets to heavy one it sounds a bit more of a hard thud. It is quite important you say you hear a difference that we don't see a difference but how it is a retune to hearing it exactly club golfers when you go to the range you won't see the debate on the mat because the mat won't know but you need to be listening and it should sound click off rather than click click but duff has been on the ground, exactly. I am going to set Matt up with what a little drill here we're going to see whats gets on achieving what I want to achieve.

So we're here on a nice practice ground we are off turf so to have so we can see the divot one thing we might find if we take a big divot we look back down and we're not sure where the ball was in relation to that divot but I'm going to mark the ball with tee peg and put the ball not on the tee but to the side of the tee. Push it in the ground there I'm going to ask Matt to start with by taking a good one. So I want him to take a divot after that the golf ball them going to use the tee and check to see if we get some of this one. Perfect look at this he's done this before. So I can put the ball back in where it was next to the tee but this camera may picks up that the divot is all after the golf ball and I can tell you that all flew full distance. I'm now going to ask Matt do the wrong version of this goes against Matt's normal thing he's going to have to try really hard not to hit a good one not hitting a good clean too high would result in a top or a thin shot and no divot at all. Now I am going to ask Matt to hit not a good one by going too low quality too much of it and maybe starting before the tee thank you. Well. Thanks but I will show up here so we can see that we put the ball back here again and we can see that ball here level with the tape that's probably 2 to 3 inches of divot before the ball a little bit too low as well. Divot it is in pieces all over the place and that ball barely cleared the foot that made you see that so it's probably only got 40 to 50 yards where's the good one what about the 150 yards of a very very start difference. Your hand as you alluded to a moment ago the sound you could hear the crisp as of the 1st one is where there didn't even hear a contact on the ball I think I didn't hear it on that one. If that's what's happened in your game that could be the most frustrating thing you've ever seen because you stood there and you put all this effort and power into your swing. Basically so results at all and so what you play with has a lovely easy smooth swing the ball just comes out like it rocket. You think I can't try any harder to get the ball further how's it not flying yet?

It's this isn't it those 2 inches robbed us of about a 100 yards distance. So we know how to strike it give me one quick tip if I am hitting it heavy. What should I focus on? My much top tip would be if you're at the driving range or on something like that do the same sort of drill if we had a chalk line in front of the golf ball so as I was addressing it here from this camera I'd put something down in front now and I'd feel I'd have my practice swings and I'd move forward to try and get it so I'd feel at the start even a step drill is a good one where we'd start here and I'd step forwards so my way is transferring in front of the golf ball getting my club to bottom out after the golf ball instead of the one where as I hit might have a divot. I felt myself come back take a big chunk of the very noticeable see how your body was moving a lot more forward in that exaggerated yet real to really driving your body forward. I think like your point there was you move the low points of your swing thought effectively you move the low point just went underneath your body weight body weight but if you saw a body weight back give it back and that's going to be the fat shot. Yeah definitely you know understanding is a down enough up in the golf club too much over the ball too much down and where is going to bottom out. You know so if I was thinking average shot I'm just going to try and almost imagine that the ball gets in the way of impact how much of an impact after the golf ball every time and hit some wear a bottom our to it and just get that like brush on the turf. So we're growing then that we do want to see club and amateur golfers taking divot you should take it if it with all of your irons lob wedge sand wedge wedges all the way down to about a 6 iron 5 iron for nice just a slightly divot. Maybe a thinner divot with a hybrid and a 3 wood bruise the turf but don't take it with you and taking it a bit by driving the body weight more forward striking ball and turf and listening for that contact and using a tee peg opposite the golf ball as a practicing aid. So you can see where your divot is coming and make sure those divots come out of the golf ball the longer straighter and better sounding iron shots.

2018-12-18

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will show you how best to crunch your iron shots. Improve the strike of your golf irons by utilizing a technique of taking a divot after the golf ball, which will help you to understand how you strike the ball before the turf. You'll improve the ball striking by utilizing practice swing drills to encourage correct bodyweight motion which will also help get the feeling of the correct body movement.

One of the key differences that we often see between club golfers and professional golfers is how they take a divot. So often we see golfers who think so the beginning golfers and early stage club golfers feel that divots are bad if it should be should be some frowned upon. An anomaly because of bad golfers take divots. Now when you watch the guys on T.V. you look back away walking around he's out you know a great big piece of the turf on the line. So we know that good players take divots. Yes I think the difference is good players know where to take divots which clubs to take a divot and how that divot should look. A lot of club amateur golfers maybe they take divot and they associate it with bad shots, yes I'd agree yeah. Why's that why does that if not look the same as back always do it's where I should alluded to there where they're actually connecting with the golf ball where the clubs bottoming out relative to that golf ball with your beginner or you know high handicap or what we're seeing is that the club bottoms out before the golf ball. Once you went and stood on any tour range what you'd see is like you say ball then turf connection of it is coming after the ball. We're getting that solid compression right where the club actually just bottoms out just slightly underneath the golf ball and it doesn't have to be the biggest divot just so you know. Sometimes taking nice little ones just bruising that turf but it's always ball than turf. So if the club is coming down and it hits the ball no turf even though it takes it to the ball still flies full this still going strong maximum force imparted on it. If the club is coming down it hits the ground 1st what things we're going to see that are going to see a lot a lot of distance loss from that shot might sometimes you know and worst case scenarios the divot will go over the ball and it will just trickle off a couple of yards.

Generally what we'd see is one where let's say your hitting 7 iron and it goes a 130 yards it's probably going to go about 70 yards because the force you generated in your back swing and you downswing is actually imparted into the ground before it actually gets to the ball. So it's all a loss of 50 percent loss in divot. Yeah it's a yeah definitely might quite well quite straight in the air you know it's hard yeah that might be a reason why a lot of club golfers are thinking why don't they hit 7 iron half way round 1st contact having a go. Exactly and it actually only has to be a quarter of an inch and sometimes and you think it's oh that felt OK Why has it gone that way and is that turf obviously. As teaching professionals even on the mats as you go on practice you'll hear a contact you know if you stood listening to a good player just feel like a nice little swoosh on the mat every time, and the guy who gets to heavy one it sounds a bit more of a hard thud. It is quite important you say you hear a difference that we don't see a difference but how it is a retune to hearing it exactly club golfers when you go to the range you won't see the debate on the mat because the mat won't know but you need to be listening and it should sound click off rather than click click but duff has been on the ground, exactly. I am going to set Matt up with what a little drill here we're going to see whats gets on achieving what I want to achieve.

So we're here on a nice practice ground we are off turf so to have so we can see the divot one thing we might find if we take a big divot we look back down and we're not sure where the ball was in relation to that divot but I'm going to mark the ball with tee peg and put the ball not on the tee but to the side of the tee. Push it in the ground there I'm going to ask Matt to start with by taking a good one. So I want him to take a divot after that the golf ball them going to use the tee and check to see if we get some of this one. Perfect look at this he's done this before. So I can put the ball back in where it was next to the tee but this camera may picks up that the divot is all after the golf ball and I can tell you that all flew full distance. I'm now going to ask Matt do the wrong version of this goes against Matt's normal thing he's going to have to try really hard not to hit a good one not hitting a good clean too high would result in a top or a thin shot and no divot at all. Now I am going to ask Matt to hit not a good one by going too low quality too much of it and maybe starting before the tee thank you. Well. Thanks but I will show up here so we can see that we put the ball back here again and we can see that ball here level with the tape that's probably 2 to 3 inches of divot before the ball a little bit too low as well. Divot it is in pieces all over the place and that ball barely cleared the foot that made you see that so it's probably only got 40 to 50 yards where's the good one what about the 150 yards of a very very start difference. Your hand as you alluded to a moment ago the sound you could hear the crisp as of the 1st one is where there didn't even hear a contact on the ball I think I didn't hear it on that one. If that's what's happened in your game that could be the most frustrating thing you've ever seen because you stood there and you put all this effort and power into your swing. Basically so results at all and so what you play with has a lovely easy smooth swing the ball just comes out like it rocket. You think I can't try any harder to get the ball further how's it not flying yet?

It's this isn't it those 2 inches robbed us of about a 100 yards distance. So we know how to strike it give me one quick tip if I am hitting it heavy. What should I focus on? My much top tip would be if you're at the driving range or on something like that do the same sort of drill if we had a chalk line in front of the golf ball so as I was addressing it here from this camera I'd put something down in front now and I'd feel I'd have my practice swings and I'd move forward to try and get it so I'd feel at the start even a step drill is a good one where we'd start here and I'd step forwards so my way is transferring in front of the golf ball getting my club to bottom out after the golf ball instead of the one where as I hit might have a divot. I felt myself come back take a big chunk of the very noticeable see how your body was moving a lot more forward in that exaggerated yet real to really driving your body forward. I think like your point there was you move the low points of your swing thought effectively you move the low point just went underneath your body weight body weight but if you saw a body weight back give it back and that's going to be the fat shot. Yeah definitely you know understanding is a down enough up in the golf club too much over the ball too much down and where is going to bottom out. You know so if I was thinking average shot I'm just going to try and almost imagine that the ball gets in the way of impact how much of an impact after the golf ball every time and hit some wear a bottom our to it and just get that like brush on the turf. So we're growing then that we do want to see club and amateur golfers taking divot you should take it if it with all of your irons lob wedge sand wedge wedges all the way down to about a 6 iron 5 iron for nice just a slightly divot. Maybe a thinner divot with a hybrid and a 3 wood bruise the turf but don't take it with you and taking it a bit by driving the body weight more forward striking ball and turf and listening for that contact and using a tee peg opposite the golf ball as a practicing aid. So you can see where your divot is coming and make sure those divots come out of the golf ball the longer straighter and better sounding iron shots.