In this video PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will encourage you to improve your iron strikes. Golfers who shift their weight towards the target during their downswing will be able to take a divot after the golf ball. This combined with the centered golf strike will help flush your iron shots for added distance and improved accuracy and consistency. A reduction in thin and fat golf shots will not only improve your golf scores but also your overall satisfaction with your game.
So one of the things we want to do when hitting our irons is to hit them pure create a good strike every time, and obviously there's something some key elements we can do to make this happen. So Pete talking us through those what would be the thing you would be trying create if you were to get that pure iron strike every time? I think one of the first things to appreciate is actually where abouts on the club face the ball is going to hit. A club face similar to a tennis racket or a baseball bat, cricket bat it has a sweet spot. The sweet spot is around the size of a small coin dime for the American viewers or a 5 to 10 pence piece for the English viewers, and hitting a round about that sweet spot will give us the best feeling when we actually hit the golf ball. I think we probably all experience that one or 2 shots at the driving range even as a beginner that come out the middle of a club and it feels effortless there's no vibration through the shaft the ball seems to fly 10 yards further it sounds different, and I think as a golfer we get great feedback and we go that's it that's on the money. So we're looking for this ball to be striking around about the center as much as possible but we've also got to be careful of the four alternatives we might have the toe side generally a different noise bit of vibrations through the shaft no distance maybe to the right. We've got the dreaded shank side which is hitting the heel. Nobody likes that one Matthew you had to turn away then you know hitting the heel the ball will shoot low to the right very quickly a very odd noise because the ball actually hit the face twice. Low down on the face is going to be classed as a thin shot where the club was too high in the ball shoots up very low tingles the fingers a little bit on a cold frosty morning we don't like that one. Probably rarer with an iron would be the ball hitting high up on the face that can only really happen if the ball teed up too high you know or you're in the rough.
So knowing that we want to get out of the center of the golf club what would we then be looking for from them? I think in a good address position we should check the ball is. In the right place so looking from this camera here I will see that all positions around about the middle to slightly ahead of middle particularly as I go through my slightly longer clubs so short irons in the center longer clubs moving up toward the left hand side, but not really too near my front foot back would be more reserved for things that are on a tee peg or hybrid clubs and 3 woods and that sort of thing. So just a roundabout ahead of center for the ball position maximum. So we know where the ball is going to be we know we want to get it out of the middle. Now if we take a divot is it before or is it after as well if we are taking a divot? I think we definitely should aim to take a divot particularly with wedge down to around about 6 iron occasionally longer irons 5, 4, 3's might be less of it maybe just a scrape of grass but I think the average club golfer would be better served by trying to take a divot. Hitting down on the ball is going to give us that better divot and like you said a very pertinent question. Where does it come from? The divot should definitely be from after the golf ball so we're not lifting and scooping but it is ball turf. I think that's one of the great misconceptions were trying to help get the club bottoming out before the golf ball. So to avoid that actually happening what would be something you would tell the viewers to do to help us get that ball then divot connection? So in the address position we've got the nice ball position we know we want to hit down on this I work on the principle that generally you'll hit the ground under your center of mass your central gravity. So if your body weight is leaning back you'll find that you hit the ground behind like you suggested a second ago that's a popular misconception try to scoop the ball in the air so I want to see that center of gravity moving forwards to get in front of the golf ball, and it's pretty much a big lateral shift so turning from the top of the back swing driving that body weight onto the left hand side striking down ball and turf, and we should be able to get a contact where the divot slides up but the ball still goes full distance. A lot of club golfers maybe see divot flies up and the ball goes half distance because the divot is in the wrong place. Yeah a bit in contact before hand takes a lot of force out of the golf club so you're moving your weight into your lead foot, and getting that beautiful crisp strike down there like you said earlier in the video which sounds totally different when you've hit that shot where you've got that sweet connection and that good divot it sounds totally different if you were to demonstrate sort of a thin or a fat one. Now I was quite impressed with myself that was a very I did everything I told you I was going to do and that was quite nice. Now you want me to hit a bad one. Yeah hit a bad one if you want to hear all along hopefully the mic picks up the sounds.
It sounds harsh. It's horrible and if you play golf with that shot then that I'm sorry but you're not you can't be enjoying the game as much as a as much as a good striker would do. To improve that ball strike must make the game more enjoyable for the average golfer. Definitely yeah you see you know all those shots that you get in the first one it's great. Thank you it's a good feeling it's going to feel nice and the thin shot tingles the fingers. Now the commitment there is I stayed much more down on the good one I stayed down over I moved my body weight forward that last when you asked me to hit and don't ask me to do it again. I just stood up I thinned the ball it hurt my hand I'm not going to do that one again. Excellent so 3 points there guys were going to get a centered strike we're going to create a divot after the golf ball and we're going to get our weight moving towards target when we're hitting the shots. Hopefully that will lead to more your strikes with your irons.