Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

Iron strikes. Question I got asked by awful lot of golfers when they’re sitting down for a golf lesson or an assessment before a golf lesson is how can I improve the strike of my iron shots. They might feel like they’ve got a good swing, the ball goes straight, the ball goes far but the strike of the ball really isn’t very good, very consistent. Now I’ve got a few different things to consider here because we’ve got the lateral strike whether the ball is sitting the toe or the heel, then we’ve got the vertical strike whether the ball is hitting at the bottom or the top. So a toe and a heel, sometimes, when we hit the heel, it might be also turned to shank and the ball shoots out sideways. And then we’ve got a top strike here. Probably, going to be caused by a fat shot where the club actually goes too low, hits too much of a divot, takes too much turf, ball hits the top. That’s a fat shot. And the opposite to the fat is the thin or the top shot where the club is too high as it hits the golf ball.

Then in the middle of the golf club, around the bottom – the size of a quarter, 25 cent coin or 10 pounds piece for the English viewers, you’ve got a sweet spot. Now when you hit into that sweet spot, the ball really flies nice. It flies a lot further, feels better off the clubface. And that’s really where the manufacturer of the golf club intended you to hit it, right on that center area.

Now one of the biggest problems that I see with people who are struggling with strike is they’re trying to lift the golf ball up into the air and they don’t correctly understand angle of attack. So, from a good set position with the ball on the floor, it’s important to notice, I can’t accurately hit that ball if I’m hitting up with on it. If the club is hitting the ground and coming up into the ball, I can’t accurately hit it. That would be a fat shot. If I’m trying to hit up on the ball, but I don’t want to hit the floor then that would then be a top shot and I’d be hitting over the top of the ball.

So, it’s important to understand this. Club has to be descending as it hits the ball. Now having a good ball position for mid iron just slightly ahead of center, that’s definitely going to help; then having a nice little bit of shaft lean to my hands slightly ahead of the ball, that’s definitely going to help; and then making sure that through impact, my body weight is nicely ahead into my front leg, my left hand side as a right handed golfer. My body weight is in a good position. That’s definitely going to help. I then need to focus on the fact that I should be taking a divot. A divot just after the golf ball, may be four or six inches long, half-an-inch deep and obviously the width of the golf club. So, it will come out here and look about the size of a dollar bill after the golf ball as I swing down and I hit through.

Some people end up thinking that they need to be the green keeper’s best friend. They need to go around the course and pick the ball off cleanly all the time. That’s not a great way to improve your iron strike. A way is to start taking a divot, I’d like to start taking a divot after the golf pool and correctly understanding angle of attack and how you can hit down. So, I have a nice set with the ball position just left of center, hands nicely, left of center as well and then moving the body weight forward for a nice clean strike down with a little bit of turf coming after the ball. Listening for good iron strike is as important as seeing a good iron strike. And hopefully using that tip, you’ll help improve your iron strikes.