Golf Tips For Better Long Iron Play (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Tips For Better Long Iron Play (Video) - by Pete Styles

There's been a big change over the last few years, maybe the last 10 years within golf and within golfers’ bags. A lot of people put in hybrid clubs in their bags. And Thomas Golf make some amazing hybrid clubs themselves. But occasionally when you actually look in the bags of the top players, they have got a couple of hybrid clubs in there. But maybe there’s still a long iron just sort of hanging around in that bag, maybe a 1 iron, 2 iron, maybe more popular. And very occasionally, the good players are switching the hybrids out and putting the long irons back in.

So we’ve got a question, well why is that? Do they do that all the time or do they do that for certain golf courses, certain tournaments, certain weather conditions? And should the average club golfer be doing that as well? Let's establish why the pros are doing that on occasions. And I do stress it’s on occasions. It's a mixture of having some fairway woods, some hybrid clubs, but some long irons still sneaking back into the pros’ bags. And it's actually because the long iron is very efficient at hitting a particular type of shot. It’s very efficient to hitting a low flight, a low penetrating flight. So a ball flight that comes out low, and doesn't really back spin and balloon up into the air. So you can imagine the certain types of golf courses where this low penetrating flight would be good. For a lot of golfers, it's where they can run the ball a lot. So if you imagine maybe a British Open sort of golf course, a linksy golf course, a windy dry golf course. And as the summer time comes around, a lot of the pros will actually reach for that old 2 iron they have got in the corner cupboard, and they'll bring that back out and stick that in the bag. It’s certainly something I do. I switch between a hybrid and a long 2 iron depending on weather conditions and wind direction, wind conditions. So often the difference with the long iron is that the weight is not so low and so deep. We have a little bit more weight around the middle of the golf club, particularly in like the muscleback or the bladed versions rather than the cavity back versions. Whereas as the hybrid club, all the weight is low and deep, there’s lots of loft on a hybrid club that gets the ball in the air and flies it high. But for professionals quite often they don't want that high flight. So we bring the weight slightly higher up in the clubface, and we de-loft it slightly. We put a nice stiff shaft in that, and quite often it's going to be a steel shaft over and above a graphite shaft in the hybrid. And the heavier the steel shaft spins the ball less, brings the flight down and gives us low penetrating flight. But like I say, it can be useful when the ball can run a long way, when we’ve got strong wind conditions or even if we just need to punch something out from below the trees. We can get that ball out from the -- below the trees with a long iron and get it running forwards. So that's why some professionals and some good players will still keep the long irons in their bags. 2016-07-08

There's been a big change over the last few years, maybe the last 10 years within golf and within golfers’ bags. A lot of people put in hybrid clubs in their bags. And Thomas Golf make some amazing hybrid clubs themselves. But occasionally when you actually look in the bags of the top players, they have got a couple of hybrid clubs in there. But maybe there’s still a long iron just sort of hanging around in that bag, maybe a 1 iron, 2 iron, maybe more popular. And very occasionally, the good players are switching the hybrids out and putting the long irons back in.

So we’ve got a question, well why is that? Do they do that all the time or do they do that for certain golf courses, certain tournaments, certain weather conditions? And should the average club golfer be doing that as well? Let's establish why the pros are doing that on occasions. And I do stress it’s on occasions. It's a mixture of having some fairway woods, some hybrid clubs, but some long irons still sneaking back into the pros’ bags. And it's actually because the long iron is very efficient at hitting a particular type of shot.

It’s very efficient to hitting a low flight, a low penetrating flight. So a ball flight that comes out low, and doesn't really back spin and balloon up into the air. So you can imagine the certain types of golf courses where this low penetrating flight would be good. For a lot of golfers, it's where they can run the ball a lot. So if you imagine maybe a British Open sort of golf course, a linksy golf course, a windy dry golf course. And as the summer time comes around, a lot of the pros will actually reach for that old 2 iron they have got in the corner cupboard, and they'll bring that back out and stick that in the bag.

It’s certainly something I do. I switch between a hybrid and a long 2 iron depending on weather conditions and wind direction, wind conditions. So often the difference with the long iron is that the weight is not so low and so deep. We have a little bit more weight around the middle of the golf club, particularly in like the muscleback or the bladed versions rather than the cavity back versions. Whereas as the hybrid club, all the weight is low and deep, there’s lots of loft on a hybrid club that gets the ball in the air and flies it high.

But for professionals quite often they don't want that high flight. So we bring the weight slightly higher up in the clubface, and we de-loft it slightly. We put a nice stiff shaft in that, and quite often it's going to be a steel shaft over and above a graphite shaft in the hybrid. And the heavier the steel shaft spins the ball less, brings the flight down and gives us low penetrating flight. But like I say, it can be useful when the ball can run a long way, when we’ve got strong wind conditions or even if we just need to punch something out from below the trees.

We can get that ball out from the — below the trees with a long iron and get it running forwards. So that's why some professionals and some good players will still keep the long irons in their bags.