How to Correct Inconsistent Golf Iron Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Correct Inconsistent Golf Iron Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think the word I hear more often than anything else from all golfers that I teach is consistency. I think everyone has been in that position where they have hit the perfect shot but they can’t do the same thing on a consistent basis time and time again. And particularly with your iron shots, inconsistent shots from 100-150 yards out, are going to be really costly to your game. So here is three little checkpoints to just really take us back to basics with the irons to improve consistency.

The first checkpoint is going to be having your feet together, so popping your feet together like this and then just clipping a tee peg, so just making a nice swing and clipping the tee peg. Now this works really nicely for your tempo and for your balance, it stops you getting too aggressive and this really is the sort of rhythm and tempo that I’d like to see you use when your actually playing your real shots, so you could then pop a ball on the tee and clip a few away.

You might feel that you have lost a bit of distance but I bet your consistency and your balance and your tempo improve and you’re hitting the ball a little bit straighter. That’s one great checkpoint to improve tempo and consistency with your irons. The next thing we are going to look at now is going to be your posture, because for a lot of golfers they might take a really good careful alignment and setup the ball and they have good posture then as soon as the club moves their posture changes. They stand up, they bring their hips in, their head comes up, their posture changes, they have to make a big compensation in the downswing.

Alternatively good setup position, shoulder drags the posture downwards too much towards the golf ball and that posture is changed. So I’d like you to set yourself up so where my camera is here you have got yourself a mirror. You get yourself into a good address position and you turn watching yourself in the camera or in the mirror and you’re looking at yourself there and your seeing that your posture line stays the same not raising and not lowering. Another great way of checking on that is looking head on making sure the head isn’t going up or down so the head should stays nice and level.

If the head was rising here chances are your posture is changing. One other good checkpoint to work on for more consistent iron play is going to be a good setup. So if we just refresh the fundamentals of a good setup as well with the irons. We start with a nice wide stance, try and get your stance to be at least shoulder width apart, so a nice shoulder width in the stance. Ball position for a mid iron is just slightly ahead of center, and for a shorter iron is more to the center and for a longer iron is more to the left side. So you have good ball position there. We don’t want to have a very slight knee flex. Just a little slight knee flex, now check that you are the right distance from the ball.

Now because all the irons are different length of club we can’t guarantee we have to stand in the same position every time, so what we do here is we lower the handle down and it lands just above the left thigh, left kneecap position. If it lands a couple of inches above that’s good distance away. If I was too close that would land too high and if I was too far away it would land too low on my knee or below my knee. So good distance there for a good checkpoint.

So now I have established the right width, the right ball position, the right distance away. One last checkpoint for your irons is good handle position, making sure the handle points at your left hip, neutral grip there pointing at the left hip we don’t want to have the handle too far ahead that its past your thigh or likewise too far back that its at your belt buckle or your zip. We want it just nicely at your front thigh position, that’s a great position and if you can take on board the setup, the feet to get the tempo drill and the consistent spine angle during the swing I’m sure you will improve the consistency on ball striking throughout your iron game.

 2015-03-26

I think the word I hear more often than anything else from all golfers that I teach is consistency. I think everyone has been in that position where they have hit the perfect shot but they can’t do the same thing on a consistent basis time and time again. And particularly with your iron shots, inconsistent shots from 100-150 yards out, are going to be really costly to your game. So here is three little checkpoints to just really take us back to basics with the irons to improve consistency.

The first checkpoint is going to be having your feet together, so popping your feet together like this and then just clipping a tee peg, so just making a nice swing and clipping the tee peg. Now this works really nicely for your tempo and for your balance, it stops you getting too aggressive and this really is the sort of rhythm and tempo that I’d like to see you use when your actually playing your real shots, so you could then pop a ball on the tee and clip a few away.

You might feel that you have lost a bit of distance but I bet your consistency and your balance and your tempo improve and you’re hitting the ball a little bit straighter. That’s one great checkpoint to improve tempo and consistency with your irons. The next thing we are going to look at now is going to be your posture, because for a lot of golfers they might take a really good careful alignment and setup the ball and they have good posture then as soon as the club moves their posture changes. They stand up, they bring their hips in, their head comes up, their posture changes, they have to make a big compensation in the downswing.

Alternatively good setup position, shoulder drags the posture downwards too much towards the golf ball and that posture is changed. So I’d like you to set yourself up so where my camera is here you have got yourself a mirror. You get yourself into a good address position and you turn watching yourself in the camera or in the mirror and you’re looking at yourself there and your seeing that your posture line stays the same not raising and not lowering. Another great way of checking on that is looking head on making sure the head isn’t going up or down so the head should stays nice and level.

If the head was rising here chances are your posture is changing. One other good checkpoint to work on for more consistent iron play is going to be a good setup. So if we just refresh the fundamentals of a good setup as well with the irons. We start with a nice wide stance, try and get your stance to be at least shoulder width apart, so a nice shoulder width in the stance. Ball position for a mid iron is just slightly ahead of center, and for a shorter iron is more to the center and for a longer iron is more to the left side. So you have good ball position there. We don’t want to have a very slight knee flex. Just a little slight knee flex, now check that you are the right distance from the ball.

Now because all the irons are different length of club we can’t guarantee we have to stand in the same position every time, so what we do here is we lower the handle down and it lands just above the left thigh, left kneecap position. If it lands a couple of inches above that’s good distance away. If I was too close that would land too high and if I was too far away it would land too low on my knee or below my knee. So good distance there for a good checkpoint.

So now I have established the right width, the right ball position, the right distance away. One last checkpoint for your irons is good handle position, making sure the handle points at your left hip, neutral grip there pointing at the left hip we don’t want to have the handle too far ahead that its past your thigh or likewise too far back that its at your belt buckle or your zip. We want it just nicely at your front thigh position, that’s a great position and if you can take on board the setup, the feet to get the tempo drill and the consistent spine angle during the swing I’m sure you will improve the consistency on ball striking throughout your iron game.