Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro

We are going to look here at why you need to use a different swing and setup position with a driver and an iron and if we look initially at the two clubs, we can see that there is a very big difference in length. If we look at the length of the driver compared to the length of the iron here, the wedge, you will see there is a really big difference in the length of the club. Now that’s going to affect the distance that you stand from the ball. Obviously with a driver you are going to stand much further away than you would for an iron, because of that length difference. But if I set so that the handles, the end of the handles here are both at the same difference, you can see here, that there is a completely different angle that the shaft goes down to the floor.

The driver shaft sits much flatter than the iron shaft, the iron shaft is much more upright. So this is really going to affect how you swing the club, because with this flatter lie angle, the club needs to swing on a flatter plane, okay to bring it back in, so the position is started. If we go the iron, the iron needs to swing on a more upright plane, because it has a more upright shaft position as it starts, so that needs to swing more on this plane. This is going to allow you to bring the club back into that start position, and to hit the ball correctly. So if we look at how to hit the driver swing, we want to swing the club with much flatter swing plane as it moves around you. So we are further away from the ball, because of the longer length, we are going to swing the club around and the club head is going to stay low as the ground, we are going to make a much more round arcing action.

Okay, this will then allow you to create power, because you have turned your shoulders and as you return back to the ball on this arcing plane, this arcing action, you will deliver club head speed into that golf ball and you will make a sweeping action through the shot. And it’s the sweeping action that we want with that driver, you don’t want to hit down and capture ground, you want to sweep the golf ball off the tee peg. The fact that the club head is longer as well, means that the arc is actually wider around you, so the movement of that club head and the arc that it’s traveling on, it’s a much wider arc and that’s allowing you much more time to pick up club head speed. So we need the wide arc, we need the flatter swing to bring the club back in correctly to get the driver to work.

If we look at the iron though, with iron set up in the more upright position, we need to get a more upright position in the club head, so we need a more upright plane here, a more vertical plane. So what that’s going to do is that’s going to allow us to drop the club head much more steeply down to the back of the ball, we are going to hit the ground, hit the ball, then the turf, take a divot and that action is going to allow the ball to pop up into the air. The club head isn’t as far away from you, so the swing arc isn’t going to be as wide as it is for the driver, so you won’t achieve as much distance, you don’t have as much time to pick club head speed with this club, but we are not particularly looking for that. We are looking for a nice high shot with this iron, so there the main reasons that you need to swing differently between a driver and an iron to get those clubs to work well for you.