Short Iron problems

[flomarilius]

Hey guys,

I have a quick question maybe someone could help me out with. Im having a little problem hitting 7-LW. For some reason I tend to hit them really fat and I really can stripe the rest of my clubs. Any tips that will help me from hitting those clubs fat. I'm talking about atleast 3-4 inches behind the ball.

thanks

flo
(oh btw even with some chunks I got around to an 82 !)

[Rockford35]

You're moving your head. Try and swing easier and keep your noggin' still through impact.

It makes a world of difference keeping you on plane.

R35

[Jules150]

fat shots are often the result of improper weight transfer, at the top of your swing all your weight should be on your back foot, and in your downswing you should transfer it to your front foot, then at the follow through you should have 99% of your weight on your front foot

[Johnny Par]

I am king of the fatties.

In addition to the above advice, I've noticed that I hit the ball much cleaner when I initiate my downswing with my hips. This probably goes along the lines of what was mentioned above about weight transfer.

[ezra76]

Hands first then clubhead. Maintain the shaft angle through impact and you'll have no problem. Make sure to accelerate through impact. Don't take a big backswing and slow down. Take a shorter backswing and speed up. Do these 2 things and I'll guarantee you strike your short irons better.

[fore142]

have you ever read harvey pennick? he talks about this problem. He says that if you just practice swinging at perticular blades of grass, or dandlions until you can hit your target. Then try hitting balls again. It works for me, and it keeps you from thinking too much which could be part of the problem anyways.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Originally Posted by fore142

have you ever read harvey pennick? he talks about this problem. He says that if you just practice swinging at perticular blades of grass, or dandlions until you can hit your target. Then try hitting balls again. It works for me, and it keeps you from thinking too much which could be part of the problem anyways.

Hahahaha, sorry this just made me laugh.

I can see fore stumbling around his lawn taking angry slashes at dandelions muttering obscenities.

might be a good idea to try though.

[fore142]

it beats having to mow the lawn...

[cypressperch]

been said so far. With the shorter clubs you probably would not want to have as much weight going to the back foot as you would with longer clubs. Shorter shaft means shorter swing, so the bigger weight shift is not required or desired. My left heel tries to come up a bit going back with a driver, but it stays down easily with a short iron.

Head movement. With a shorter iron, your head probably does not have to move much at all. Some LATERAL movement is OK, but not up-and-down movement. Also, at impact the head needs to be where it was at impact if it did happen to move a bit laterally. If the head moves to the right going back and does not get back to its position at address, you have effectively moved everything to the right of the ball. Thus, you may still be leading with your hands, but before impact with the ball, you now hit the dirt behind the ball.

Since you hit the longer shots pretty good, I think you might be getting the shorter clubs behind you too much. Now you will come to the ball too far from the inside on too shallow a plane, and you will hit the shot fat. Since the club is shorter, you have to stand closer to the ball, and therefore your swing should become a little more upright. Go with this tendency and the club will be coming up earlier preventing swinging overly around your body producing the shallow plane and overly from-the-inside attack of the ball that gives the fat shots.

Good posture and the maintaining of that good posture throughout the shot will help one avoid both fat and thin shots (Incidentally, fat and thin shots are very much related.) If you stand to ball "tall" and keep it that way, you cannot raise up and hit it thin because you are already "up." And if you stay that way throughout the swing, you cannot have fat shots that come from dropping down on the ball.

If the shoulders stay pretty much level throughout the swing along with maintaining your good posture (maintaining a good spine angle which allows the arms to hang almost straight down from the shoulders with little reaching out for the ball but with some clearance between hands and body), fat shots will become more difficult to hit.

Make sure that going back, you do not allow your weight to get on the outside of your back foot. Maintaining some flex in your right thigh will help you avoid this. Again, if your head drifts too far to the right going back, you can get to the point where you cannot get back to your address position which for your hands, is very close to address position. So you have moved everything to the right and fat shots occur. If we sense a fat shot coming, we tend to pull up, and the most likely thing to happen is now the thin hit. And if we do happen to recover and catch the ball squarely, we will probably wonder why the ball hasn't gone very far.

This is a lot of detail, but it leads to the end result mentioned in a post above. A good swing with the hands ahead of the ball at impact. Remember, you do hit DOWN on the ball, but it is DOWN AND THROUGH, even with a lob wedge.

The best of luck to you with your game. Sincerely, Cypressperch

[onplane]

It's frustrating to get short irons in our hands then mis hit them. Without boring you with what you might be doing wrong, I'll give you a few things to try: In your set-up take a slightly open stance. Try to line up the center of your sternum directly in line with the ball. The feeling during your swing is to feel steady as if no weight is shifting, and that your body is not turning at all (would feel like all arm swing) during the backswing (do not let your chin be turned at all by your body moving). As you swing through the ball aggressively make what feels like a "punch shot swing" (feels like the kind of swing you would use to hit the ball very low under some trees) letting your eyes follow the ball immediately after it is hit. You should get much cleaner contact, and feeling that you are in control! Let me know. regards, David Czaja, PGA

[flomarilius]

Please tell me your in the South Florida Area I need some lessons !

[cypressperch]

approached the problem with short irons. As usual, I wrote perhaps too much, but I think much of what I said was aimed at the same basic result you are aimed at. A question now arises, since one would not (I think) want to hit a driver in the manner you have described for a short iron, at what point do you switch from the short iron swing to a longer club swing? Do you blend from one method to the next, or is there a club, say the six iron, at which you drop the short iron method and use something considerably different? Thanks much in advance.

Sincerely, Cypressperch

[flomarilius]

While I was watching the ADT skills challenge in the short iron type of shots it looked as though Trevor Immelman was just swinging the grip. Everything look so solid and compact like if his the right hand did all the work on the way down. Is this a good swing to try to mimic?

[FKA19]

Originally Posted by ezra76

Don't take a big backswing and slow down.

irony at its VERY best! haha
jk EZ.

[flomarilius]

GUYS THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!

Went out today for 9 and I just stripped every short Iron I hit. Everything from 150 and in was on the green. Now just gotta work with the 3 Iron and the Driver and I am offically set. Oh yea btw I shot a 37!!!!!!!!!

Guys thanks alot, you really pulled the cure for me. All of the PGA teachers who helped me thanks guys I truly appreciate it.