Instruction
Fat and thin iron shots: one fix, and it starts with a line
Heavy and thin irons usually come from the same fault: the bottom of the swing arriving too early. Launch-monitor data shows where good players bottom out, and a simple chalk-line drill teaches you to get there.
The heavy one that splashes 20 yards short of the green and the thin one that skulls over the back feel like opposite problems. Most of the time they are the same problem. In both cases the club has reached the bottom of its arc before it reaches the ball: either it digs into the turf behind it, or it has already started rising and catches the ball’s equator.
Strokes-gained research by Mark Broadie of Columbia University found that the long game, not putting, explains about two-thirds of the scoring differences between tour professionals.
Down by about three degrees, low point after the ball
With an iron, the club should still be travelling slightly downwards when it meets the ball. Trackman, the launch-monitor maker, says that for iron shots you want a negative attack angle (hitting down) and a low point that comes after the ball, so the ball is struck before the ground.
Trackman lists the PGA Tour average attack angle with a 6-iron at -3.7 degrees and the LPGA Tour average at -2.3 degrees.
In a small 2015 test at Trackman’s headquarters, reported by teacher Tom Stickney for GolfWRX, seven golfers from a major champion to a 30-handicapper hit 6-irons. Every one of them bottomed out in front of the ball, at roughly four to seven inches. The major champion’s low point varied by about half an inch from shot to shot, while the 10-, 20- and 30-handicappers varied by more than two inches. Seven players is too few to prove anything.
The drill: the line test
You need a practice area where you can take turf, or a mat you can mark. Fifteen minutes is enough.
- Draw a line. Use a tee to scratch a straight line on the turf about a foot long, pointing at your feet, or use a strip of tape or chalk on a mat. No ball yet.
- Make ten swings with a 7-iron along the line, starting with half swings. Your only job is to brush or bruise the turf on the target side of the line. Check every mark. If it starts behind the line, the bottom of your swing is arriving early.
- Score yourself. Count how many of the ten marks started on or in front of the line. Write the number down.
- Add a ball. Place a ball on the line and repeat. The contact feel you are after is ball first, then turf, with any mark starting at the line or just ahead of it.
- Move the ball back if needed. If the marks keep landing behind the line, try the ball half a ball-width further back in your stance for the next set and score again.
Work up from half swings to three-quarter swings only once you are hitting at least seven out of ten on the right side of the line. Full swings come last.
When the marks keep landing behind the line
Try these one at a time:
- Weight hanging back. At impact most of your pressure should be on your lead foot. Try finishing every swing with your back heel off the ground and your belt buckle facing the target.
- Scooping. Trying to help the ball into the air flips the clubhead past the hands early. Feel the hands slightly ahead of the clubhead as you strike; the loft on the club does the lifting.
- Ball too far forward. For mid-irons, a ball position a little ahead of centre is a common starting point, but stance width and build vary, so let the line test, not a rule of thumb, decide.
Slow swings, soft turf and sore backs
Trackman warns that golfers with slower swing speeds shouldn’t hit down too steeply with their irons, because it costs distance and makes it harder to control approach shots. If you swing more slowly, a shallow, bacon-strip divot or a light brush of the turf is fine, as long as it starts at or after the ball.
On firm, tight links-style turf there is less margin for a strike that bottoms out early, and in soft, wet autumn conditions a fat shot is punished more heavily.
If a sore back or wrist makes taking turf uncomfortable, do the drill off a mat with a line of tape and focus on the marks rather than divot depth. Any pain is a reason to check in with a qualified coach or medical professional.
A tick-and-cross tally on your card
Before your next round, spend five minutes on the line test with a 7-iron and note your score out of ten. Then, on the course, glance at every iron divot or turf mark you make. Was it at the ball or in front of it? Keep a simple tally on your card: a tick for ball-first, a cross for anything else. Don’t change your swing mid-round. Compare the tally with your line-test score out of ten.
Sources
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