Tired of hitting weak irons from the fairway and leaving yourself short of the green. Maybe you're trying to lift the ball. Lifting is common among weekend golfers--especially with irons. Instead of hitting down on the ball, they try to slip the clubface under the ball and lift it through the air. This swing fault usually results in disaster, producing a weak shot, a dribbler, or some other weird mis-hit.
Here are five keys to maximizing iron power:
1. Shoulders are even at address
2. Open your hips at impact
3. Keep your hands ahead of the ball
4. Make a descending blow
5. Deliver your right shoulder hard
To hit an iron solidly, you must use a descending blow that creates a divot after the ball, not in front of it. The key to doing this is delivering your right shoulder to the ball. Consider this:
At address your shoulders are fairly even. Perhaps your right shoulder is slightly lower than your left. But this changes at impact. At impact your hips are open, your hands are ahead of the ball, and your right shoulder is closer to the ball than your left. This also means your right shoulder stays low through impact.
To train your brain to keep the right shoulder low through impact, visualize a martial artist punching through a board. As she punches the board, she lunges forward with her arm, supplying the momentum she needs to snap the board.
To train your body to deliver your back shoulder, make some practice strokes with just your right arm holding the club. Concentrate on moving your right shoulder closer to the ball during the downswing. This exercise ingrains the proper feel for delivering the right shoulder to the ball, and prevents an early release of the arms and hands--a major power leak.
Delivering the right shoulder to the ball is the key to hitting solid irons, not lifting the ball with your clubface. You want to create a divot after the ball, not before it. Practice the exercises described above and you'll hit your irons with more punch.
