Christy's Golf Instruction

HOW TO HIT YOUR IRONS CRISP

I often hear golfers ask how they can hit their iron shots more solid like the pros do. This entails hitting down and through with the club head, making a nice divot past the ball. In this way you’ve compressed the golf ball in between the club head and the ground in front of it. This is what creates that great sound of having made square impact in which the ball explodes off the club face.

One of the main problems that prevent amateurs from achieving this kind of shot, is that they don’t retain the angle long enough on the downswing. That is, they break and uncock their wrists too soon, before getting to the ball.

What you want to concentrate on to avoid that early unhinging, is pointing the butt end of the club toward the ball for the first 2/3 of the downswing. This will keep the club head nicely behind you with all the energy of your swing loaded into that club, equaling potential power.

For the last 1/3 of the downswing and on into the follow through, you want to think about releasing the club. That is, turn the arms and club over - rolling them over like you were flipping pancakes.

This movement should simulate the action of hammering a nail in. When you use a hammer correctly, the handle is ahead of the hammer head to create leverage and power. The handle then acts as a fulcrum point as the hammer head bursts forward. This is the same in the golf swing. The handle of the club will be way ahead of the club head on downswing, and then at the last second the handle stays still while the club head bursts forward.

A great visualization for this, is to see the head of a nail on the back of the ball, and to think of hammering that nail through the ball into the ground in front of it. If you have done this correctly, you will make that elusive, solid, dynamic contact we all strive to achieve.