Best Tips For Hitting Your Irons Pure

Having a pure iron game can make your life a lot easier on the course. Being able to hit different type of iron shots will come in need when you need to hook it around the tree or slice it to the right. From short irons to long irons we want to follow the same principles.

How would you like to get the golf ball on the green or close to it every time you’re in the fairway? If this sounds like something you’d love to accomplish next time you tee it up with your friends then follow these best tips for hitting your irons solid. Lets dive into the keys for pure iron play.

Your Stance Should Be Athletic

Making sure we are in a athletic posture at address is very important. Your stance at address should consist of your feet just outside your hips with some good flex in your quads so that we can feel some weight in our feet. You don’t want the hips sticking too far back. We like to see the hips set more under the rib cage with the weight in the thighs to maintain ground pressure in the feet.

Golf posture

Hand position is another important factor of hitting pure iron shots, although commonly missed by many people working on their swings. First of all, we need to know that when we reach impact we want our hands ahead of the ball or closer to the target. This gets the club in a position to hit down on the ball which is rule number one to hitting pure iron shots. If we set up with our hands ahead of the ball at address then we have a better chance of getting back to that position at impact.

The last part of our stance we will focus on is the back knee position. The right knee is very important for the right handed golfer because it provides stability and balance throughout the entire golf swing. We want to try and keep that knee as stable as possible while turning fully around the knee. The best way to do this is to try and maintain a slight flex in the knee without letting it stiffen up. When you begin to load into your right knee you will see the quality of your shots improve. Swaying from side to side and letting your hips slide is never good in the golf swing. Focus on coiling your upper body around that right knee.

Don't Be Afraid To Take a Divot

The best iron shots are made when the club face is descending into impact, it’s normal for the bottom edge of your iron to contact the ground as you finish your swing. Trust the loft on your iron and let the club do the work for you. You don’t need to help the ball up in the air and 95% of you swing plenty hard enough to achieve plenty of ball flight.

Swing Within Yourself

Learning to swing the club slower rather than faster and make shots happen with less effort is truly how you control your game.  A smooth controlled swing will produce much better results over time than a swing at a 100%.

Set Your Wrist Early For Pure Iron Shots

IMG-1250 (1)

As you can see in the picture above. We have the wrist set and the club parallel to the ground before our hands past our right thigh. The earlier we hinge our wrist in the golf swing the earlier we create the 90 degree angle between our lead arm and the shaft. (please note that this is a bit exaggerated in the picture because my tendencies is to lift my arms to top so we are trying to keep the hands low and set the angle and turn the shoulders to the top) This same angle is used to drive the club down through the ball and ultimately to our intended target.

Many golfers want to make a wide backswing using only arms and little body rotation. This causes either the dreaded over the top move or the flip at the bottom of the swing promoting a snap hook.

Get the wrist set earlier in the swing to create a good angle that we can move to the top of our backswing by turning our torso away from the target. Getting the club on plain from the beginning of the swing makes the downswing much more effortless.

In the picture below we have a good turn with our torso but we could be a little more loaded into the right side. The main key to focus on here is that we haven’t lost our wrist hinge, we still have the same 90 degrees’ish angle that we created at the right thigh in the take away.

Ball Position Ball Position Ball Position

I can’t stress how important ball is! If that little white (or yellow) ball is too far back or too far forward in your setup then you are making this game much more harder than it really is. Especially when you’re trying to hit the long irons. Your ball position has to be in the right position on each and every shot.Long irons have less loft therefore they won’t be as forgiving if you miss the center of the face.

top of backswing

Get Your Positions Correct at Impact

impact position

If we can feel what it feels like to be in a good position at impact then we can train our mind and body to get in those positions over and over again. 

Impact Positioning Drill

For this drill we take the club to top and pause to ensure a full load (pictured above) and then from there we are concentrated on unwinding our torso until we get the club back on ball or very near it. (pictured below) In this position we want to get all of our body parts in the right position.

You’ll notice that the right wrist bend is still intact and we haven’t released that angle yet. These are good positions to feel like your in at impact. 

Letting the club face continue down the target ensures that we will never hit it left. 

golf spine angle at impact

We want to keep the square clubface traveling down the target line while keeping the club face in front of our body. If the club stays in front of us, it is connected and we very little chance for the club head rolling over and hitting it left. 

golf follow through