My iron game improved massively with a tweak

[JordDavid93]

I wanted to post on here as a lot of websites will only talk about how to improve..

My iron play has always been my weakest point. My driving is easily my strongest, its always long and mostly straight since having a grip change.

With my irons ive always had a tendency to top it or hit it left. Until I realised I was placing the ball too far forward to my leading foot. I think this is because when I have driver I have the ball just inside my left heel and because Im good at that I feel comfortable with it there for every shot. Wrong.

Just placing the ball back in my stance - almost right of centre changed everything. The ball is always up, drawing a touch and hitting 2 club lengths further. Seriously. I am always looking to take the ball and then the turf as taught. My point here is that it was just one small change and movement of the ball position has changed everything.

At least now I can worry about the other side of the game and have the driver and long irons get me there with much more ease.

Has anyone else had this or something similar that changed their game overnight?

 

[Orikoru]

Hard to say as I haven't seen a huge, fast improvement for a long time, more slow and gradual. But a few years ago when I'd only been back playing a year or two, I shortened my backswing, and that radically improved the number of times I connected with the ball decently. When I used to do the full backswing to horizontal, it was a guessing game whether I'd strike the ball well, thin it, shank it, or just hit a huge slice. Even if I try it now for a laugh it's the same, can't do it.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I wanted to post on here as a lot of websites will only talk about how to improve..

My iron play has always been my weakest point. My driving is easily my strongest, its always long and mostly straight since having a grip change.

With my irons ive always had a tendency to top it or hit it left. Until I realised I was placing the ball too far forward to my leading foot. I think this is because when I have driver I have the ball just inside my left heel and because Im good at that I feel comfortable with it there for every shot. Wrong.

Just placing the ball back in my stance - almost right of centre changed everything. The ball is always up, drawing a touch and hitting 2 club lengths further. Seriously. I am always looking to take the ball and then the turf as taught. My point here is that it was just one small change and movement of the ball position has changed everything.

At least now I can worry about the other side of the game and have the driver and long irons get me there with much more ease.

Has anyone else had this or something similar that changed their game overnight?

I have recently had a very similar experience. I have had, for many a year, a serious issue with the unmentionables and I had lost serious distance from my iron shots.

Shortly before Lockdown#2 it was pointed out that I had my hands 'far too far back' when addressing the ball, and the club shaft was pointing towards my belly button. I was told to have the shaft of the club pointing much more towards my left hip at address. Equivalent in many ways to putting the ball back in the stance I suppose. And I am hitting the ball so much better and (touch wood) the unmentionables seem to have (largely) disappeared.

What is a bit frustrating is that as soon as I made the tweak I recognised my address position as how I 'used' to address the ball 'before unmentionables' and when my ball striking was good. Over the years my address position had changed and I hadn't recognised the drift.

But doesn't it feel just great when something quite simple addresses a problem that can at times seem insurmountable

 

[Grant85]

I wanted to post on here as a lot of websites will only talk about how to improve..

My iron play has always been my weakest point. My driving is easily my strongest, its always long and mostly straight since having a grip change.

With my irons ive always had a tendency to top it or hit it left. Until I realised I was placing the ball too far forward to my leading foot. I think this is because when I have driver I have the ball just inside my left heel and because Im good at that I feel comfortable with it there for every shot. Wrong.

Just placing the ball back in my stance - almost right of centre changed everything. The ball is always up, drawing a touch and hitting 2 club lengths further. Seriously. I am always looking to take the ball and then the turf as taught. My point here is that it was just one small change and movement of the ball position has changed everything.

At least now I can worry about the other side of the game and have the driver and long irons get me there with much more ease.

Has anyone else had this or something similar that changed their game overnight?

I find if you are struggling, it is rarely going to cause any problems to have your ball position more central.

 

[jack1]

I found the opposite. If i have the ball forward ish in my stance with say a six iron i am more likely to hit it well. If it is toward the rear i will push it right

 

[HeftyHacker]

I have recently had a very similar experience. I have had, for many a year, a serious issue with the unmentionables and I had lost serious distance from my iron shots.

Shortly before Lockdown#2 it was pointed out that I had my hands 'far too far back' when addressing the ball, and the club shaft was pointing towards my belly button. I was told to have the shaft of the club pointing much more towards my left hip at address. Equivalent in many ways to putting the ball back in the stance I suppose. And I am hitting the ball so much better and (touch wood) the unmentionables seem to have (largely) disappeared.

What is a bit frustrating is that as soon as I made the tweak I recognised my address position as how I 'used' to address the ball 'before unmentionables' and when my ball striking was good. Over the years my address position had changed and I hadn't recognised the drift.

But doesn't it feel just great when something quite simple addresses a problem that can at times seem insurmountable

I had exactly this. I used to "scoop" a lot of shots or, as you mention, shank them. Then I was playing with my mate and his dad and uncle in a pairs matchplay. On the par 3 18th tee, mates uncle says to me "try leading with your hands more" and showed me what he meant. I tried it as he's a 2 handicapper so knows far more than me and was immediately rewarded with an arrow straight 8 iron to about 5ft from the hole. He looked at me and said "glad I didn't tell you that on the 1st!" Iron play has been far better since. Lost a bit of distance initially but with a little practice it came back.

 

[Rlburnside]

That

I wanted to post on here as a lot of websites will only talk about how to improve..

My iron play has always been my weakest point. My driving is easily my strongest, its always long and mostly straight since having a grip change.

With my irons ive always had a tendency to top it or hit it left. Until I realised I was placing the ball too far forward to my leading foot. I think this is because when I have driver I have the ball just inside my left heel and because Im good at that I feel comfortable with it there for every shot. Wrong.

Just placing the ball back in my stance - almost right of centre changed everything. The ball is always up, drawing a touch and hitting 2 club lengths further. Seriously. I am always looking to take the ball and then the turf as taught. My point here is that it was just one small change and movement of the ball position has changed everything.

At least now I can worry about the other side of the game and have the driver and long irons get me there with much more ease.

Has anyone else had this or something similar that changed their game overnight?

.

That is exactly the same as me your first 2 paragraphs could have been written by me?. trouble is with me is that I’ve been playing that long ( I’m a old bugger)? it’s so ingrained I find it hard to change, I’ll try and give it a go though?

 

[ScienceBoy]

Mine improved a similar amount (reduced sideways deviation) by using the Chris Ryan videos on improving iron ball striking.

It’s very much just hands at address and how the wrists work correctly, i was previously striking the ball way too low on the face and this moved the ball up a few groves. That was probably the only change!

 

[trevor]

Had a similar thing yesterday. 9 points on the front nine then realised I wasn’t turning my shoulders properly. 23 point on the harder back nine. Simple things but with big outcomes.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It's good that a small tweak has led to a big change. It can happen but I've found over many years that the changes can be short lived. I am trying (not always successfully) to simplify things and check the basics, in terms of grip, stance, posture and alignment and focus then on making a good turn (clear the hips - my current trigger) and let it happen. At the moment the hip clearance has led to the club being far more in front of me rather than coming down steeply and potentially over the top

 

[ScienceBoy]

Hit some delicious shots at the range yesterday, just with a 7 iron and a wedge. Really feeling getting behind the handle on the backswing, the release and finally the correct groove contact.