The center of your body will even with the ball, not slightly behind it like with the driver. Because your irons are shorter than your driver, and because the ball is positioned farther back in your stance, there will be less tilt in your spine. To make a good iron swing your weight should be evenly balanced at set-up. Be sure to rotate all the way through to your finish turning so that your weight is mostly on your lead leg at the finish. Turn your body into the brace of your rear leg and remember when you turn not sway back and forth.Īs you swing down remember to rotate through the ball keeping your upper body slightly back, just like you were at set-up.
#YOULL HAVE TO SWING IT DRIVER#
With a driver it also helps to rotate your hips away from the target, providing more room to make a full turn for power. Rotate your lead shoulder down and your chest and arms away from the ball keeping your arms and body connected and in sync. Keep in mind the driver is the longest club in the bag and therefore requires a longer swing, so don’t rush it. This position creates slightly more tilt in your spine angle and positions your body slightly more behind the ball helping you to hit up at impact. As mentioned the ball should be positioned farther forward off the inside of your front foot. To make a good driver swing it all starts with your set-up. It is helpful when you practice to use an alignment device that can mark your ball position relative to your feet, like the Swing Align Swing Junction.
By positioning the ball farther back versus your driver you can make a descending blow striking the ball first then the turf allowing the loft to launch the ball in the air so that you can stop it by the pin. When hitting short irons - pitching wedge through 8-iron - the ball will be in the middle of your stance. For mid irons the ball should be positioned just forward of center. For long irons the ball should be positioned between your lead foot and the middle of your stance. This will feel forward in your stance, but it allows you to hit up on the ball adding launch angle and distance.įor iron swings, your ball position moves slightly back depending on the length of the club. When making a driver swing, the ball should be positioned on the inside of your lead foot. Even if you’re an experienced player, ball position can sometimes slip and create bad habits. The best driver shots are hit with high launch and low spin which come from proper attack angle and loft at impact.Ī simple mistake made by many golfers is that they don’t know where to position the ball in their stance or they don’t check where it is positioned. If you strike down too steeply with your driver the ball will spin too much, losing you distance, or making it harder to control the direction. The positive attack angle will give you more time to generate speed and allow you to launch the lower lofted driver into the air so that it carries a long way down the fairway. While the club obviously swings down towards the ball from the top of your swing it should bottom out just before reaching the ball striking it with a level to slightly ascending (or positive) attack angle. The driver swing needs to be different because the ball is sitting up on a tee positioned farther forward in your stance. Don’t swing down too steeply or you will hit the dreaded fat shot. The club will strike the ball first and continue down and through the turf, taking a modest divot, then start its upward movement into the follow-through. To do this, the proper iron swing drives down through the ball, striking it with a descending or negative attack angle. This means that all you have to do is make a clean strike on the back of the ball and it will launch up off the ground. Because of the loft, the club naturally gets the ball airborne easily if you hit down and let the loft do the work. Pitching wedges are typically 44-48 degrees, a 7-iron is about 32-36 degrees, and so on. If you look at any iron in your bag, you’ll notice they have significantly more loft than a driver.
You won’t necessarily feel any different during the swing, but the impact position will be slightly different. AngleĪngle of attack is the biggest differentiator between the driver swing and the iron swing. Most aspects of the swings are the same, but a few slight adjustments will help you improve both your driver and iron shots. Driver swings should approach the ball with a slightly upward attack angle, launching the ball up off the tee for maximum carry and distance. Iron swings must drive down into the ball so that the loft of the club does the work to get the ball off the ground. Latin jazz standards.The main difference in a driver swing vs an iron swing is the way you attack the golf ball.