How to Hit Your Irons Pure and Get More Solid Strikes

When hitting an iron shot from the fairway, your main objective should be to hit the ball as solidly as possible.  Sure, you want to do that from the tee as well, but it’s much easier when you have some air between your ball and the ground.

With the ball sitting directly on the ground you have to execute your swing well in order to find the sweet spot.  Golfers who are able to hit their irons pure on a regular basis will always have a big advantage over those who miss shots out toward the toe or in off the heel.

Benefits of a Clean Strike

Before getting into some instruction, let’s take a quick look at some of the many benefits of striking your iron shots cleanly.

• Cover the full distance: When you decide which iron to use for a given shot, you pick that club because you think it can get you all the way to the target.  Of course, that will only happen if you hit the shot cleanly.  One of the most important reasons to focus on solid contact is the importance of covering the full distance to your intended target, as hitting the ball off the toe or heel is sure to cost you yardage.  Not hitting irons “pure” or “clean” is one of the top reasons why many amateur golfers tend to miss their targets short rather than long—in case you were wondering, that’s the reason why most golf course designers place more bunkers in front of the greens rather than behind them.
• Hold your target line: Obviously, in addition to hitting the ball the full distance, you also want to keep your iron shots as close to the target line as possible.  Again, this is another way that you can benefit from hitting the ball on the sweet spot.  Striking the center of the face will help you hit straighter shots, meaning you should put the ball closer to the hole on a regular basis.
• Deal with difficult lies: Golf is played on courses which offer a variety of different lies, and you need to be able to deal with those various lies successfully if you would like to post good scores.  Having the ability to strike your irons cleanly from a good lie means you will have an easier time dealing with poor lies as well.

Any way you look at it, having the capability to strike pure iron shots is a great boost to your game.  With that in mind let’s now focus on addressing some of the key tips you can use to reach this goal.

It’s All About Balance

The key to the discussion of solid ball striking is going to start and end with balance.  Simply put, balanced golfers will have a huge advantage over those who are off-balance when it comes to ball striking.

If you want to hit the ball cleanly on a regular basis, you will put an emphasis on maintaining good balance from the takeaway all the way through to impact.  This point cannot be highlighted enough – if you are going to be a good ball striker, you need to be balanced.  It is just that simple.

There are a number of balance practice aids and simple drills out there that can really help you if you struggle in this area of your game.

Hands Beyond the Ball

Another one of the basic fundamentals involved in good ball striking with the irons is the ability to get your hands past the ball at impact.  When you strike the ball, your hands should be slightly past the ball (to the left of the ball, for a right handed golfer) in order to promote a downward hit.

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Hitting down on the ball is crucial for a clean strike, and you can only hit down if your hands are past the ball when contact is made.  To make this task easier, you may wish to setup over the ball with your hands in a forward position.

Accelerate Through the Hitting Area

This is an often overlooked point when it comes to ball striking, but it is extremely important.  As the club approaches the ball, it needs to be accelerating rather than decelerating if you are going to strike the shot cleanly – and with some authority.

Many amateur golfers are decelerating prior to impact, largely because they have wasted their lag earlier in the downswing.  Do your best to hold on to your lag angle on the way down and then release the club with confidence through impact.  Doing so will ensure that you are accelerating nicely, and the end result should be shots that are struck cleanly and with plenty of speed.

Use Enough Club

While this is a course management tip more than anything else, it actually can have an impact on the quality of your ball striking.  By picking a club that is enough to comfortably reach the target, you won’t have to swing ‘out of your shoes’ – meaning you can keep your balance easier, and striking the ball cleanly will not be a problem.

Unfortunately, most amateur golfers pick clubs based on the best case scenario for that shot.  In other words, they take the club that will reach the target only if it is struck absolutely perfectly.  That usually doesn’t happen, of course, so take one more club and make a smooth swing that comes with some built in margin for error.

Make the Switch to Fitted Clubs

The last point that we are going to make on ball striking has nothing to do with the swing at all.  Instead, this is an equipment point that should not be overlooked.

When putting together your set of clubs, make sure you going through a professional club fitting to ensure that your clubs – especially your irons – are a good fit for your body and your swing.  Ill-fitted clubs will make the game harder than it already is, and this is not a game that needs to be made any harder.  Once your irons are properly fitted to your swing, you will have removed one variable from the swing equation and you should find solid strikes easier to come by.

The ability to hit your iron shots solidly is a key component to good golf, and the tips and advice above includes some important points for you to focus on as you work toward that goal.  Once you begin to hit your irons with improved consistency, you will quickly notice just how fast your scores begin to drop as a result.