Can you have good iron swing with no divot?

OffalyMedic

Hi,

Was wondering if some of ye could help me on this one. I feel like i have good iron play 9/10 will be correct distance and i suppose about 7/10 will be within 5 yards of where I was aiming. Anyway i rarely take a divot in-front of the ball and was wondering if i try and change my swing over the winter would my accuracy and ball striking improve? I find when i thy to hit down on the ball a bit more i catch a lot more shots fat! Playing off 11 at the moment but would love to get down to single figures by early next year. All help greatly appreciated.

Russman

shaunac93 wrote: »

Hi,

Was wondering if some of ye could help me on this one. I feel like i have good iron play 9/10 will be correct distance and i suppose about 7/10 will be within 5 yards of where I was aiming. Anyway i rarely take a divot in-front of the ball and was wondering if i try and change my swing over the winter would my accuracy and ball striking improve? I find when i thy to hit down on the ball a bit more i catch a lot more shots fat! Playing off 11 at the moment but would love to get down to single figures by early next year. All help greatly appreciated.

If you're the correct distance 90% of the time and 70% of the time you're pretty much online, your iron play isn't what's holding you back IMHO.
You don't take a divot for the sake of it, it's a function of your particular swing, swing plane and ball position. It shouldn't be a conscious attempt to chop down on the ball, which is possibly where your fat shots are coming from. Several top players are very shallow through the hit, look at Jim Furyk for example.

If the numbers above are really a fair reflection of your iron play I wouldn't be giving it a second thought.

GreeBo

How far are you hitting the ball though?

Usually no divot means hands and clubhead arriving at the ball together,rather than hands ahead and the clubface delofted.

Dont try to hit down, try to find out how you are not hitting down, as Russman says, its a result rather than a goal.

OffalyMedic

Russman: i never though my iron play was a problem tbh it's my short game thats holding me back i feel, however i was out playing yesterday with a couple of very low handicappers and i noticed they all took divots with 6 irons and less. I tried to worked on changing my swing during summer to take divot but found it hard to change because i was loosing shots with my normal swing (catching it clean) so couldnt justify duffing irons if ya get me. Now that its the off season i was just wondering would changing swing mechanism in order take divot be worth my while in the long run.

GreeBo: Here are my average iron distances give or take a few meters :
5 iron 150m,
6 iron 140m
7 iron 130m
8 iron 120m
9 iron 110m
PW 95M
SW 75m

I'm almost certain hands and clubface are in line at time of impact! should i try to change this over winter months like you say so hands are slightly infront of ball on impact?

GreeBo

Those distance seem fine so I wouldnt go mad working on something on my own tbh, maybe get a lesson.


What about your setup, hands ahead of the ball?
My guess would be no?

If your hands are level with club face at setup then its not possible to take a divot, there is no extra length available to contact the ground during the swing and take the divot.

Hands ahead at address (more for wedge, less for longer irons) means when your arms naturally straighten/extend around impact you will get the divot.

Eoinyh

Go get lessons an talk to someone who knows what there talking about, every tom dick an Harry is a expert in there own eyes, an very few are

OffalyMedic

GreeBo wrote: »

Those distance seem fine so I wouldnt go mad working on something on my own tbh, maybe get a lesson.


What about your setup, hands ahead of the ball?
My guess would be no?

If your hands are level with club face at setup then its not possible to take a divot, there is no extra length available to contact the ground during the swing and take the divot.

Hands ahead at address (more for wedge, less for longer irons) means when your arms naturally straighten/extend around impact you will get the divot.

My hands are ahead of ball on setup with all clubs but come back inline at impact



At the moment i'm just a poor broke student so lesson is out of the question at the moment hence i asked for a bit of advice here. Anyone have a good you tube video or anything else maybe that might help me?

GreeBo

You have an angle at setup yet arms straight at impact, that extra length usually goes into making a divot, you must be either standing up or bending your arms to avoid hitting the ground, try to get videod if you can. (or video yourself)

OffalyMedic

Thanks for your help I'll try get a video on range later