Irons for a starter

freddie1970

Is it alright to use a 7 as the lowest even though you lose out on distance ..I'm playing nearly a year now and I'm comfortable with the higher clubs ,but terrible with the longer irons ...I have tried hybrids but I'm very inconsistent with them ..always land in the rough or trees ...
Sometimes I think I may be better off sticking to 7 and higher maybe until my swing gets better

PARlance

freddie1970 wrote: »

Is it alright to use a 7 as the lowest even though you lose out on distance ..I'm playing nearly a year now and I'm comfortable with the higher clubs ,but terrible with the longer irons ...I have tried hybrids but I'm very inconsistent with them ..always land in the rough or trees ...
Sometimes I think I may be better off sticking to 7 and higher maybe until my swing gets better

Scoring wise, you're probably best sticking to the higher irons.
However, you're going to have to grab the bull by the horns at some stage. Maybe hit the range with just your 4 and 5 iron for a few weeks. Start off hitting half shots and then ramp it up as you get more confident.

As always, lessons with a good pro will help.

CMOTDibbler

As eomeone who suffered with their irons recently, I can understand your pain.

A mistake a lot of beginners make with irons (or any club) is using their arms and/or wrists too much and not their hips/body turn, and although you can get away with it with the short irons and wedges, it falls apart completely with the longer irons.

A good exercise is to truncate your backswing almost to the point that the club shaft doesn't go much above horizontal. You'll find that there's no way to successfully make a shot using your arms alone. You almost automatically turn your hips through the shot to get the ball to fly and if you repeat this enough, you'll find it comes automatically after a while.

Start your backswing by bringing your right hip back and your left forward. Not much, but Seve used to say that he imagined a nail going through his right buttock from the front, driving that hip back a bit; Seve was a masochist .

First Up

freddie1970 wrote:

Is it alright to use a 7 as the lowest even though you lose out on distance ..I'm playing nearly a year now and I'm comfortable with the higher clubs ,but terrible with the longer irons ...I have tried hybrids but I'm very inconsistent with them ..always land in the rough or trees ... Sometimes I think I may be better off sticking to 7 and higher maybe until my swing gets better

You are likely to become proficient with a 5 or 7 wood a lot quicker than a long iron.

freddie1970

I have never tried a wood ....all I know is I'm terrible with hybrids ..
Should I try a fairway wood ...I heard they are v hard to use

CMOTDibbler

freddie1970 wrote: »

I have never tried a wood ....all I know is I'm terrible with hybrids ..
Should I try a fairway wood ...I heard they are v hard to use

You use hybrids very much like you would an iron. So if you're having problems with the irons, your hybrids would also suffer. Fairway woods swing similarly to how a driver does, the hard part is hitting them cleanly off the deck.

freddie1970

Well my drive is ok fairly straight ...it's my second shot that breaks my heart all over the place ..when I get near the green I'm grand again with the short irons ....
Maybe I'm strange but I don't like hybrids at all

Senna

freddie1970 wrote: »

Well my drive is ok fairly straight ...it's my second shot that breaks my heart all over the place ..when I get near the green I'm grand again with the short irons ....
Maybe I'm strange but I don't like hybrids at all

The trick to a hybrid is imagining it an iron and not over swing it like a wood.
Try and hit a hybrid as if it was a 7 iron, same swing speed, same ball position and hit down on it like a 7 iron.

CMOTDibbler

freddie1970 wrote: »

Well my drive is ok fairly straight ...it's my second shot that breaks my heart all over the place ..when I get near the green I'm grand again with the short irons ....
Maybe I'm strange but I don't like hybrids at all

Try that exercise with the irons. Even with a severely truncated back swing, you'll be surprised at how good it is. You can even do it at home (with a soft ball if necessary, but without is good too).

freddie1970

Sorry which exercise is that

CMOTDibbler

freddie1970 wrote: »

Sorry which exercise is that

Post #3 above

freddie1970

Yeah I have started swinging from hips and yes I get a better shot ...I used to put my ball slightly forward for hybrids but from now I will leave it in the middle and just imaging I'm swinging the 7 iron ..

CMOTDibbler

freddie1970 wrote: »

Yeah I have started swinging from hips and yes I get a better shot ...I used to put my ball slightly forward for hybrids but from now I will leave it in the middle and just imaging I'm swinging the 7 iron ..

It used to be the thing with irons to place the ball towards your front foot with the longer ones and the back with the shorter ones. Modern irons tend to be played more from the centre, but I'm still in the camp that says you reposition depending on the length of the iron. Tom Watson has said that the longer irons should be picked rather than hit down on and that works for me too.

For a given value of 'works'.

Seve OB

CMOTDibbler wrote: »

A mistake a lot of beginners make with irons (or any club) is using their arms and/or wrists too much and not their hips/body turn, and although you can get away with it with the short irons and wedges, it falls apart completely with the longer irons.

I got a lesson once. Was having trouble with my driver always sliding off to the right.

Pro asked me to hit an 8 iron. "But it's my driver that's the problem!"

His reply was that it was my swing which was the problem, and because I don't hit the 8 iron as far, therefore I don't notice it as much. He was bang on. Not only did it fix (well improve) my driver, but when I was going for the green, I was hitting it a lot more consistently as opposed to landing just off it.