Two drills to help you pure your irons

[Photos: James Farrell]

Amateurs hit the ball all over the face with their irons because they disconnect the movements of their arms and body, which causes the club to bottom out before the ball or reach it on a steep, glancing path – or both. They look like this in the forward swing [below], casting the club into the ball mostly with their arms and very little body rotation.

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The goal on the downswing is to get the body and arms working together and for the low point of the swing to come after you strike the ball. I’ve got two drills to help with that. The first is to wrap a towel under your arms and hit some three-quarter shots [below]. Notice that the towel wraps around my back, not my chest.

You’ll look like you have T-Rex arms when you swing with a towel under your arms, but the point is the towel prompts you to keep your torso moving throughout the swing [below]. It should feel like you’ve got so much tension between your body and towel, you might rip the fabric.

The second drill helps teach you to not throw your hands and arms at the ball from the top of the swing, which is a common mistake on iron shots. I’m demonstrating what this throwing motion on the downswing looks like [below].

As for the drill, grab a filled water bottle and mimic a downswing from the top. The goal is to get the water to shoot out as late as possible, with some of it even landing in front of where your ball would be [below]. To release the water (“energy”) later in the downswing, your body and arms have to move together. Then the energy is released to deliver a powerful strike.

If you can hit good shots with the towel drill and learn to release the energy of the club later with the water-bottle drill, you’ll develop more speed and better compression on your irons.

Ryan Hager, one of Golf Digest’s Best Young Teachers in America, is director of instruction at Plainfield County Club in Edison, New Jersey.