These adjustments will keep you from skulling it over the green.
I’ll say one good thing about blading an iron shot: The ball goes pretty far. That might please a beginning golfer whose priority is to advance the ball in any way possible. For the rest of the golf population, a thin shot is rarely satisfying – even when it works out. Catching the ball on the upswing with the leading edge of an iron is a fault that is easily curable. Follow these steps to avoid it.
STEP ONE: FEEL A STRETCH AT ADDRESS
- Play the ball in the middle of your stance.
- Keep your weight evenly distributed between your feet.
- Let your arms reach out to the ball.
- Feel a stretch at your elbows [above].
STEP TWO: MAINTAIN THE TRIANGLE
- Keep the feeling of extension in your arms as you start back.
- Let your torso rotate the club away from the target.
- Maintain the look of a triangle between your arms and club [above right].
- Don’t let your elbows bend [above left].
STEP THREE: KEEP EVERYTHING TOGETHER
- As you swing down and through impact, keep your arms ‘long’.
- Let your body and arms turn through together.
- Still feel a stretch at your elbows.
- Extend the club towards the target [above].
STEP FOUR: DRILL – STAY CONNECTED
- Place a bath towel under your armpits and pin it.
- Make backswings keeping the towel in place.
- Feel like you’re taking the club back on a wide arc [above].
- Make short through-swings (without a ball) while feeling the connection of the body, arms and club.
Rushi Oza, a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher, is at Highland Creek Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Photographs by J.D. Cuban
