Tale of Two Swings - the Driver versus the Iron

Whenever a player walks into the golf shop after a round of golf one things will come out of their mouth.  First, they will talk about their score.  After numerous years of being in the golf shop I have had to perfect the knowing and caring nod of my head as a person takes extreme care to describe their round.  Second, is a player will say, "I was hitting my driver SO well..." which will be, without question, followed by, "but I hit my irons terrible."  Or it will be the opposite.  

Sometimes we can teach standing in the golf shop...

One of the common errors a player can make is to try to have the same swing throughout his game.  In fact he tries to make his driver swing and iron swing the same.  When, in reality, the two are almost as dissimilar as tennis is to ping pong.

USING THE TEE

The driver is the only club in which the player uses a tee.  Using a tee is a substantial change!  It allows for the driver to be used like no other club.  That is with an ascending or upward strike.  The idea driver launch conditions is somewhere between a 12-15% launch angle depending on swing speed, spin, shaft and playing conditions.  

From a technical stand point think of it this way.  The typical tour driver is roughly 9 degrees of loft.  That means in order to achieve the desired launch angle the tour player adds somewhere between 3 and 6 degrees of dynamic loft.

In order to achieve this for the average player the driver should be teed high, forward and promote a upward strike of the ball.  And, generally, players do not hit their driver high enough.  

DOWNWARD STRIKE

Conversely, iron play is a prototypical "dig" or downward strike.  As Ben Hogan would say, "the secret is in the dirt."  He wasn't talking about a driver swing.  The ability to hit downward with ball contact first is a direct measure for a persons ability to score consistently.

Again , the PGA Tour player, on average, de-lofts a standard iron shot by 4 degrees in dynamic loft at the moment of impact.  That is the equivalent of taking an 8 iron and making it into a 7 iron dynamically through the swing.  No wonder they hit it so far!!

THE TALE OF TWO SWINGS

Back to our player as they are talking about their swing and game.   Obviously the player who hits the driver well but didn't hit his irons too well has, generally, a upward stroke and needs to work the other motion of a downward strike.  If the player is hitting their irons wells but not their driver then the player could stand to attempt to help the ball in the air.

Can you think of a PGA Tour player who is a great ball striker and has trouble with his driver?  How about Tiger the past 3 years? His driver path is actually downward a couple of degrees and he de-lofts his driver...  Personally, I think this is an area he could learn from us in the golf shop.

If you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me via email: john.grothe@gmail.com

Your friend in golf...

John D. Grothe, PGA