Swing thought for driver and irons

Do you hit irons differently from driver?

To me, iron is a controlled shot with finesse. So my swing thought is don't swing my iron too agressively (eventhough i still do most of the time), but get it to the distance that I could swing with 75% effort. This means I don't care if it can only go 130m with 7 iron as long as I can reproduce the shot everytime.

Whereas for driver, i would normally wack the shxx out of it for two reasons: (1) it is tee up, so less chance of hitting fat shot, (2) it is the only way to get the distance far enough to help my second shot.

Is this the right philosophy or approach?

Does anyone out here who can swing easy, but can still achieve 230-250m? I have seen guys like that in the course and it beats the hell out of me how they do it.

i try to swing both in same way....

In fact i am different from you. I will push my irons but never my driver as errors in irons are more 'forgiving' than driver

I agree with Sunny. I feel that with irons I'm more capable of shot shaping etc. With the driver, I'm happy to see it go straight. So, I tend not to force the drive but am willing to be more aggressive with my irons.

hmmm somehow my thoughts are similar to yours mr salty. with a driver in my hand i always feel i'm able to swing harder and add a lot more power. whereas for irons i'm more concerned about good contact and proper impact position so i usually do 75% swings. this just means i have to practice more lah then i can gain some distance on my irons. haha

Seems like we have different opinions. Some say to swing driver agressively and iron conservatively and others say the other way around. I would like to hear more opinion from the bros here.

As for iron error is more "forgiving", I'm not sure about that. Since the iron shot is usually the second shot on the fairway, if you make a mistake and hit it on the rough or bunker or worse shank it, the mistake is more costly.

it hurts as hell when u practice closer to 100% swing with your iron at the range. Plus who need 130-150m with the 7 when you can nail it at 115m-120m almost all the time. If i want 150m , i use my hybrid

tee off a few times with my 4 iron and gave it a full driver swing, very good distance and much straighter. Worst case a push to the right instead of a wicked slice if using a driver or hybrid. bought a really cheap driving iron (18 degrees) to try and tee off. Now looking to reshaft as it is S400, way to stiff and heavy.

also the amount of effort u put in with the driver will result in a bigger gain (also bigger lost). With the iron its maybe and extra 10-20m but with the driver it can be a lot more. So ppl tend to crush their driver cause they did it before (hit the perfect drive for that huge gain). 150m with the 7 is nothing to brag about vs 250m with the driver

For me its also difficult to hit 75% and closer to 100% cause will need different shaft flex. My previous driver (jap spec stiff) can hit 75% and its get good distance but now with a stiffer shaft driver (US spec stiff), i need to load the shaft or else it trickles pass 140m only. (its a sign my shaft is to stiff...but no money to upgrade now )

To clarify, when I said that I'll be aggressive with my irons, I didn't mean more force. I meant more willingness to try funky shots like drawing, fading etc. I believe that irons should never be hit 100%, especially the shorter irons. Less power = more control and therefore, a better chance of shaping shots

For me, if driver, I stand further fm the ball and irons, I stand nearer.....

on a serious-er note, I will try to ensure my swing plane remain the same be it driver or iron......and I am physically defect where my back forbid me to swing anywhere near 90%......guess thats why I am known as the PEE-SHOOTER

irons or driver, i always try to swing "nice nice" so tht if i miss i oso look "nice nice"

regarding using "force", i dun remb using 100% on any shots unless once a while i tulan then in the end i hurt my back, so i give up swinging 100%...

i only using slightly more force when i am in between clubs, eg distance needed is between my 8 & 9, if over got hazard, i swing hard 9... if front got hazard, i swing easy 8.

whether iron swing n driver swing the same, i think not.... coz due to the length of the clubs, our swing plane (sorry, not sure if it is correct) will definitely be diff.... short irons n wedges generally gives u steep swing, thus more "onto" the ball
Drive leh, a flatter swing..thus more on sweeping the ball...

but of course, will try to use the same tempo if possible...


but then, how can u trust a novice rite? hahahah juz my 2 cents...

Technospaz wrote:

To clarify, when I said that I'll be aggressive with my irons, I didn't mean more force. I meant more willingness to try funky shots like drawing, fading etc. I believe that irons should never be hit 100%, especially the shorter irons. Less power = more control and therefore, a better chance of shaping shots

Let me clarify as well... I normally swing 70% for drivers and irons. Never more for driver as hitting harder always end up in trouble and a mishit on a driver is normally super costly.

But I would force my irons if i need to. I would sometimes club down and swing harder to clear trees(result of not following my earlier advise for driver) or to make it land softer(hazard behind the green)

Normally if i swing more than 70% for irons, i can live with mishits as it seldom get into real trouble. But drivers if i do a whack....sometimes 2 fairways not enough

Wow u guys are great golfer... I give my 7 Iron 100% but only end up 130m...

Anyway I used to think of driving hard so that I can get easier shot but it usually end me left, right, anyway but fairway. So now I just hope it land safety on fairway and then work with my irons...

jtek wrote:

Wow u guys are great golfer... I give my 7 Iron 100% but only end up 130m...

Anyway I used to think of driving hard so that I can get easier shot but it usually end me left, right, anyway but fairway. So now I just hope it land safety on fairway and then work with my irons...

bro my 7i oso ard same distance... impt is to hit straight ma rite? tht's y we got so many diff iron....

ha ha ha... ya lor... the difficult task is to get it straight and not far... After 1 years, i finally understand this...

My 7-iron will go 130m if 100% strength and no guarantee of direction. If i swing 75%, it can go 140m. Ironical isn't it?

Not bad. So for a 130m shot, just swing your 7 iron 100%. For a 140m shot, swing it 75%. Can carry less clubs.

jaketang wrote:

jtek wrote:

Wow u guys are great golfer... I give my 7 Iron 100% but only end up 130m...

Anyway I used to think of driving hard so that I can get easier shot but it usually end me left, right, anyway but fairway. So now I just hope it land safety on fairway and then work with my irons...

bro my 7i oso ard same distance... impt is to hit straight ma rite? tht's y we got so many diff iron....

Same here, bro.

S70B wrote:

Not bad. So for a 130m shot, just swing your 7 iron 100%. For a 140m shot, swing it 75%. Can carry less clubs.

hahaha. may be swing 50% can go 150m... even less club to carry.

ultimately is not how far your club can go but how accurate....

what's the pt of having a pitching wedge tht can go 180m but bay zhun? and u got nothing left for short distance...

That is true. I would rather have my pitching wedge consistently at 100m, approach wedge at 90m, sand wedge at 80m, and 60 degrees at 70m.

sunny wrote:

Technospaz wrote:

To clarify, when I said that I'll be aggressive with my irons, I didn't mean more force. I meant more willingness to try funky shots like drawing, fading etc. I believe that irons should never be hit 100%, especially the shorter irons. Less power = more control and therefore, a better chance of shaping shots

Let me clarify as well... I normally swing 70% for drivers and irons. Never more for driver as hitting harder always end up in trouble and a mishit on a driver is normally super costly.

But I would force my irons if i need to. I would sometimes club down and swing harder to clear trees(result of not following my earlier advise for driver) or to make it land softer(hazard behind the green)

Normally if i swing more than 70% for irons, i can live with mishits as it seldom get into real trouble. But drivers if i do a whack....sometimes 2 fairways not enough

You mean't the ball fly high and clear the trees or the trees got cleared by your club?? But, to quote the great Mardan Marmat "slow back swing, slow forward swing", one should never rush the swing. I thought you deloft for low flight and increase loft for high flight; even slightly open face for SW like getting out of bunker for super ten-storey ball flight. Not my wsidom. Just paste from the Internet. Sometimes it worked for me.

add loft or deloft?

In a way. If i need to hit a distance of my 7i over a tree which i am not comfortable, I may use a 8i and hit hard to get the same distance. Get what I mean?

I am not a very good player and adding loft or delofting the club from my normal set up confuses me and I tend not to hit well. Thus I just do the lazy way of clubbing up or down to "add" or "decrease" loft.

Very interesting topic.......................................................

Recently, I had been tinkering with my shot for Driver , woods and Irons and this comes in handy....

You know after playing sometimes, Golfer like me tend to try new swing or tinker with it with the hope to improve it further...

I was playing Drive and my 5 woods about the same swing to my irons .. I find it very boring and trajectory was normal and distance not so great.

So, I try to tweak the swing a bit by trying to swing it flatter by allowing my club to drop a bit lower when the club was swung back . Resulting in a sweeping motion rather than a hitting (liken to swing an iron). This means that I swing my driver and wood differently from my iron.

Results shown that I am able to gain more distances, up to 20 m more , while of course not to much consistency. However, the feel is great as I can feel when I hit it perfect I can hear the driver max out sound (if you know what I mean ).

This leaves me thinking whether the shaft length of the driver and woods. My feel is that if they are relatively shorter (perhaps lesser than 45 inch, will also depends on your hegith) it will be much better to play them like iron shots rather than to sweep the ball. As for longer shaft, it will be practically difficult to play them like iron also.

In addition, I need to clarify that I mention having to have a swing closer to iron shot it does not mean having the same swing as when ball placement for driver and woods is very much different from iron (where we place them towards our left foot).

So, end of day.... I find swinging of drivers and woods need to be different from an iron shot. Perhaps, I would need to perfect it....... Well, I am not an expert but thought of sharing my thoughts for discussion...............

sunny wrote:

add loft or deloft?

In a way. If i need to hit a distance of my 7i over a tree which i am not comfortable, I may use a 8i and hit hard to get the same distance. Get what I mean?

I am not a very good player and adding loft or delofting the club from my normal set up confuses me and I tend not to hit well. Thus I just do the lazy way of clubbing up or down to "add" or "decrease" loft.

Ok, since my boss went home I can indulge abit. If you swing every club the same way, the loft will be added as the iron no gets higher. So you get shorter dist with shorter, higher loft irons. Suppose I do SW to 60m(my norm dist) and gets abt 50 ft height, to clear a tree 70ft, I've to add loft. I no expert to demo to you. Maybe the local teaching pro can I know when my SW is added loft with my position to ball. So new ball height gets past 80ft, but dist will be shorten say 50m. I take that into account. Sometimes I even slightly open face to gain greater height with even shorter dist.

You deloft when you want ball flight to come down. I can hit balls that don't get past 6ft in height for a dist of 60~80m by playing with loft. Very handy when I'm in the woods (with trees type ) which I normally find myself in

Ok, this is free advice mainly from the Internet. I'm not a local teaching pro but I'm happy with my game. Rely on this info at your own risks

Cheerios

hillgreen wrote:

Very interesting topic.......................................................

Recently, I had been tinkering with my shot for Driver , woods and Irons and this comes in handy....

You know after playing sometimes, Golfer like me tend to try new swing or tinker with it with the hope to improve it further...

I was playing Drive and my 5 woods about the same swing to my irons .. I find it very boring and trajectory was normal and distance not so great.

So, I try to tweak the swing a bit by trying to swing it flatter by allowing my club to drop a bit lower when the club was swung back . Resulting in a sweeping motion rather than a hitting (liken to swing an iron). This means that I swing my driver and wood differently from my iron.

Results shown that I am able to gain more distances, up to 20 m more , while of course not to much consistency. However, the feel is great as I can feel when I hit it perfect I can hear the driver max out sound (if you know what I mean ).

This leaves me thinking whether the shaft length of the driver and woods. My feel is that if they are relatively shorter (perhaps lesser than 45 inch, will also depends on your hegith) it will be much better to play them like iron shots rather than to sweep the ball. As for longer shaft, it will be practically difficult to play them like iron also.

In addition, I need to clarify that I mention having to have a swing closer to iron shot it does not mean having the same swing as when ball placement for driver and woods is very much different from iron (where we place them towards our left foot).

So, end of day.... I find swinging of drivers and woods need to be different from an iron shot. Perhaps, I would need to perfect it....... Well, I am not an expert but thought of sharing my thoughts for discussion...............

I used to do like you before. Helicopter swing. Sometimes kena, ball flies but direction can spam the whole forward field of view, ie, 180*

If you continue to do that, you'll find the bay to your immediate left is always empty despite a FULL house driving range Either I've taken out the poor unfortunate guy or the chap must be scared until he/she voluntarily vacate the place.

My swing now is diff. So, there are people playing on my left with no complaints. You should strive to have steep turn as oppose to helicopter. I saw the pics of JL in the charity tourny and I think you should try to emulate that. Don't try to do FULL turn; this belongs to people whose body are gifted with the flexibility. A 3/4 swing properly can deliver the goods BETTER than an incorrect FULL swing. I know because I've experience that.

One thing I check which I recommend you is if the clubhead can be seen at the corner of your left eye at the top of your swing; you've overswing! I stop my swing right away - it's no penalty even in competition and I start anew.

Again I no local teaching pro, take info at your own risks

Yes, agreed to take only 3/4 turn instead of full turn..... to remain consistent.....