Struggle with Long Irons

After finally mastering my 22% Hybrid club I purchased a 4 Iron for the shorter holes on a course I play on. Dont know what it is with the 4 Iron but I cant seem to tee off properly at all or hit from the fairway on a longer hole. Even when I connect well im only hitting 100-120 yards yet I can hit around 200 yards with my Hybrid from the tee off. Im not a big hitter anyway but at least with my 6 Iron I can hit it reasonably straight or if I use my Fairway 3 Wood I can get some distance. The 4 Iron is heading for my attic at this rate. Any advice?

Cheers

The only advice I would give is to grip down the shaft, this means with the loft it wont go as high as shorter clubs, but it will give you more distance.

Measure your 4 iron against your 7 iron, see the difference in heights of the shaft, look how low your hands are on the 7 iron now grip the 4 iron, so your hands are at the same height as they would be on a 7 iron, now make some 3/4 swings, you should be able to hit 4 iron now a lot longer than your 7 iron

Thanks for the advice I hadnt thought of that. Will give it a try on the range next week. I need to start using this 4 to get any success on the short holes so that may do the trick. Nice one

Learn to swing the golf club properly. Your inability to hit a long iron is an indication of a poor swing. Have a lesson perhaps?

FukWit, i notice you were born the day the Titanic set sail. What was golf like back then?

Clubhead speed. Majority of golfers fail to hit consistent long irons due to lack of clubhead speed at impact. Deceleration can be got away with to a certain extent with the short irons but if you do this on the long irons you will not create enough lift to propel the ball

Maverick wrote:Clubhead speed. Majority of golfers fail to hit consistent long irons due to lack of clubhead speed at impact. Deceleration can be got away with to a certain extent with the short irons but if you do this on the long irons you will not create enough lift to propel the ball

Funny, my problem used to be the reverse. I sort of had it in my head that, because I was using a bigger club to make the ball go further, I had to swing harder, faster and accelerate more into the ball, which actually resulted in much poorer contact and less distance than it should have. Then I realised that the 4 iron is a much longer club, so same hand/swing speed as a 7 means higher club head speed, and I tried to keep the same tempo with all irons. The result was generally much better and more consistent iron play.

Bob_the_Job wrote:

Maverick wrote:Clubhead speed. Majority of golfers fail to hit consistent long irons due to lack of clubhead speed at impact. Deceleration can be got away with to a certain extent with the short irons but if you do this on the long irons you will not create enough lift to propel the ball

Funny, my problem used to be the reverse. I sort of had it in my head that, because I was using a bigger club to make the ball go further, I had to swing harder, faster and accelerate more into the ball, which actually resulted in much poorer contact and less distance than it should have. Then I realised that the 4 iron is a much longer club, so same hand/swing speed as a 7 means higher club head speed, and I tried to keep the same tempo with all irons. The result was generally much better and more consistent iron play.

Clubhead speed doesn't mean swing harder. It simply means don't quit on it and slow down. You should have the same clubhead spead with each of your irons, my point was if you decelerate with say a 9iron you get away with it more as you have to natural loft on the clubface to get the ball airbourne which you do not on the long irons

A longer club, swung at the same revolutionary rate as a short one, will have a higher club head speed. That's a fact.

So if I turn my shoulders and swing my arms at the same rate with all clubs, surely the speed at which the club head impacts the ball, and thus kinetic energy imparted is greater with longer clubs? The trajectory is then determined by the loft, and as you say, more loft is more forgiving.

Explained exactly what I was making a hash of trying to say.

Maverick wrote:Explained exactly what I was making a hash of trying to say.

Well, if you ever need pedantry again, give me a call

If only I could put all this theory into practice every time.