iron accuracy

Controlling iron trajectory and distance

When playing your iron shots to the green, accuracy and control are much more important than distance. Perhaps you can do your maximum swing and hit a 7 iron 150 yards, but can you do it repeatedly and make it go straight? You might hit better shots by taking more club and less swing. Forget the macho thing, it won’t make your score any lower!

Consider this chart out of Ben Hogan’s book. Hogan could hit a 7 iron a maximum distance of 160 yards. But, in competition, he played it at 135 yards. Why did he intentionally give up the yardage? Because he made more birdies this way! You might have heard interviews recently with both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in which they both admitted working on hitting more “knock down” and “punch” shots into the greens for better accuracy. I don’t know about you, but if Hogan, Woods, and Mickelson have applied this strategy with success – I’d give it a try!