How To Hit Long Irons

Many amateur golfers, especially those who are mid- to high-handicappers, often feel anxious about hitting long irons, but that fear doesn't have to hold you back. 

It goes without saying that having the best irons in your bag is a great way to start, but whether you need to reach for your 3-, 4- or 5-iron, we want you to feel empowered and confident in your ability to produce the right shot at the right time.

With that in mind, we sought the guidance of Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Gary Munro, who shared three expert tips on how to improve your ball striking with long irons...

1. Angle Of Attack

With a mid-iron, the angle of attack should be around minus 4-5˚ and with a long-iron minus 1-2˚, so you need to make a few changes in your set-up and swing. First, let’s look at ball position – the common mistake is to have the ball too much in the centre of the stance.

It needs to be further forward, around two ball widths inside your lead ankle. This naturally sets the sternum just behind the ball, which will make the angle of attack into the ball a little bit shallower. This gives you a better chance of launching the ball at the correct height.

2. The Takeaway

Next comes the need for a slightly wider base to give you a little bit more clubhead speed. One of the biggest flaws in the takeaway is that the club comes too much on the inside and around, causing a narrow arc that leads to a lack of clubhead speed.

What you want is a wider takeaway where the club is travelling further away from your body. Use an alignment stick placed behind the ball and try to imagine the club stretching out to hit it in the takeaway. This encourages a wide arc to help generate lots of clubhead speed and the correct angle of attack into the ball.

3. Impact

As for impact, the differences from set-up are 4-6ins of shift towards the ball, some rotation of the hips and the hands now slightly ahead of the ball. There’s now more pressure on your left side and, naturally, the right foot will roll inwards as your weight shifts.

Finally, we want good extension through to the finish. You don’t want your body to stay down and low, but rather to have your belt buckle and chest pointing up towards the sky with a lovely high finish, very much like Rory McIlroy.