Dan Grieve's Top Tips To Stop Striking Your Irons Heavy
Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Dan Grieve explains how to stop striking your irons heavy and improve the quality of your ball striking...
Hitting fat golf shots can be a common occurrence for amateur golfers, but that doesn't make them any less frustrating. They are up there with shanks and pull shots in terms of scorecard destroying habits, so how can we banish heavy strikes for good?
In this video and article, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Dan Grieve shares the probable causes and runs through some of his expert tips to help you overcome heavy strikes with your irons...
Stop Striking Your Irons Heavy – Causes
The most common cause of heavy iron strikes is swaying off the ball. When you move away from the target during your backswing, your lower half does not turn correctly.
It then makes it very hard to return to the golf ball consistently, but fortunately there are some drills you can use to improve this. As I demonstrate in the video, try moving your right foot forwards. As you swing back, feel like you maintain the pressure on the inside of your right foot, as opposed to the outside, which should lead to a more stable swing. Hit some shots to bed in this feeling, and you should notice less heavy strikes.
Another great drill to prevent swaying is to put your ball on a tee and move it forward in your stance by around four or five inches. This will look similar to a driver address position, with the ball just inside your left heel. Moving the ball further forward in your stance will encourage you to transfer your weight onto your left side more effectively through impact.
Another common cause of the fat strike is a lack of wrist hinge. In the backswing you want to see about 90 degrees of wrist hinge, creating an 'L' shape between the arms and club. That will allow you to maintain this angle in the downswing and make better contact more often.
Here's a simple drill to encourage this feeling. Take your normal stance and lift the club up so it's level with your hands and parallel to the ground and then manipulate it into the takeaway position. Check out the video at the top of this article to see how it's done.
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You've now got a 90-degree wrist hinge and you can just rotate to the top of your backswing. Do it without a ball at first and then add a ball in and you should start to strike it better.
Location: Woburn GC
Dan is one of the leading coaches in the UK, a Fellow of the PGA and a short-game virtuoso. He has had considerable success with a collection of tour pros, helping them to Order of Merit titles and major victories, and his Short Game School is the most attended in the UK. His students, past and present, include Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Inci Mehmet and Iona Stephen.
Most common problem:
Swing – over the top , help by getting the basics correct at address and making them aware how to get the club online coming down.
Short game – creating spin and feel around the greens, help by educating on what the short game actually is (weak on purpose) and understand bounce and how they can apply it to different lies/situations.
Greatest success story:
Helping Georgia Hall from World No. 450 to No. 6 and winning a Major, two Order of Merits and Solheim Cup appearances.
Greatest teacher:
Alex Hay was a great influence during my first few years at Woburn. In sport more generally Sir Clive Woodward has taught me how to deliver at the highest level.
Most common fault:
Flipped right hand (hands behind the ball). Understand a correct coil/load going back and how to sequence better coming down so the chest opens up and gives the arms space to deliver a stronger impact. Lots of body action drills to enhance the feel, with and without the ball.
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