00:00Hi I'm Gary Munro. Today we're going to be discussing how to master those long irons,
00:05hybrids and fairway woods off the deck. So what's required to make this shot work?
00:11We need good speed and a good strike to ensure we can get the correct launch angle for the shot
00:16so it can travel the correct distance. Big things I see are people say that their four irons, five
00:22irons and six irons all travel the same distance which is why they don't want to reach for those
00:26long irons. So we're going to split this video into a few sections looking at setup, speed, strike
00:35and a few different drills that you can do to practice this to ensure that your long irons,
00:39hybrids and fairway woods work every time.
00:46So what's our intention when we're addressing a long iron? It's actually understanding that
00:51we still need a downwards attack angle to strike ball first then turf to get the ball up in the
00:57air.
00:57It may be daunting looking down at a club with not much loft but if we get that strike location
01:03going more down we will get more compression and more ball speed.
01:12So to ensure that you get a correct setup every time we're going to have an alignment stick
01:16down your target line and an alignment stick here for your ball position. So we want your ball position
01:23to be two balls width inside your left ankle this is also in line with your left pec so the
01:30best way
01:31of doing this is grab two golf balls address the club and the ball from there take a little step
01:38to the left
01:39which is your two golf ball width then from there take a slightly bigger step to the right.
01:45We're looking for a wider base with a long iron and fairway wood for stability as we need to create
01:51a
01:51bit more speed. Once we've got this setup because we need a slightly downwards strike on the golf ball
01:58for a mid iron you're looking at four or five degrees for a long iron it'll be closer to one
02:02and two
02:03we still need 55 percent of our weight on our lead side. From there with the ball being slightly more
02:09forward naturally our angle of attack will be set better. After we've got this setup position
02:16the final check we need to have is your distance from the golf ball. Well from here we're going to
02:21be waving the right hand to ensure that the grip and your belt buckle are the correct distance apart
02:27it should just fit through here. What we've now done is make sure the strike across the face is sorted
02:34from the
02:34distance from the ball and the strike up and down the face is sorted by getting the correct ball position.
02:40With the hybrid as we move on to the fairway woods such as a three wood the ball position
02:45will actually be one golf ball back of the left heel. This is because there's less loft on the
02:51club face we want the angle of attack to be a little bit more level so we can get away
02:56with being
02:56one degree down or level with the ground to still get good distance and good trajectory. So from here
03:03it's the same setup but just have one golf ball inside the left heel it will move from the left
03:08peck
03:08to more your left armpit as your ball position.
03:17So a great feedback drill to know if you are hitting slightly down on your long irons is grab a
03:24tee
03:25because we're putting the ball position two ball widths back we want you to place the tee peg two
03:32club heads in front of the golf ball here. Now what we would like to see is as the golf
03:38club is traveling
03:39down we hit ball first and that the golf club stays low enough to the ground that it can take
03:45the tee with
03:46it. You will not be able to take that tee if you're striking up on the golf ball. We're looking
03:51for ball first
03:52and then take the tee. Now as I've hit that the tee has gone with it which means I'm striking
04:00down on
04:00the ball perfectly. Now to do this drill with a fairway wood because the golf ball is placed one
04:07ball width inside the left ankle we're only going to put the tee one club head width in front as
04:14opposed to with a long iron and hybrid we had it at two. It's the same golf swing so we've
04:19got the ball
04:19position one ball width in the left ankle slight 55% pressure on my left hand side and we're trying
04:26to hit ball and keep the club head low enough where I take the tee with me. Again great feedback
04:35I'm
04:36hitting ball then the tee goes with me that I'm hitting that downward strike. So what are some faults
04:40that I see with this setup with the long irons is the golf ball will be placed too much in
04:46the center
04:48so from here players as they hit the golf ball won't create enough height the ball won't reach the
04:54apex of its flight so it travels the same carry distance as a five iron or a six iron for
05:00this
05:00example of me using a four iron. So what will end up happening as they're hitting the ball too low
05:04and
05:05not getting the desired distance they will try and instinctively lift the golf ball up or try and add loft
05:12by letting the club head get to the ball first and when they do this they actually strike it worse
05:17and the ball goes less distance so in the end they don't use the fairway woods or the hybrid
05:22because they're not getting the most out of them. So what I need you to do is remember if you
05:27put this
05:27drill and set it up with a club head in front of the ball if you are not striking the
05:32tee on the way
05:33through it means you're probably one of those players that are staying behind it trying to lift the
05:37ball in the air and you won't get the most out of it. So why we need to create more
05:47club head speed
05:48is to ultimately create more ball speed and get more spin so the golf ball can travel up with a
05:55long iron or hybrid or fairway wood reach the apex of its flight then come down. If you don't create
06:01enough spin because the strike's not good enough or you've not got enough club head speed the ball will
06:06take off and then dip very quickly ultimately not giving you distance. So how are we going to create
06:12more club head speed we've got this great setup we're going to start to work on wrist hinge so on
06:19your backswing as the lead arm gets parallel which is at this section here we're looking to create a 90
06:25degree angle from there i want to see the shoulders turn to a minimum of 90 degrees here combining the
06:35wrist
06:35hinge and the shoulder turn is a really nice power source to create more club head speed coming into
06:42the golf ball as you're setting the wrists they still need to be set at this 90 degree angle the
06:49club
06:50still needs to be on its natural plane here do not need to set them at a vertical angle or
06:56a very flat
06:56angle like this so you create the 90 degree angle here then you turn the shoulders now you've loaded up
07:02really strong backswing position so how you're going to practice creating the 90 degree angle with the
07:07wrists 90 degree shoulder turn is either grab a video camera or a mirror and build the swing into stages
07:16so as you take your nice setup getting the ball position correct take the club back to this section
07:21here lead arm parallel make sure you've got the angle after you've done that section you can check it
07:28from there you're going to turn the shoulders the bigger the shoulder turn the more speed you're
07:32going to get then you're going to hit the shot so it will look like this hitting balls in stages
07:38so wrists shoulders and then hitting the ball
07:48you might not strike at your best every time doing this but you're trying to build the elements of the
07:52golf swing to make sure you get all the right positions and eventually you want to make it flow
07:58all as one so it'll look like this so you're getting the hinge the turn and then go through to
08:03a balanced
08:04finish so build it up in sections then make it all flow as one so common faults i see when
08:10players try
08:10and add club head speed they've got 200 yards to the flag they're looking down at a club with not
08:15much
08:15sloth they try and take the golf club back faster in an effort to get more club head speed as
08:22they
08:22snatch the club back it's going back in all different angles to their normal golf swing and most importantly
08:28their timing completely goes so then at impact they get a worse strike and the ball doesn't travel its
08:33distance so if you do the drill of building the right positions that's a proper way of getting a good
08:40club head speed at impact now if you're a player who cannot generate more club head speed maybe through
08:45limited mobility or just haven't got the movement necessary to get that hybrids are going to be
08:51your best friend so you can buy hybrids that even replace six irons five irons and four irons now
08:57this club is more versatile out of the semi rough and the rough so you'll be able to use it
09:01on more
09:01occasions but also it's going to be generating more hype for you because the club has more mass to it
09:08and more forgiveness so as you address the ball it's the same setup we spoke about earlier with two
09:13ball widths back and from here it's a lot less intimidating to look down on there's more mass
09:19behind the head you're naturally going to get more ball speed and more distance so this is a great
09:23alternative if you're a player who can't add too much club head speed so to recap how you can master
09:29these shots long irons and hybrid you want them to be two golf ball widths back of your left ankle
09:36the three width off the deck will be one golf ball width back and then from there to generate more
09:42club head speed remember those positions of the 90 degrees 90 degree shoulder turn get a good strike
09:51enjoy the new distance
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