ideas to stop getting 'snatchy' with my irons when playing.

I hit my driver great, just throw it over my shoulder and then down again, dont rush and everything is under control. My wedges are great, again no rush. But put an iron in my hand and I get really tense, have no idea what to do, jerk the club back and then swing faster than a bullet on the way down - it feels so robotic and I havent hit a decent iron in a competition for most of the year. Does anyone have any tips for relaxing, slowing it down, I've no idea what to do :-(

I feel your pain I am the same after playing 3 day in a row I hit the best irons on the last 4 holes yesterday

brooky333

I was recently struggling with a hit impulse from the top. What I discovered is that my trail arm was very active and taking over my swing. Under pressure I pulled the club inside on the take away, and on the downswing rushed to hit it with my trail arm which was causing a two way miss but mostly a pull hook. For the last two rounds I have played some of my best golf by feeling like my lead arm, (left arm), is leading the motion. Dispersion has tightened up and I am hitting less wild shapes. I haven't taken a video to confirm, but my suspicion is that since I am leading the swing with my less dominant arm, I don't have strength to roll the club inside on the take away or roll it over drastically on the downswing. As a consequence, everything seems to flow more smoothly. On the take away I simply start the motion by pushing my left arm away and on the downswing I start by dropping the left arm and rolling it into the ball, (think backhand in tennis, vs forehand). Hands and right arm remain passive. The encouraging part is that I haven't given up any distance doing this and the ball if flying mush straighter.

Try more of an outside takeaway...if you try to get quick with that, you'll feel completely disjointed.

Throw the club over my shoulder v. jerk the club back.

If what the OP is describing is what I have a tendency to do, it's like I make a beeline for the ball at the start down, and don't actually let the club trace a full arc down into the ball. It feels like my downswing is V-shaped instead of U-shaped. It makes it really hard to compress the ball, with thin shots being the common result. And since that action is inefficient, the club head isn't moving nearly as fast, and so I'm inclined to try to put more effort into it. I can get my trail shoulder involved OTT, and everything goes to crap. To me, this is what "snatchy" is.

Assuming that the pivot and rotation through the ball is even remotely decent, I've found that if I give the club the attention and time to go DOWN first so that the club head gets on and traces a sweeping arc, then impact becomes so much more "automatic." And when the club head traces that arc , it's moving so much faster, too. To be clear, it's very different than having the intention of "hitting down" with my irons -- 'cause I'd have that intention, but still make a beeline for the ball (and just be too steep into the ball even if the contact was decent). Instead, if I really think about the club racing down the vertical part of a "U" and letting it get pulled down and forward into the bottom curve of it, it's remarkable how much better/longer/more efficient the shot is.

It's like a skater/BMXer/boarder riding a half-pipe. They'll only generate maximum speed going into their next trick if they've first landed high up on the vertical, and pumped down through the transition. If they land halfway down the transition, they'll lose a ton of speed going up the other side (if they haven't wiped out by landing there first). My "snatchy" golf swing is one where there's very little/no riding down the vert into the transition, and it's a real struggle that way.

thanks for the feedback guys, I'm not sure its technical more mental. If I have to drive the ball over water, or down the right of the fairway or left, its no problem, but hit a 7 iron to the middle of the green I have no clue - almost like the yips.

The shafts in those Lynxes might be out of whack with the rest of your set, particularly if they they have the stock lightweight shafts in them. You might just need heavier iron shafts.

> @nolixul said:

> The shafts in those Lynxes might be out of whack with the rest of your set, particularly if they they have the stock lightweight shafts in them. You might just need heavier iron shafts.

good point, but they are Xcalibur Axe shafts at 90g, same as my old Nike with Steelfiber

In my experience, stance has a lot to do with it.

No way to snatch it back with your hands and arms if you forward press.

Real Carl Lohren's one move to better golf

The takeaway is done with the left shoulder moving forwards

I have the same issue as you, I find the hand flashing it to make up for no torso wind up going back

Two things help me a lot ...

"finish your backswing idiot" swing thought ... the club needs to set before you fire thru it on the way to target

"release the club as fast as I can from the top" ...... vs handle dragging and steep down

Like you if I think hit down I am dead in the water

> @"i*windows" said:

> I hit my driver great, just throw it over my shoulder and then down again, dont rush and everything is under control. My wedges are great, again no rush. But put an iron in my hand and I get really tense, have no idea what to do, jerk the club back and then swing faster than a bullet on the way down - it feels so robotic and I havent hit a decent iron in a competition for most of the year. Does anyone have any tips for relaxing, slowing it down, I've no idea what to do :-(

>

Funny, because I'm the complete opposite. For some reason, I am ok with letting the club "do the work" with an iron. Once you put a driver in my hand, I can't seem to stop trying to "hit" it as hard as I can. It drives me crazy.