Dialing back iron distance for consistency?

[hoselpalooza]

On 4/16/2021 at 2:05 PM, pinhigh27 said:

You want me to send you abstracts that you can't access the whole thing? What good would that do.  You can find it yourself, if you want.

 

yes, we can use (e.g.) sci-hub or pay for access. you don't have to worry about that.

 

if you have anything to cite to back up your claims, please do. i would be interested in this, and others have also expressed interest.

 

my understanding is balance training incorporates or recruits more core and stabilizer muscles, and this can be helpful for improving balance and preventing injury. but if i'm mistaken i would certainly like to know why!

[Barfolomew]

2 hours ago, Long_Left said:

So I came here to start a new thread but this is too close to the topic for me... I'm the guy swinging hard and getting frustrated. I KNOW that my swing is fine when I'm backing off slightly from "max effort" but I cannot help myself on the course. A single swing added 3 strokes to my score Saturday and was the difference between T1 and T5 in my monthly tournament. 164 to a front flag on a par 5, lying 1. I walked away with a 7 🤬. My "stock" 8 iron would go 160, Stock 7 would go 175... I pulled the 8 and went stock + a little bit and the ball went 120 into a pond, the huge divot went a solid 30 though!... I then proceeded to rush through the drop, pitch (thinned), chip (too aggressive) and 2 putt for my lovely double.

 

My question is: What do you tell yourself standing over your bag before you pull a club? How do you prevent the "hero" part of your brain from making the decision? I've been at this game for about 25 years and have faced this decision thousands of times, I've made the "right" decision far less than half of them... despite negative reinforcement, consistently, throughout the years...

 

Help me be less idiotic on the course please 🙂

 

Then club up.  Take the decision out of your hands, literally lol.  If you KNOW your swing is fine when backing off then club up and now you have NO choice but to back off slightly. 

 

I do think it's a huge part of the game that is missed by most.  The distance game blinds the masses, its pushed by everyone in the industry from Dottie P and Jimbo to the commercials to the stores and even your friends.  "Daaamn bro was that an 8 iron you played you're a BEAST!" "HeII yeah move over you chop you know ladies love the long ball that's why you got a dog!" yada yada yada or maybe its just our groups that talk smack lol but I digress

 

Starts at the range tho!  We got a pin 105 and 115 and I'll play PW on the regular to them even though I got no prob going 135-140.  But I'm hitting buttery smooth shots and even practicing high cuts and draws into them.....and great for playin into the wind.  Golf is about developing skills not being robots, as so many wish to be. 

 

Once you start to calm down on the course and can decide to club up or hit smooth stock shots you'll understand its just about getting the ball to the center of the green for a shot at bird and a tap-in par, tap-in pars are a thing of beauty and best way to play.  Think about it even Tiger in his prime never played tap-in birdy golf on the whole, even though he might have a couple most birds were not from 1-3 feet.   Now if you need to get get over a tree or whatever ya club down and crack but remember hitting hard is more about flushing it with just a little more power with balance then swinging out your shoes.

 

Start your thread though cause its a great topic and lots of great players on the board to chime in....

[RichieHunt]

21 hours ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

 

Question... What is the primary driver of spin on a medium to short iron shot? 

 

Is it the clubhead speed, or the angle of attack, or just a mix of the two? 

 

If it's the angle of attack, I'd say most amateurs are screwed because most aren't hitting down on the ball with negative AoA like a pro anyway. 

 

If it's more the clubhead speed, then I could see amateurs running into spin problems by taking something off the club. But if that's the case, most are screwed because their clubhead speed at 100% doesn't even come close to the pros at 80%. 

 

But I feel like when you watch players who can get bite on partial wedge shots so effectively, that there has to be more of it in the technique than the clubhead speed... A pro who can hit a 30-40 yard hop and stop shot certainly isn't putting a lot of speed on the ball, but they get plenty of spin. 

 

Thoughts? 

 

Good question.  You have to remember that a player can have too much spin as well.  I see that frequently tracking Tour players on the par-3's.

 

I think for amateurs it's more of a spin loft issue (dynamic loft - attack angle) and a pureness of contact issue.  Speed certainly comes into play as somebody like Bryson is likely to put more spin on his 8-iron than a 10 handicap even if they both hit it pure.  But my thinking is spin loft and pureness of contact are the bigger issues.

 

As far as hitting the 30-40 yard massive spinner, they are hitting it on the lowest part of the club without actually hitting it thin.  They have a very high spin loft and they get the path closer to square than people think because a path too far to the left (for a righty) hurts the energy transfer and the ball wont spin as much.  

 

A few years ago I got on Trackman and was trying to hit this shot with over 12,000 rpm of spin and finally started to execute it correctly when I got the path a little more square.

 

 

 

 

RH

 

 

[RoyalMustang]

I had a bit of an eye-opening experience with this the other day.  

 

I was about 120 yards out, trying to get over a tree. I forced my swing and chunked it.  70 yards still to go to the pin.  Hurrying (I literally played the last 4 holes (1950 yards of holes) in 26 minutes, running with my bag-boy to get to an appointment), I grabbed the wrong club, a gap wedge, and hustled to my ball. 

 

Once I got there, I thought "damn, well here goes nothing", opened up my club face, squatted down and through on the downswing to shallow out the club, and hit a perfect gap wedge 70 yards that landed within 6 feet of the pin and spun back to within a foot. 

 

That was the about the easiest swing I could have taken, and it was a perfect swing: tempo, soft hands, strike, flight, spin.  I don't try to hit my gap wedges 70 yards with a full swing normally either-I never practice that shot, but with the right tempo, good stuff happens.  

 

Now, had I not been hurried and just said "what the hell"?  Would I have made that gorgeous shot? 

 

My normal tempo is forced and my arms get way too active.