Hi there, have been golfing for about a year. Handicap is 27 or so. I’m 6’4 so have one inch added to my clubs.
Recently I have really upped my game with my woods and hybrid. However I’m now struggling with my irons which I almost exclusively hit off the heel, especially the longer irons.
In order to remedy this I’ve started standing far from the ball. It seems to have worked a bit but on video reflection it looks a bit stupid. What do you think? Also any tips for reducing heel shots would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
by hc07yer
11 Comments
Club still looks short to me
Too far from the ball and you are hunched over, maintain good posture and get in a more athletic position
Guessing your clubs are too short.
Did you guess at your length or get measured?
I’m 6’1″ and had a half inch added to my clubs.
You’re all arms. And while you *can play* being an all-arms swinger, you’ll run into inconsistency in contact very frequently. I imagine you find it hard to diagnose your swing. Your main issue is that you have very little hip engagement: even though your hips do *turn* correctly, the idea is that the hips need to kind of *snap* as they are the initiator of your downswing. Right now, what you’re doing is just muscling the ball with shoulders. Reach the height of your backswing and *initiate at your hips*, pull your belt buckle down and through and *strike a finished pose* at the end.
I don’t know squat about golf, but regurgitating stuff from my lessons that seem to apply to you, I’ll echo what others have said you’re way too far from the ball. The shanks/slices seem to come more from the follow through- so don’t try to correct with distance from ball. Get a lesson and you’ll be set.
Standing so far you are defeating the purpose of longer clubs by still reaching so much. I would definitely suggest standing closer. Where the club sits before you reach out to the ball would be much better.
I’d also suggest you work on a steeper swing path. Since you’re so tall, you should be able to really get “over the ball”, but that calls for a bit of a steeper swing. If you can get your irons bent to be a bit steeper that would also help with that setup/swing. But that is obviously a big step.
You stand so far back my guy
Not qualified to give advice but a lot of what I’ve read seen is heel shots are due to moving closer to the ball during the downswing. There’s a lot of YouTube about it but try moving your lead hip back instead of your trail hip towards the ball is one feel to try
Brother, regardless of what any chart says, them clubs are too short………. You’re all legs, so you having a short torso with medium length arms don’t help. Trust me, grab some +1.25 clubs off the rack and get back to us.
So this is subtle, but watch your swing back and watch your butt at setup and then where it is at impact. You are hitting off the heal because you are shifting your body towards the ball which then gives the club no option but to move with you. Not saying this is exclusively the fix, but is absolutely part of the cause for heel strike.
Back up to a brick wall and make some swings to get the feel of keepin the cheeks in place. Right side touches on back swing and then left side on down swing.
Stand even further away from the ball and widen that stance