Im really enjoying playing golf, hitting driver well and putting ok. What is really letting me down is my shots with my irons on the fairway and in the rough. Playing of 28 at the moment and using far too many shots to get to the putting green.

Can you guys please give me some advice on how to hit the ball cleaner, higher and straighter too!

hi steven, i find the longer i keep my eyes fixed down after impact, the higher the ball goes, and just trying to keep my head as still as possible, saying that i cant hit my driver.

For a cheaper golf aid, simply buy a pair of alignment sticks. I was struggling with my irons and found it was all in my alignment. A few range sessions with them and was back to hitting them solid. Now take them down every time, done my game the word of good

Probably the best of all the aids one can find, Dave. One has to aim correctly to get the ball to go in the desired direction and these sticks are a great help in this.

I would bet money that a large majority of players have their shoulders open at address

Appreciate all the tips. Keep them coming!

Links to ropey websites removed!!!

By the way, I agree on the alignment sticks. Can be used for so much more than making sure you are lined up correctly

Steve, have you tried half strokes with higher iron, i really struggled to get a hold on my 7 iron (supposedly the easiest club to use) but could hit a 5 perfect, dropped my swing down to half stroke and slowly built confidence up on it and started to draw back further, on half swing hitting comfortable straight 80-100yrds, worth a try til you start hitting correctly, also rather than coughing up for alignment sticks try laying 2 clubs flat on the floor in line either side of the ball, whilst you can use alignment sticks for posture & indoor practice you can still do this with a club

Hi Steven.

Is it just your aim and direction that is the main problem? Are you miss hitting the ball? I was struggling a lot with chunking the ball with my irons and found the position of the ball in my stance was a major contributing factor. As an experiment try playing all your iron shots with the ball in line with your left heel and see how you get on. I found it helped me a great deal with getting it airborne and a cleaner strike. I hope this helps.

My main issue with my iron striking is

• Inconsistent outcome of strike, some fly straight but very low and then sometimes im just duffing it and coming over the top. Then sometimes i nail it and hit the perfect shot straight and high. This is only happening around 20% of the time.

Will try all the tips suggested and let you know how i get on :-)

Steve, may get criticised on this but sounds to me like you are having the same problem i had when i first started. managed to correct it by doing a couple of things, first check your stance are your feet too far apart, depending on length of shot you are taking, i tend to only open my legs as far as 3 club heads at max when using irons, also check the placing of the ball at time of stance are you over reaching under reaching for the ball, draw a slow swing into the ball (not hitting it!) and check that your not coming in to shallow on your down swing or out too far, i tend to hold club out at arms length approach the ball and bend forward and then practice 2 swings before hitting checking the swing as i come back through sounds weird but it tends to work for me and have halved my dodgy hits doing this and find at least 60-70% are now straight and in the air as opposed to grass cutting and bobbling 30-40 yrds, also with the duffing of the shot check your not bending your arm too much on the down swing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CehHHCIKqds&playnext=1&list=PLF9351B6189011D66&feature=results_main

Some very nice points there Tim, will try these out on the course this week.

Cheers!

+1 for the alignment sticks. Another useful test if you have chance during a practice round is to line up for your iron shot as you would, then put your club down in line with your toes, take a few paces back and see where you were lining up. I found I was always by habit lining up 5-10 yards to the right of the line required, once detected easily fixed.