Rich Crossin says:
October 30, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Don,
I can not finish my swing with an iron. I can hit great tee shots with a full finish but I stop a foot past the ball with the irons. Any ideas?
The Surge says:
I saw this question Rich wrote in the blogs and he has quite a difference in his follow through between his irons and driver. Quite a dilemma, as most golfers hit their irons better and their driver worse. Let's see if we can figure out Rich's problem.
I will start with looking at the driver since, as Rich says, he is hitting it great and getting to a full finish. I would say that with the ball teed up, you are also 'swinging up' at impact, which is evident in your getting to a full finish.
Since Rich can only swing around 1 foot past the ball with his irons, I believe I can surmise with confidence that he is definitely 'HITTING DOWN' on the ball and likely doing it big time. Rich does not say it, but I would guess there is a good probability his divots are deep and he may even sort of get his club hung up in the ground, ruining any chance of his getting to a finish.
This could be conscious in that his thought is to hit down on the ball. I have been told numerous times by players that their thought in the downswing is to drive or pound the ball into the ground. On the other hand, it could be unconscious in that he may just be trying to hit down but not pound down and it is causing a swing problem of moving ahead of the ball. If he gets his upper body too far ahead of the ball he is out of balance and he won't be able to swing up to his finish.
As you all know, I believe, teach and play with the concept of swinging up to the T ' Finish with all the clubs, especially with the irons. Hitting down on the ball is, I believe, the '#1 evil' in golf. Hitting down on the ball is a major cause of the upper body moving ahead of the ball in the downswing, or forward up-swing as I call it. This produces a myriad of problems, from loss of balance falling forward, to even pulling out of the shot and falling backwards, as well as the basic chunks, too thin shots, pulls and blocks.
The concept of swinging up to the T- Finish for irons is also aided with the thought of hitting the ball with a shallow divot. This thougt should be used for all irons, even the wedges. The thought I use is that of tearing the grass out of the ground, not digging it out. Another is trying to nip or clip the ball off the grass. The club will enter the ground, but the divot will be small in length and shallow in depth as the club will come out of the ground quickly because of swinging up.
Hitting the ball with these swing thoughts about impact being shallow and swinging up, will really help keep your club, hands, arms and torso swinging to and through the ball to the finish. This is because everything in your downswing /forward up-swing is all about up to the finish, not down into the ground. This should also help a lot of you who are hitting pretty good shots but are lacking distance. You'll get some more length with all your clubs. Swinging up naturally increases arm, hand and thus clubhead speed because you are swinging through the ball to the finish, not at the ball and the ground.
The Surge!