About 40% of your shots are hit with your irons, you can see why being able to hit your irons consistently is important.
The best way to hit your irons consistently is to:
- Improve your angle of attack
- Not come from ‘over the top’ and more from ‘the inside’
- Have a strong or neutral grip
- Get your weight through the ball at impact
- Stop lifting your head
Below I dive into some details around these aspects and give you a few training aids that I find help with getting you to hit your irons more consistently.
Set Your Expectations
Hitting your irons consistently could mean different things to different handicap levels.
Tour players and low handicap golfers should hit 12 plus greens a round and make good contact with every shot.
A mid-handicap golfer should hit around 8 greens per round and make good contact with around 50-60% of their shots.
And a high handicap golfer should look to hit 6-7 greens a round and make good contact with around 40% of their shots.
Setting these expectations for yourself can really help you stay focused on the course and not get upset when you hit the ball badly.
Identify Inconsistent Iron Shots
Below are all ways to identify if you are hitting inconsistent iron shots
- Duffing the ball
- Tinning the ball
- Poor Timing
- Your strike on the face
- Wrong shot shape (hitting a fade when you want to hit a draw or vise versa)
How To Hit Your Irons Consistently
1. Angle Of Attack
Your angle of attack is the degree your club is traveling (up or down) when you make contact with the ball.
If you are hitting up on the ball you will have a positive angle of attack (+3), and if you are hitting down on the ball you will have a negative angle of attack (-6)
When hitting an iron you want to have a negative angle of attack, this will help you make solid and consistent contact with the ball. It will also make you compress the ball giving you extra distance.
Have a look at the table below to see the ideal angle of attack per iron.
| Club | Wedge | 9 Iron | 8 Iron | 7 Iron | 6 Iron | 5 Iron | 4 Iron | 3 Iron |
| Degrees | 7 – 5 | 6 – 4 | 6 – 4 | 6 – 3 | 5 – 3 | 4 – 2 | 4 – 2 | 3 – 1 |
2. Over The Top Swing
Swinging over the top can be one of the biggest influences on you striking your irons inconsistently.
What does this actually mean? The term ‘over the top’ refers to the direction your club travels through impact. The clubhead is over the top of the swing plane.
Another phrase for over the top is ‘out to in’. It refers to when the club travels from outside the target line to inside the target line.
The over the top swing can cause a number of issue which will result in inconsistent iron shots.
When you swing over the top 90% of your shots will be a slice, the other 10% will be a pull or pull hook.
I have written an article on how to fix this issue, you can give it a read here:
How To Fix A Slice – The EASY Way!
3. Lifting Your Head
The lifting of your head during your down swing can cause consistencies when hitting your irons. It will cause you to thin, duff and have poor control when hitting the ball.
Often amateurs, beginners and high handicap golfers physically try to keep their head down when hitting the ball, but this is WRONG. Just have a look at the image below of Henrick Stenson.
You can see his head is up/rotated at impact, this is because the chest has turned to the target and he has released the club correctly, you can see how his pelvis has stayed in position and not shifted towards the ball. Now have a look at the image below.
The ‘lifting of your head’ is caused by your pelvis shifting towards the ball, another term for this is early extension.
Instead of trying to keep your head down at impact, you need to keep your pelvis or butt back during your down swing. This will keep your head down.
The Best Training Aids To Improve Your Iron Shots
1. The Hanger
This training aid is great for you if you struggle with an over the top swing and a weak clubface position at impact.
The training must be up against your left forearm (right hander). When taking your backswing you need to keep the training aid against your forearm throughout the entire swing.
The training aid helps you maintain a strong clubface during the swing, which will allow you to come more from the inside and not over the top.
This will take a bit of practice, but is one of the fastest ways to prevent an over the top swing.
View the product here.
2. Eyeline Speed Trap
Sometimes just having a visual aid can help with your consistency. This training aid fixes your ‘out to in’ swing path and strike.
It will encourage you to hit the ball first, and the red path aids give you a visual of the correct path.
The best part about this aid is it gives you instant feedback when hitting the ball.
I recommend taking a few practice swings before hitting the ball.
View the product here.
3. The Hinge Tool
This training aid will improve your turn and wrist hinge.
Place the tool on your grip facing straight up (right hander). Now make your normal swing and try to get the tool resting up against your left forearm at the top of your back swing. This indicates that you have made the correct wrist hinge and shoulder turn.
If your forearm does connect with the device, then do a few practice swings to find the correct position.
View the product here.
To sum everything up:
Being inconsistent with your irons can have a massive impact on your handicap. First things first is that you need to manage your expectations. From there you can build a good base and start improving your consistency.
The most common faults for inconsistent irons are
- Angle of attack
- Over the top swing
- Lifting your head
Fix these things and you will be sure to hit your irons more consistently.
