I think good iron play separates the men from the boys. Not everyone can hit 320 yard drives or get their chips, pitches and bunker shots consistently within tap-in range - BUT - the golfer who consistently hits a lot of greens-in-regulation and is at least a fair putter, will always be able to at least post a decent number. Nowadays, with our insatiable thirst for statistics, the PGA Tour can tell you - almost to the inch - who is the best from 100 to 125 yards, 127 to 154, 180 to 210... any distance imaginable, they can tell you who is best. It is my contention that with some sound swing fundamentals and a set of irons that fit your game, you should be able to hit a lot of greens in regulation, regardless of the distance... especially if you are hitting from the fairway. It is difficult in this day and age to even define the parameters of various golfer's iron games.
For the sake of discussion, I'll assume that most players iron set's will consist of several wedges, short irons (9, 8, 7-iron) and then either more irons or a mixture of irons and/or hybrids. Even the longer hybrids like the 1, 2 or 3-iron hybrids should be considered "scoring" clubs if used properly (they are so much easier to hit than the older long irons, I'm surprised the USGA hasn't banned them for tournament play - OK, maybe I exaggerate a little bit).
Whenever I think of good iron play, I find myself thinking back to the early/mid 70's and the spectacular iron play of "The Desert Fox", Johnny Miller. In those days, Johnny didn't just hit greens - he hit flagsticks and he hit the hole - it was phenomenal to watch and went a long way to earning Johnny Miller 25 wins, 2 majors and a spot in the Hall of Fame. It seemed like hardly a week went by that Miller didn't shoot a 61 or 62 and beat the field by 5 or 10 shots over 72 holes. Part of it was comfort and confidence in a set of irons that Johnny tweaked perfectly to his liking and part of it was, I think, due to the more "up and down" elements of Johnny's swing action (as opposed to more "around" his body)*. Johnny is fairly tall and stood close to the ball so this required an upright swing (all things being equal, that should produce more accurate shots) but the real secret came in the downswing - it seemed like Johnny got "down" to the ball and kept the club on the target line and through the shot longer and more crisply than anyone else (Trevino does come to mind, though)... before or since. Johnny was great at truly "accelerating" through the shot and he maintained the right wrist hinge (angle between the back of the right hand and lower arm) to perfection. Considering all that he did so well in this area, it's hard to imagine him EVER HAVING MISSED A GREEN.
Based on Miller's action (and the actions of dozens of other great golfers) we can declare another ABSOLUTE... consistently solid iron shots can only be made by maintaining a slight angle in the right wrist (I always love how instructors tell you things like that... all you have to do is have the left wrist out front and leading, maintain the right wrist hinge and swing along your target line - YEA RIGHT... HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO THAT WHEN THE IRON MIGHT BE FLYING THROUGH THE AIR AT 80, 90 - OR MORE - MILES PER HOUR)? The fact is - and this applies to a million similar type things I have seen espoused by even top-flight instructors - no one is really capable of the finely tuned manipulations required by the body, hands and club to insure a solidly struck shot when the golfer and the club are moving at that rate of speed. So, once again, all we can work on and control are SOUND FUNDAMENTALS - these and these alone are what put us in all of those proper positions and angles and optimal swing plane.
How does one become a better iron player? First and foremost, you need a set of clubs that fit your body and your swing... if the irons are not perfect for you, you will start to make compensations in your swing (perhaps without even realizing it) to fit your swing to the clubs instead of the other way around. Before you waste time hitting another practice shot, have verified by a club-fitting expert (buyer beware) that your clubs ARE RIGHT FOR YOU. If I knew my clubs were holding me back, even though I may have just shelled out $800 bucks for a set of what I considered real beauties - I'd dump them in a hearbeat if I was convinced they were not right for me. With good-fitting clubs in hand, you can now concentrate on proper fundamentals - both static and dynamic.
In general, the shorter the club, the narrower the stance. Preset a proper impact position by having your hands slightly ahead of the ball at address (with that right wrist hinge) - if you can, watch a tape of Jack Nicklaus as he prepares to hit an iron shot - it's worth MORE than a thousand words of instruction that I or anyone else could give you - verbally or written. Jack is not the only one that can help you by merely studying his preshot routine but no one else has done it so beautifully and so consistently for so long - and with such great success. To me, it is like watching poetry in motion. The careful setting of the feet in relation to the ball, the rhythmic little waggles of the club in conjunction with setting and resetting the feet till they are grounded just right, the "second-nature" manner in which Jack gets all the body angles just right... head behind the ball, right side lower than left, the near arrow-straight line between left shoulder, clubshaft and ball... a couple of glances at the target as the tunnel vision takes over and Jack sees perfectly the exact flight of the ball in his mind's eye... eyes back to the ball, slight increase in hand pressure which brings the arms a little closer to each other, the slow turning of the head/chin to the right, the backswing coil with perfect club-set at the top and leg-driven downswing and THUMP... another beautifully struck iron shot heads for the target that Jack has already hit with his mind. If you can't appreciate the beauty and artistry in what I just described, you might want to consider another passion besides golf.
Pardon me if you will, but I feel like I just had a golfgasm and I am left just a little breathless............................... OK, back to business.
What does all that I am saying imply? I think it should be fairly obvious. Each and every one of us needs to develop a routine that we go through for every iron shot (EVERY shot, for that matter) and stick to it religiously - even when practicing. Golf is nothing if not a game of "consistent repetitiveness" and the only way to insure reliable repetitiveness (dare I call it an ABSOLUTE) is to start to develop our own unique routines. We might have any number of routines... maybe one for the driver, one for the irons, one for short game shots, putting, bunker play etc... It is only by developing repetitive routines that we can REALLY begin to lay the foundation for repetitively sound golf shots. It might seem as though I am straying from the subject of "iron play" but I assure you, in no other area of your game is a go-to routine going to be as critical. Once you have done all you can regarding "shot-factors" (distance, wind, your feel that particular day, the lie of the ball, the shot shape and trajectory you want, selecting the proper club)... once all the shot-factors have been input into the computer (your brain), you need to hit the "start button" and damn-near "robotically" LET IT HAPPEN (OK, robotically with a little human FEEL thrown in). You'll know you've arrived when the shot DOESN'T come off almost exactly as planned - BUT, as Dr. Rotella has so eloquently pointed out, "Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect", although perfection is what we should be striving for.
Regarding iron practice (maybe all golf practice), and having been a "range rat" myself for over 40 years, I think the best practice comes WHILE PLAYING THE GAME. There are situations during a round of golf that just can not be simulated adequately on the driving range. On the course, you will find yourself playing many types of iron shots - even if you hit every fairway. You may have a tight lie, a lush lie... downhill, uphill or sidehill lies... tee shots on par-3's... and very few of these shots are hit back to back - they are interspersed with drives, putts, chips, fairway wood shots etc... very few of us have the discipline to practice that way - mixing up the shots to emulate a real round of golf but I can assure you that if you do, you will come much closer and more quickly to "finding it" than by methodically going through all of the clubs in your bag in some predefined order. If you choose to 'play' more than 'practice' (they are not really mutually exclusive), please be aware of what is going on around you.
The best scenario is finding an off-time on a course that has large chunks of time where there is little or no play. That having been said, you can still have a successful practice if you play on Saturday and the course is filled to capacity - as long as your number one goal is improvement and not being consumed by your score.
One last note about iron play that probably should have been mentioned much sooner. You need to know, within no more than a yard or two, the distance you can hit each of your "scoring" clubs. During one of those ideal days, when the temperature is around 72 degrees, there is no wind of any significance and preferably, hitting the same type of ball that you normally play with... find yourself a driving range with an understanding owner (offer payment, even though you will not be hitting his balls) and hopefully one that is large enough that you can go to one end and start what will be the most important process regarding accurate iron play.
After warming up adequately, hit at least 10 or 15 balls with every iron in your bag. You need to at least have reached a certain level of ability that you are capable of hitting 4, 5 or 6 of those shots fairly consistently. Discount the topped shots, the fat shots, the shots that for whatever reason, may have flown much farther than you normally hit a certain club and focus on the group that is left. Preferably, there will be a group of balls that are fairly close together. By walking off the distance to these balls, you can guesstimate your "average" with each club in your bag. As a general rule of thumb, there SHOULD be about a 10, 12 or 15 yard difference between any 2 consecutive clubs. Once you have determined your "expected" distance with each club, you will now be better adept at club selection during the actual playing of a round and more GIR's should result. And finally, it goes without saying that you will usually have to adjust your distances based on the particular day's conditions. If it is cold, the ball will not go as far. If it is very hot and the air thin, you may find yourself being as much as 2 clubs longer than is normal. Instead of using your 6-iron for that 150 yard shot, you might be able to get there comfortably with an 8-iron. And last but not least, don't try for the maximum distance with each club. Put your ego aside and understand that you are looking for accuracy and precision with the irons. Even Johnny Miller in his heyday rarely hit a 6-iron much more than 160 to 165 yards... once again, impress me with your scores, not your distance.
ADDENDUM:
I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the importance of understanding what your divot's are telling you (that is, if you even TAKE divots - it is not an absolute that good iron play REQUIRES the taking of divots). If you are a divot-taker, make it a habit of studying the make-up of your divots. A good divot will be fairly shallow and about as wide as the clubface. Steep, chunky, wide divots most often mean a downswing that is "way too steep". If your divots are deeper in the toe area than the heel, 1. either your clubs are bent "too flat" for you, or 2. you have a swing flaw that causes an upward arching of the wrists through impact that is a lot different than the wrist-set you use at address (swinging from the top, too much right hand, bad sequencing of shoulders, arms and hands - not maintaining your spine tilt through impact).
Conversely, if your divots are deeper in the heel, your clubs might be set too upright for your swing or you have a swing fault that has your hands returning at impact a lot differently (lower) than how they were set at address. Hit a lot of shots, study your divots and if anything is out of whack, it should fairly quickly become apparent. You may need to seek an expert here in order to determine if the problem is the physical make-up of the clubs or a dynamic swing fault - BUT - I'm sure that with a little study and your new-found knowledge regarding the golf swing... you CAN figure it out - "Physician, heal thyself"!!!
* Please don't be confused here. All that I've said previously about this being a side-on game and the shape/path of our swing's needing to be from inside, to square, back to the inside applies to Mr. Miller as well. Johnny is about six foot, 2 inches tall and he stands very close to the ball at address which forces his swing to appear more upright than most swings. He still approaches impact from "the inside" - it is just on a much more ferris wheel type action as opposed to a merry-go-round action. Done correctly, this should lead to even more accuracy because of the club face being on line and down the target line for a longer period of time than someone who swings on a much "flatter plane". Additionally, Johnny made excellent use of his feet and his knees through the shot - especially at the moment of truth - this allowed him to keep the clubhead on the target line for a longer period of time and the sliding action of his knees kept the clubhead from coming in too steeply or coming out of the shot too steeply or quickly. This also contributed to Miller's ability to be one of the few (perhaps the only) golfers whose swing speed was actually increasing as he went through the impact zone.
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Irons
