During every golf season, I always have challenges with some aspect of my golf swing that I did not expect. This year my woes are surfacing where I feel like I am hitting the heel of my irons first causing my club face to close. As such, my approach shots end up left of the green. This fixable miss is something that happens a few times a round, but not all the time. I sat down last night and went through the mechanics of my swing and I thing I found out what I am doing wrong. Now it is time to fix it!

What is happening at impact is that the heel of my club is contacting the ground first a millisecond before the clubface hits the ball. This causes my club face to close slightly resulting in a missed approach shot to the left. I find this very frustrating, but I think I the root of the challenge. Before moving forward, I have eliminated aim and ball position, hence the challenge in is my mechanics…..I think.

This is what I am looking at right now:

As I set up, I am trying to be in an athletic position with my knees bent and my feet roughly shoulder with apart. This strong base allows me to swing through the ball with power. And, unfortunately, this is where I am running into challenges. I think that my knee bend is too deep.

By squatting deeper than I should with the irons (mostly 7 iron to gap wedge), my hands drop slightly lower and the toe of the club is raised too high. When swinging, my hands go to the proper position by my club is already out of lie position so my heel hits first. I believe this is the issue because I hit most of irons very well with the sole of my clubs flat on the ground during impact. The ball flight (creating an higher angle of attack into the green) and distance are what I expect and desire.

During my next round, I will have to pay more attention to my posture and knee flex. I think that my fix is this simple, but we shall see. The challenge I have right now is that I do not have practice facility near my home and my DIY hitting area is stored for the summer. I will let you know if this is the fix that works or I need to look in a different area. Stay tuned.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!