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We team up with golf YouTuber Matt Fryer to help you hit better shots with the club that statistically loses golfers the most shots during a round according to data from Shot Scope.
Big thanks to Shot Scope for the data and tech featured this video.
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Now this is the club that the data tells us every ability of golfer loses the most shots with
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during a round so we've teamed up with YouTube coach and ShotScape ambassador
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Matt Fryer to help you turn this club into a secret weapon
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Right so Matt we're here on the fourth hole at Formby Ladies, beautiful hole
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but we've been crunching the numbers right with ShotScape and it's clear that every ability of
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golfer loses the most strokes during a round with a five iron versus any other club in the bag yeah
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tough club to hit why do you think that is you know the five iron itself not much loft on there
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the hat they're getting stronger as well you know we look back in the old days it was around 25 26
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degrees yeah down at like 22 now so you've got to be able to launch it so i think that plays a big
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part and then head size as well when we think of alternatives that are out there compare that to
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the iron and they are you know pretty small that even even myself i'm considering changing that in
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a minute just to try and find a bit of a bit of forgiveness out there and why is a lack of loft
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a problem for a lot of golfers out there i think well it's there's two things launching it we want
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to try and i think when we think of good iron shots we see that high towering one and then also
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curvature we struggle actually controlling the curvature and again because the head is small as
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well if we then add in a missed strike as well we're not going to launch it as high and the
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curvature is then going to be exaggerated even more so it makes it probably the hardest club
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in our bag to hit yeah so not only is it hard to hit because of all those reasons you just talked
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about we also see that golfers have unrealistic expectations about how far they hit it but also
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how many times they should be hitting the green with this particular club let's say the average golfer 15 handicapper is hitting it 169 yards they'll be thinking that the seven iron is going
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150 so then when they're pulling the five iron out at 180 let's say you're going to be short there
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that's not even factoring if you mistruck it or depending on lie as well i see a lot of golfers
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taking it you know from semi-rough slightly heavier rough and because of that lack of loft
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they're not able then to launch it up as well which is then going to culminate in a short shot
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going into the green again right that's enough of the doom and gloom we've talked about how hard a
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five iron is to hit but let's help golfers out there hit their five on a little bit better shall
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we yeah well for me there's two areas where we i see real problems with the five iron a lot of
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students that i coach they come in we get the five iron out and we adopt the technique that we see
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from a seven iron in that as we go to address the golf ball the ball gets back in the stance here
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and as we discussed there's not much loft on it and we want to try and launch this thing and that's
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then where the second problem comes in in that as we're coming into impact I see a lot of golfers
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moving back behind the golf ball in an effort to try and get the ball up in the air so when we do
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get our five iron in hand and we're going to address it we're going to remedy that ball position
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first if we start with our feet together here where the ball is going to be just in the middle
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of them what I would say to every golfer if we're going to get a five iron out we want it a little
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a little bit further forwards in our stance It gonna shallow the angle of attack out ever so slightly and it going to help us launch it so what we want to try and do is maybe step out about two inches with the
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lead foot towards our target so we'd see there it's about a club head's width in front there yeah
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and then as we go back we're going to make a bigger step there so it's going to be about two
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to three club heads back there as we can see now where my body is we've got the middle of the body
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here and the ball is now target side of that most golfers have it back here and then intuitively the
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brain then will say right we need to now get this up because it's further back and that's where the
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second problem comes in as we're coming into impact i see a lot of people getting the sternum
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even further back behind the golf ball and that's going to result in those shots where we're getting
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the ground before and if not you get that lovely topped one and then again you're gonna have to hit
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five eye when you're absolutely cursing yourself so just real simple making sure that we get just
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the basics and any pro that you see out on the golf course they just do the basics well yeah
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they've all got different swings but if we can just make sure by taking this little setup
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and feeling that that sternum's just behind it but then as we start to come down the one thing
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i want you to try and feel is that you just make a slight move where we feel we pressure the lead
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foot but as we're coming into impact I want to see now that that stern will be slightly in front of
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it just covering it because if we do that we're then going to get ball and turf strike and that's
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going to give us the appropriate lift conditions that we want to try and get this five iron struck
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with. Some really good advice there I mean is there any drills or swing feelings that people
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can take to the range to practice to really enforce these good movements? Yeah I think for
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me I do a real simple drill with my students and you know we talk about the five iron being hard to
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hit button i want to talk about the makeup of the club as well yeah mine there really shallow soul
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if we think of like your seven iron your pitching wedge you take more of a divot with those clubs
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with these you get a little bit of relief and we want to try and use the bottom of the club a
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little bit more so what i want you to try and feel if you just did a little drill where you put two
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tee pegs one at ball length and then one about a club head width out in front of the golf club there
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there. What I want us to try and do if we just move the ball to start off with, I just call
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it sort of landing the plane as we do it or brushing the plane along the ground. I want to try and feel that I can get my students to try and feel that they, as they're coming
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into impact, to stop the leaning back and getting the ground early, I want to feel that
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as we're coming through, we just feel that we're just brushing the ground here, just
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that couple of inches from where the ball would be and afterwards. I'm not taking a
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big slab of turf out I'm just going to graze it with a slightly downwards attack angle but as you
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can see there just a little bit of turf popping up as we go through if we can just do this in small
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swings you'll start to feel that the pressure shifts forwards and you get that nice little
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grazing of the club and then as you come into a full swing you're able to just pick the ball off
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a little bit cleaner instead of dumping it out early I really like that well should we see one
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you've sort of talked the talk here, let's see that nice shallow
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angle of attack I mean it be a good five to get there today into this wind but hopefully the viewers what it what it supposed to look like just that little brush come in make sure that ball position right
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feel that sternum in the right place that's a pretty good hit matt it's pretty good but a little little curl on it there joel but yeah
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As you can see, not much divot, and that's the big thing for me
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trying not to make sure that we're doing everything to get it up in the air
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Try that little brushing technique and you'll be astounded how well your strikes start to come with it
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Yeah, that was a really good drill and a really good shot. I mean, that stayed pretty straight, but I think you will agree and I would agree
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You see a lot of golfers with long irons in the hand, bye-bye, and that lack of loft really just accentuates the curve that you get on a ball
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So what should golfers approach be when it comes to their aim and their strategy
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should they be allowing for a little bit more? How can they really help hit more greens
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with the way they think about this shot? I think over-egging how far we hit it
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So, you know, on a hole like here at Formby Ladies on the 4th, a lot of the trouble that we see on every golf course as well
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is generally at the front. So if you've struggled to launch it
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but you've got an okay strike and it's sort of coming in a little bit flatter as well
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you've got a lower descent angle, you might end up bouncing into trouble. So like one strategy is looking at, you know, this hole here
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I can see one, two, three bunkers that are all short of the green
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So is the five iron going to cover that? Maybe not. Am I going to launch it enough to carry it up over
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Maybe not. Then there's also the flag hunter, especially when we get the lasers out
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We look and as we play golf, our end target is that flag, isn't it
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It's the hole. So we can get suckered into going, well, the flag's tight on the right or tight on the left
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and depending on what your curvature is as well, it might not be wise to actually go at that flag
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because you could stand there with a flag that's at the right of the green. You've got a little bit of a slice
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The five iron is going to accentuate it. You aim dead at that flag and you miss it 20 yards right
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So it might be more if you are a slicer saying, cutting the green into thirds
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You know, you've got your left third, your right third and your middle third. You want to play down the middle and the left third
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if you are a little bit of a slicer, allowing it to move back to centre and then pull up to the
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right-hand flag. So there's a lot of things, you know, for me, assessing where the trouble is
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and flags and taking that into account and especially with the five-iron, you know
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playing towards that back number a lot of the time as well with the watches. The great thing
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is that you can see front, middle and back. I'd play, you know, to that back one every time if
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I've got anything more than a seven-iron out for the average golfer. You don't see a lot of golfers
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missing long be it a lot of the time and you and often that's where the trouble isn't yeah there's
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nothing generally at that back of the green now it's just going to hit it and roll back to the green so yeah that would be part of my strategy straight away so there you go guys some really
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useful swing advice strategy advice to help you hit your five iron a little bit better next time out
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right so matt we've given the viewers some useful tips to help them hit their five iron a little bit
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better but if they still struggling which a lot of golfers probably will be what other options are there for them to put in their bag maybe upgrade it to a different club that might give them a little bit
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more success yeah you know and shot scope shows that if you do switch into something else i.e like
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a hybrid your green percentage is going to go up i think four or five percent more than more greens
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are hit with the alternatives yeah there's lots out there now you know back in the day we just saw
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bladed irons didn't we it was a two iron to a lob wedge deal with it get on with it as well now
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combo settings become a big thing so you can get a sort of like driving utility iron something along
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the lines of like this so the head looks a lot bigger compared to it you can get things like the
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hybrid something like this again it's sort of the mix in between the iron and the wood and then even
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from there you can go into things like the seven woods and even the nine woods now we're seeing
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lots of things like these and you know the real big benefits with clubs like these when you're
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moving into them is the mass of the head so not only do you get a larger sole which is going to
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help you with a little bit of turf interaction it's going to be able to get a little bit more
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weight down at the bottom which is going to help with that launch issue that i talked about earlier
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on yeah and then also because of i've lost mass of the head from toe to heel and then even from
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front to back any missed strikes which we all do as an average golfer that's not going to cause as
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much twist in the face so then that's going to limit that curvature as well you know when you hear
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the hybrid the combo set so i think it's a pride thing a lot of time we would say no no i've got
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to have it but we're seeing you know tommy fleetwood winner of the fedex caught nine wood in the bag
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when he did that so it's something that i think if you really struggle with those long irons
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looking at the alternatives can have a dramatic impact on your game
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I mean, we've already talked about at least four alternatives there to a long iron
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How do golfers know which one's right for them? What should they be looking at
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Obviously for me, I always talk about in our videos, go and get fit. You've got to look at your launch conditions, what swing speed you are, how you spin the golf ball
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and what feels good to you as well. You might look down at something and say, a fairway wood a seven wood just doesn't look right as well something like a you know a combo
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iron you still feel like you're playing a little bit more of an iron so it's a case of getting them
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all in hand and you know looking at the gapping as well of each of them because you what you don't
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want is to go from six iron to a combo iron and then your next comes your three wood and you've
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got you know a 40 50 yard gap you've got to make sure that those all stack up and that you're
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hitting the right launch angles as well when you go through them so there you have it guys hopefully
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we've given you all the advice you need to hit better shots with the club that the stats say
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is the hardest to hit. We've helped you swing, we've helped you set up position, we've given you
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some options in terms of changing the club to make it easier for you. If you're still struggling
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then maybe all hope is lost but hopefully the tips in this video are going to help you
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hit more greens with your five iron and lower your scores. Big thank you to Matt
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for helping us today, thank you to Formby Ladies, Golf Club here, we'll see you next time
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Thank you
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