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How To Achieve Long Irons, Hybrids And Fairway Woods Every Time
2K views
Apr 1, 2025
Long irons, hybrids and fairway woods can be especially difficult to hit off the deck. If you're someone that struggles to nail these clubs like the pros, then this is the video for you! Watch as Top 50 coach Gary Munro runs through the keys to striking these clubs correctly the get the maximum distance and control out of them. His step-by-step guide will ensure you're in the best position to be able to find the green on long par threes and even attack the greens in two on par fives after a good drive.
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0:00
Hi I'm Gary Munro. Today we're going to be discussing how to master those long
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irons, hybrids and fairway woods off the deck. So what's required to make this
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shot work? We need good speed and a good strike to ensure we can get the correct
0:15
launch angle for the shot so it can travel the correct distance. Big things I
0:20
see are people say that their four irons, five irons and six iron all travel the
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same distance which is why they don't want to reach for those long irons. So
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So we're going to split this video into a few sections looking at setup, speed, strike
0:34
and a few different drills that you can do to practice this to ensure that your long irons, hybrids and fairway woods work every time
0:46
So what's our intention when we're addressing a long iron? It's actually understanding that we still need a downwards attack angle to strike ball first then turf to get the ball up in the air
0:57
It may be daunting looking down at a club with not much loft, but if we get that strike location going more down
1:04
we will get more compression and more ball speed. So to ensure that you get a correct setup every time
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we're going to have an alignment stick down your target line, an alignment stick here for your ball position
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So we want your ball position to be two balls width inside your left ankle
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This is also in line with your left pec. So the best way of doing this is grab two golf balls, address the club and the ball
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From there take a little step to the left which is your two golf ball width
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Then from there take a slightly bigger step to the right. We're looking for a wider base with a long iron and fairway wood for stability as we need
1:51
to create a bit more speed. Once we've got this set up, because we need a slightly downwards strike on the golf ball
1:58
for a mid-iron you're looking at 4 or 5 degrees, for a long iron it'll be closer to 1 and 2
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We still need 55% of our weight on our lead side. From there, with the ball being slightly more forward, naturally our angle of attack will be set better
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After we've got this set up position, the final check we need to have is your distance from the golf ball
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Well from here we're going to be waving the right hand to ensure that the grip and your
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belt buckle are the correct distance apart it should just fit through here What we now done is make sure the strike across the face is sorted from the distance from the ball and the strike up and down
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the face is sorted by getting the correct ball position. With the hybrid as we move on to the
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fairway woods such as a three wood the ball position will actually be one golf ball back
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of the left heel. This is because there's less loft on the club face we want the angle of attack
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to be a little bit more level so we can get away with being one degree down or level with the ground
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to still get good distance and good trajectory. So from here it's the same setup but just have
3:04
one golf ball inside the left heel. It will move from the left peck to more your left armpit as
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your ball position. So a great feedback drill to know if you are hitting slightly down on your
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long irons is grab a tee because we're putting the ball position two ball widths back we want you
3:30
to place a tee peg two club heads in front of the golf ball here now what we would like to see is
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as the golf club is traveling down we hit ball first and that the golf club stays low enough to
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the ground that it can take the tee with it you will not be able to take that tee if you're striking
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up on the golf ball. We're looking for ball first and then take the tee
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Now as I've hit that the tee has gone with it which means I'm striking down on the ball perfectly
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Now to do this drill with a fairway wood because the golf ball is placed one ball width inside the
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left ankle we're only going to put the tee one club head width in front as opposed to with a
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long iron and the hybrid we had it at two it's the same golf swing so we've got the ball position
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one ball width in the left ankle slight 55 pressure on my left hand side and we're trying
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to hit ball and keep the club head low enough where i take the tee with me
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again great feedback i'm hitting ball then the tee goes with me that i'm hitting that downward
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So what are some faults that I see with this setup with the long irons is the golf ball
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will be placed too much in the centre. So from here players as they hit the golf ball won't create enough height
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The ball won reach the apex of its flight so it travels the same carry distance as a five iron or a six iron for this example of me using a four iron so what will end up happening as they hitting the ball too low and not getting the desired distance they will try and instinctively lift the golf ball up or try and add loft by letting the
5:13
club head get to the ball first and when they do this they actually strike it worse and the ball
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goes less distance so in the end they don't use the fairway woods or the hybrids because they're
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not getting the most out of them. So what I need you to do is remember if you put this drill and
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set it up with a club head in front of the ball if you are not striking the tee on the way through
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it means you're probably one of those players that are staying behind it trying to lift the
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ball in the air and you won't get the most out of it. So why we need to create more club head speed
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is to ultimately create more ball speed and get more spin so the golf ball can travel up with a
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long iron or hybrid or fairway wood reach the apex of its flight then come down if you don't
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create enough spin because the strike's not good enough or you've not got enough club head speed
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the ball will take off and then dip very quickly ultimately not giving you distance
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so how are we going to create more club head speed we've got this great setup we're going to
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start to work on wrist hinge. So on your backswing as the lead arm gets parallel which is at this
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section here we're looking to create a 90 degree angle. From there I want to see the shoulders turn
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to a minimum of 90 degrees here. Combining the wrist hinge and the shoulder turn is a really nice
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power source to create more club head speed coming into the golf ball. As you're setting the wrists
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they still need to be set at this 90 degree angle the club still needs to be on its natural plane
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here do not need to set them at a vertical angle or a very flat angle like this so you create the
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90 degree angle here then you turn the shoulders now you've loaded up a really strong backswing
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position so how you're going to practice creating the 90 degree angle with the wrists 90 degree
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shoulder turn, you either grab a video camera or a mirror and build the swing into stages
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So as you take your nice setup, getting the ball position correct, take the club back
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to this section here, lead arm parallel, make sure you've got the angle. After you've done
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that section you can check it from there you going to turn the shoulders the bigger the shoulder turn the more speed you going to get Then you going to hit the shot So it look like this hitting balls in stages
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So wrists, shoulders and then hitting the ball. You might not strike at your best every time doing this but you're trying to build the elements of the golf swing to make sure you get all the right positions
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then eventually you want to make it flow all as one. So it will look like this
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So you're getting the hinge, the turn, and then go through to a balanced finish
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So build it up in sections, then make it all flow as one. So common faults I see when players try and add club head speed
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They've got 200 yards to the flag. They're looking down at a club with not much loft
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They try and take the golf club back faster in an effort to get more club head speed
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As they snatch the club back, it's going back in all different angles to their normal golf swing and most importantly their timing
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completely goes so then at impact they get a worse strike and the ball doesn't travel its distance
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so if you do the drill of building the right positions that's a proper way of getting a good
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club head speed at impact now if you're a player who cannot generate more club head speed maybe
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through limited mobility or just haven't got the movement necessary to get that hybrids are going
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to be your best friend so you can buy hybrids that even replace six irons five irons and four
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irons now this club is more versatile out of the semi-rough and the rough so you'll be able to use
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it on more occasions but also it's going to be generating more hype for you because the club has
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more mass to it and more forgiveness so as you address the ball it's the same setup we spoke
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about earlier with two ball widths back and from here it's a lot less intimidating to look down on
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there's more mass behind the head you're naturally going to get more ball speed and more distance
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so this is a great alternative if you're a player who can't add too much club head speed
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so to recap how you can master these shots long irons and hybrid you want them to be two golf
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ball widths back of your left ankle the three width off the deck will be one golf ball width back
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and then from there to generate more club head speed remember those positions of the 90 degrees
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90 degrees shoulder tan, get a good strike, enjoy the new distance
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