hitting irons

I have been playing for 2 years and shooet in the mid 90's...I have a good short game and am good with woods/hybrids....My question...I do not hit any irons consistently well. I "chunk them", overswing, just no confidence at all. What is different in hitting irons versus woods/driver? I also hit irons much better off a practice mat than a fairway-- no tee. I often take way too much divot. I now am mentally "uptight" whenever I have an iron shot--even a 9 iron...Any advice??

I sounds to me like you are fairly consistantly hitting behind the golf ball? Am I correct? With your irons, you need to start hitting down on the ball rather than more of a sweeping type of swing that would be used for woods. Further, you are probably trying to lift the ball (known as scooping). This is caused by trying to get the ball in the air by hitting up on it instead of down. The upward motion results in the clubhead passing the hands before impact. This bottoms the club out before it reaches the ball, resulting in either a fat or a thin shot. The reason you do not encounter this problem with a practice mat is because it is much more difficult to catch your club in the practice mat than it is in a fairway or rough. Sometimes I think practice mats can cause more harm than good because they often reward poor swings. To start, try hitting down on the ball and we'll go from there. And also try to start practicing hitting off of grass rather than a practice mat.

Good luck.

One more thing that's very important. Try to hit the ball and then make your divot. If you are making a divot and then hitting the ball, you are scooping.

Thank You! You are absolutely right on! Now, if I can fix it!!! Again, Thanks!

Play a round (or at least hit a load of balls) with a 3/4 swing, punch shot.
as if you are trying to keep the ball low into the wind.
This will help to give you the correct feel of how you should be hitting into the ball with your hands passing the ball before the club head does.

backswing slow help

dmar, I had exactly the same problem and here is how I am "fixing" it. First I took some lessons so that I could understand the golf swing. I truly had some misunderstandings about the basics. After 3 lessons I was to the point that I could barely hit the ball while working with the instructor, but I did have a better understanding of what I was doing wrong and what I should be doing. After completing the lessons I figured I either was going to quit golfing or figure out how to hit irons. I started to rebuild my swing by simply taking the club back to waist level and swinging through the ball. I did this while trying to incorporate what I had learned from the instructor into the swing. I did this until I could hit the ball again! After that I practiced taking the club back further and am now hitting the ball with some consistency and certainly not chopping behind the ball on occasion like I did previous to the lessons. I know there are a lot of golf books/DVDs out there, but I might also recommend Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons:The Modern Fundamentals of Golf". The chapter on the proper grip alone has helped me eliminate what I thought was an outside/inside swing plane, but was really a grip that needed just a little tweaking.

Not sure if you have taken lessons, but if not give it a try. Don't be surprised if at first you regress, but stay with it and you will fix your learned bad habits. PS-my biggest problem was lifting my right foot during the backswing which caused me to modify my swing plane and "chop" down on the ball.