Setup/posture: Driver vs. Irons

Hey everyone, first time poster here!

My first question is about driver vs. irons. I'll have to give a little background so I can ask a better question though.

My drives have been decent in the past, but have lacked distance. One day while golfing with my brother, I smacked a drive which felt wonderful. He had recently bought a GPS device so I was excited to find out how long my drive was. By the time we walked to my ball from the tee, the device said mu drive was 220. ( How discouraging. Here I "smashed" my drive and it was a pitiful 220. Granted I'm 5 8" and about 190 at 36 years of age, I should be able to put it out there further with my TM R7!

I then started filming some of my swings at the range with my wife the past year or so and with the help of comparison next to a pros swing, I've discovered some glaring differences.(no kidding, right?) Here are a few things that I've identified and are in the process of working on ....

1. Stance was way too narrow. What I believed was a shoulder-width distance was actually not so.

2. My right shoulder is not turning as much as my left, thus hindering my turn. My shoulders look like a parenthesis on my backswing!!!

3. I was standing too straight with no spine angle with weight too evenly distributed rather than more on the back.

4. My head is moving ALL over the place during my swing.

So after a little work on the range on these things (trust me, there's more that needs to happen) I was hitting my drives 25 - 30 yards further this past weekend!!!!!

What I discovered was that I've made all these changes with my drives, but didn't think to try to carry all of these things over to my irons. My irons are now my weak spot as far as distance. (for the time being!!) When I'm about 120 out, I have to reach for my 9. You can see that the longer my approach shots get, the harder it is to hit an accurate shot into the green while holding it.

So my question is --- Should I use the same posture, setup for my irons? I feel silly even asking this, because I think I know the answer!

I realize that the ball will move back in my stance as my irons get shorter, but I would assume I should keep everything else the same?

Thanks much in advance everyone. I appreciate any advice you could throw my way. I will try to hit the range as soon as I can to test this.


Brian

hi
the ball does not so much move back in the stance it more that the right foot moved closer to the left making the ball seem to move back.
try putting the ball in line wit your left heel and take a wide stance. now move you right foot in as if you were hitting a wedge, the ball seemed to move back in the stance but the ball and your left foot have not moved.
BrianW had a graph of Hogan's stance with a number of irons but i can't seem to find it maybe Brian could post it here again.
cheers
Bill

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Actually, I found an interesting article which references Tiger's approach and Hogan's and how Ben's was more "scientifically sound." Maybe this is close to what you remember.

http://www.kinestheticgolf.com/2008/...nce-width.html


Brian

hi Brian
the Hogan set up was the one i was referencing too. i think Tiger will move the ball back to him more than is shown in the picture of tiger's stance. in tiger picture the ball only moved back about 3 ball widths and i think it would be more like 6 ball with with a wedge.
if you look how Hogan opens his stance more with the short irons then if you draw a line through his feet you will see the ball is near the middle of his stance and not off his left heel as his stance opens.
with the driver the shoulder width is inside the feet but when you go down to your short irons the left shoulder is over your left foot and not inside it like with the driver so that makes the ball seem to be further back i your stance as your belt buckle has moved closer to the ball.
its a very interesting link you have put in about the stance.
cheers
Bill

Attached Images

BenHoganSetUp.jpg (27.3 KB, 15 views)

__________________
ping zing2 metal driver
ping zing2 metal 3 wood
ping eye2 1 iron
ping zing2 3/9 irons
ping ist 47% wedge
ping zing2 52% s/wedge
ping mb 56% wedge
ping c10 G2I broom handled putter
top flight "T" golf balls
white ping bag