Golf Terms: Short Irons

Video Transcript

"Okay, these clubs, this is our seven through sand wedge. These clubs are when you're within reasonable striking range of the green. So the goal with all these clubs is to get the ball to go high with some under spin so when it lands it doesn't just hit the green and keep rolling. These clubs are your scoring clubs in essence and each one of them has a little different use. Your seven iron, a lot of good players will hit a seven iron between one-forty and one-sixty. Obviously some pros can hit them further and further, but if you're going to hit a nice drive and be within a seven iron of the green you've got to have this club to where you hit it about the same distance every time. Otherwise, one time you'll end up in the trap another time you'll be in the water, on the other side of the green and all points in between. So the key here is to practice these clubs until you hit them virtually the same distance every time. The eight iron is going to be a club that you're going to hit probably from about one twenty-five to one-fifty, somewhere in there. There's some overlaps in all the clubs and this ball will go even higher than a seven iron. You've got to have your distance down with that. The nine iron is going to go anywhere from one hundred and ten to one hundred and forty yards. Once again, some pros hit it freakishly further but this ball is starting to go really straight up and it's a great club for when you're within hailing range of the green. You want to get that ball up high and land it. So the nine iron is a great club for that. In your pitching and sand wedge, the sand wedge you can see with the big flange is very useful for getting out of sand and tall grass. It really pops the ball up high. Generally, most players don't hit it much further effectively, than seventy-five or eighty yards. Then the pitching wedge fills in the gap between the sand wedge and the nine iron. This one you should hit between ninety and one hundred and ten, obviously depending on your strength and skill level, but this ball goes pretty much straight up. If you can nail all these shots to the same distance every time your scoring will become really, really effective."