Cant seem to get proper loft with irons

Question
I've been golfing for a couple of years and haven't been able to get proper loft with my shots, especially my irons.  My shots are typically hard "line drives,"  I've tried moving the ball up in my stance, different arcs with my swing with similar, poor results.  I play allot of baseball and suspect that might be part of the problem.  Any advice would be great.

Answer
Hello Scott:

Sounds familiar Scott, but whenever someone tells me they play baseball or softball, I always consider that a plus, not a minus.  You just need to have some simple fundamentals explained to you about the clubface and about contact.  First things first, you need to get more consistent.  If you are moving your ball all around trying to find contact, it won't work.  Here is your general rule of thumb:  set up with the clubhead in the center of your stance for every club.  That means the ball would be located just forward of center.  The reason I suggest this is the bottoming out point of the swing arc is just forward of your center.  So I would hope your ball is there.  But if you are moving your ball up and back, hoping to catch it just right, you'll never develop any consistency.  Now, when you hit your driver, I am assuming the clubhead of your driver is pretty big, as drivers are today, so the same concept applies, but because of the size of the head of the club, the ball would appear more towards your left heel.  With your driver, the ball would be just inside your left heel, however, the set up would still find the clubshaft pointing at your belly button.  Set up each time with the clubhead in the center of your feet and the shaft pointing at your belly button.  Stay consistent with this.  Next:  with your irons, I want you to check something.  Swing the club back (say a 9 iron) until the shaft is parallel to the ground.  This will be about waist high.  Check to see that the shaft itself is directly over your toe line (a line across your toes), and that the leading edge of the clubface is basically pointing straight up.  This would tell us that we have the correct amount of loft on the face.  I would bet if you grabbed your club and swung it back, the clubface would be looking more towards the ground at that point.  THEN, make some swings with the goal being that the leading edge of the clubface hits the turf or rips some turf out of the ground.  The leading edge of the clubface must brush the grass if your ball is to get airborne.  I have a feeling your leading edge more often than not strikes the center of the ball, sending it on a line drive.  In order for the loft of the club to work for you, the face of the club has to hit the ball.  So if the face hits the ball, and you have the correct amount of loft on the face at impact, and the leading edge brushes the grass, the ball must go up in the air.  It has to...the ball only does what the club tells it to do.  So go through these little checks Scott, go practice and see how much more consistent you get.  Your ball will also get up in the air, a welcomed relief when trying to hit a green.  Good luck, let me know how you are doing.  If you really get stuck, get some good quality CPGA instruction.  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member