Long Irons & Driver & The Vertical Impact Lines

The reason the optimal golf swing is vertical and not rotary or lateral is because, as I’ve said before, you are using leverage and gravity to swing down into impact, and if your position remains laterally stable, you are golden with a modicum of practice.

I have taken a 5 iron swing and a Driver, to illustrate how purely you can strike the ball without jumping out of your shoes or breaking yourself in the gym.

We all know that, with wedges and irons, you want the ball placed back of the vertical swing bottom, so that the club is descending into the ball with a forward-leaning shaft (or a vertical one if you’re trying to pick the ball clean).

5 Iron – Address & Impact

Here is a the 5 iron swing, and notice how I’ve got the ball just back of the line that signifies when I am at the swing bottom – of course, the longer the club, the closer to the swing bottom you want to have it so that you’re not gouging out pelts and de-lofting the iron drastically.

I’ve impacted the ball just before the swing bottom, and it’s the loft of the club that gets it into the air, not my trying to lift or scoop the ball.

You can sort of see that it’s as if I was swinging into an impact bag, doesn’t it?  That’s because I’m just swinging down from the top and the only effort that is expended after impact is the completion of my right arm extension, which is how one accelerates the club through the swing bottom.

This is how you would swing any long iron or hybrid – let the loft take care of getting the ball into the air, and just swing down into the swing bottom.  Easy-peasy.

Now, a subtle difference with the modern driver, which is designed to impact the ball with the shaft leaning away from the target.

So, you just set up that way, with the ball head of the swing bottom:

… and in the same manner, you simply pivot back and then swing down and through the swing bottom as if there’s an impact bag where the ball is – remember that for maximum power, you want that “leverage line” from the shoulder through the hands to the ball at impact.

Once again, all of the effort goes into the weight shift and down swing to the bottom, and the only effort I’m expending post-impact is the completion of the right arm extension, ensuring that I’m accelerating the club into the ball.

You just using your body and the club to create a pendulum that swings up and then back down through:

The leading arm swinging from the leading shoulder makes that pendulum and the only difference is that we have a hinge in the middle of said pendulum where the hands hold the club.

This is why the setup is so crucial – the Jack Nicklaus setup, which is basically the MCS setup, ensures that the body merely pivots and swings, letting the ball get in the way of the club as it swings down and through the bottom.

The Jack Nicklaus setup with the Ben Hogan pivot, using gravity and leverage in a vertical swing action – that is the optimal way to swing, my friends.

8 thoughts on “Long Irons & Driver & The Vertical Impact Lines”

  1. AK's avatarAK

    “This is how you would swing any long iron or hybrid – let the loft take care of getting the ball into the air, and just swing down into the swing bottom.  Easy-peasy.”

    This might be the best post yet. Love the last image of the different positions for each club, and the explanation for how to hit the modern driver. After I used old clubs for a while to improve my swing, I was struggling to hit the modern driver, and found out that was the reason why. (8 months ago)

    1. DJ Watts's avatarDJ Watts Post author

      Part of the reason Jack was so much longer than most of his competitors was that he actually hit the persimmon driver like a modern one. That allowed him to blast it into the sky with less backspin, and the rest is history:

      1. AK's avatarAK

        Interesting! Never noticed that before, but does make sense. Nicklaus was sure was a stocky fella back in the day.

  2. scgolf12's avatarscgolf12

    So the other day I’m out hitting balls into my net, and at the end of my session I decided to just focus on one thing: “throwing the shaft into the ground” (like you demonstrated a few posts ago).

    I was switching between my 7 iron and my 1 iron (yes, I have a 1 iron… because why not?) and suddenly I’m pureing everything—and with way more power into the ball, shot after shot.

    Even with the driver—though I was only swinging at 50% effort so I wouldn’t sky one into my neighbor’s yard (which may or may not have happened before)—I felt like I had way more control of the clubface. That’s huge for me because I’ve been fighting a nasty habit of closing the face too early. The wild part? It was totally counterintuitive. I’ve always been trying to hit up on the ball with my Driver. But just like with the irons, swinging down but placing the ball a bit forward gave me really solid contact.

  3. scgolf12's avatarscgolf12

    Hey DJ,

    Should the bottom of the swing arc always be located on the outside of your shoulder (where you drew the vertical yellow line) with the MCS swing?

    1. DJ Watts's avatarDJ Watts Post author

      Unless you’re doing something very strange and untoward, it has to be, Scott. That is where the leading shoulder, arm and shaft form a vertical line. I can’t see how it could ever be different with a regular two-handed swing motion.

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