skying an iron
▶ keep your body back
until the ball is gone
T
o access pins on
the slopey greens
at Augusta, you
often have to throw
the ball way up in the air and
land it soft—especially on the
par-3 holes like the 240-yard
fourth, where they sometimes
put the pin behind the bunker
on the right side of the green.
It’s practically all carry.
I already play my irons a bit
farther forward in my stance
than the average tour pro, but
for those high iron shots at
Augusta, I’ll move it one ball
farther forward than that.
The farther forward the ball
is in your stance, the easier
it is to deliver a good amount
of loft at impact. You’re
definitely not trying to trap
the ball.
Two other things I do to
help raise the trajectory:
I widen my stance and swing
back with more depth. Both
set you up to shallow the
club’s path into the ball,
which makes it fly higher.
On the downswing, my goal
is to keep my body behind the
ball until impact (left). If you
get out in front of it, even a
little, the ball’s going to come
off the club too low.
And just like when I’m
trying to hit a high draw
with the driver, my finish
position indicates how I hit
my approach. The higher I
finish (above), the higher the
ball flight. That feeling of
extending the arms and club
through impact will get the
ball up. ▶