Questions & Answers Responses from PGA/LPGA Teachers on FINDaLESSON.com                                                                                  << BACK From Pete, golfer: I am having big problems with my mid to long irons. I seem to do fine with short irons, but I leave big divots.  I also do fine with my drivers.  When it comes to mid to long irons, I leave huge divots, slice, and get no distance at all. What am I doing wrong? PGA/LPGA TEACHING PROFESSIONAL RESPONSES: California "It would seem you are leveraging with your left arm. That is you are trying to hit the ball harder, and further, by pulling violently with the left arm.  It doesn't work. You should feel you are almost slowing the left arm down and you swing forward, rather than lunging it forward. If it doesn't swing, it cannot accelerate. Be Happy." - John DeSantis, Teaching Professional Florida "Making a huge divot often happens when your body stops moving on the downswing leaving your arms nowhere to go but down into the ground. When the club is traveling down it stops rotating and the face will stay open causing the slice and loss of distance. It's important to understand that you contact the ball first, then make the divot. Pay attention to your right arm on the downswing, it may straightening up too soon, causing the club to dig into the ground too steeply. Make some slow-motion swings working on extending the right arm so it fully extends AFTER contact with the ball." - Andrea Drake, Teaching Professional Florida "Dear Pete , It is good to make a divot after the ball that means your striking down on it .However your probably hitting to down and across the ball. This big divot is most likely caused by an improper pivot. Try these two drills for skills . Go skip a rock along the water. Two take your golf posture ,hold a club in your left hand (if your right handed) with you left arm sticking out and the clubface on the ground pivot back and thru as you swing your right hand and arm under your left.                          o                         /------                        /  \     |                             \   |                                 |  These drills will give your body the feel of an in order swing. Do them slowly and build it up." - Sean Gorgone, Teaching Professional Illinois "Pete: You are swinging from the inside out and too steeply with your irons. Make sure you are not taking the club back too far to the inside on the way back because you will come outside in to compensate. Make sure your club is lined up with your toes on the way back at the half way back position. Next try to hit the ball more towards the right on the follow through. Good luck."  - Scott Mayer, Teaching Professional Oregon "In general the golf swing doesn't change, look first to our set up. big divots are most always the result of a to upright back swing (setting the angle in your hands to early) move the ball position forward in our stance and concentrate on taking the club back low for several inches (sweep the grass). But most importantly this creates a one piece take away instead of picking up the club in the first move away from the ball, remember that the golf swing is a left handed game played by right handed people, PUSH THE CLUB BACK and the pull it through with the left side, this will create more of a sweeping motion with the long irons instead of to steep of an angle. Hope it helps!"  - Scott Lusk, Teaching Professional Pennsylvania "Pete, your attack plane sounds like it is to steep and outside to in across the ball. If you look at your divot, you will see your divot will point left of your target. Your problem starts and maybe solved with correcting your back swing. Your take away must start with a one piece motion. In order to do this, the butt end of the club should point at your belt buckle until it reaches your hip pocket and your left shoulder (if you are right handed) will move toward your right knee. Two things will happen if you do this: your weight will shift to your rear leg and your swing plane will become more on plane. If your swing is on plane, you will have a better opportunity to drop the club in the slot on your down swing and attack the ball from the inside, instead of coming over the top." - Don Beardsley, Teaching Professional Pennsylvania "Remember what Masters champion Art Wall believed and used for his motto..."Stand tall, through the ball". Add a little tempo, and you'll be out buying a trophy case soon." - Bob Sheppard, Teaching Professional South Carolina "Pete: Sounds to me like you like to hit the ball with your hands. Can I assume that you have a high ball flight with most all of your clubs? If this is the case, you'll need to understand why the ball goes high. The more the club comes down to the ball on a steep descent, the higher the ball will travel. For the average golfer, the pre-release of the hands prior to hitting the ball can cause the ball to go far sometimes, high sometimes, and hit fat shots sometimes. Combine this with improper ball position, you'll be finding yourself in the Asian provinces very soon. Make sure that you have given enough room for the club to get back to square. Ball position for the longer irons should favor the front of the stance.  Use two clubs laid across one-an-other to determine where you are placing the ball for these shots.  Second, make sure your hands delay in releasing the club to the ball. Allowing the hands to "flip" the club to the ball prior to the club's arrival to the ball can cause the fat shot. One last thing to consider is where is your weight at set-up? If it is favoring the front side, you could be in the middle of a reverse weight shift as the club is approaching the ball. Make sure that the weight at set-up is favoring the back side of your stance. Hopefully one or all of these three things can help you. If not, do not try to fix the problem with more free advice. Invest in a lesson or two with a PGA Professional.  The longer the problem persists, the longer it will take to fix. Let me know if you need any further assistance." - John Hughes, Teaching Professional Texas "Pete...You're hitting these clubs like you're trying to kill them from the top, thus creating a out to in divot. Find a PGA Pro in your area and have him teach you how to create proper body usage to create better path and power, thus creating shallower divots, better ball flight, and better contact. If you would like to discuss it further, contact me. My best." - Bob Hasbrouck, Teaching Professional