Mastering Your Golf: The Fairway Metal Shot

When you really need to hit a tight fairway, you can depend on a fairway metal to give you more accuracy than a driver, and with a good distance.

A fairway metal brings the green into play in two shots on those tough par-5s, and helps you generate good distance out of light rough. Fairway metals can be a golfer’s best friends, if you know how to use them.

Static But Athletic Posture

Your posture at address is integral to your chances of hitting a good shot because it determines the shape and quality of your body motion during the swing. It is easy to fall into bad habits, so when you practise, recreate perfect posture with this simple routine.

Stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart, your hands placed on the grip and your arms extended comfortably around chest height.

Bend over from the hips until the clubhead rests on the turf.

Flex your knees, feeling some athletic tension in the thighs. Try to feel that your back is relatively straight, and hold your chin high.

The golf swing is a fluid motion and it is hard to make a good start from a totally static position. Waggle the club back and forth as you prime yourself to start the swing; this helps to banish tension from the hands, arms, and shoulders.

Left Shoulder Over Right Knee

Starting from the address position, begin the takeaway. Your body motion is the engine of the golf swing. Your body needs to move correctly and efficiently in order to drive your swing.

Keep The Rhythm

You can expect good distance with fairway metal shots because they are the second-longest clubs in the bag, but don’t push it.

Maintaining a smooth rhythm and focusing on dead-solid contact is the way to go, as that will promote sweet timing and the distance you seek, without sacrificing accuracy.

Think of turning your left shoulder over your right knee, to promote a full turn. And make sure you keep that right knee flexed, just as it was at address, as that gives you a firm base from which to wind and unwind your body in the swing.

Waggle the club back and forth as you prime yourself to start the swing; this helps to banish tension from the hands, arms and shoulders.

Full Rotation

As you swing your hands and arms through, the body needs to continue to unwind. The momentum of your swing will carry you through impact to a finish, but it helps if you think of completing your swing with your chest facing the target. This will get you “through the ball” better than ever.

Perfect Plane

There are several key checkpoints you can rehearse when you practise hitting balls; this is one of the best. As your left arm reaches parallel with the ground in the early stages of the backswing, make sure that the wrists are fully hinged, thus setting the club on the perfect plane.

Check it in a mirror; your hands should be right in front of your chest and the shaft of the club should be at an angle that hits the ground roughly equidistant between the golf ball and your toes. This is perfect plane. From there, you just keep turning your shoulders to complete the backswing.

Keep It Together

Feel that the arms swing at the same time as the body rotates.

Chin Up

Swing Secrets

Hands stay in front of chest in backswing.

Weight moves to the right as backswing progresses.

Right foot stays planted in backswing.

Left arm rotates to keep clubface neutral.

Maintain your height, to make room for that shoulder turn, and keep your chin up.

Turning Shoulders

Turn your shoulders on a flat plane to complete your swing.

Flexed Knee

Maintain the flex in your right knee.

Knees And Hips

Let your left knee work towards the ball as your hips turn.

This extract is taken from DK's The Golf Book, available at all good bookshops or online from Amazon.

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