Golf Monthly's Ged Walters did this cool video on hitting a draw. Why is it so cool? Because he's hitting irons off the fairway, not drivers off the tee! And to make it even better, he's hitting from a hanging lie, which makes the shot even tougher.
The fundamental things he teaches here are not new or unique, but his presentation is one of the simplest I've seen. Let me point out a couple of things he says.
First of all, I like how he distinguishes between a draw and a hook. It's not about how big the curve is, but about whether the ball is getting closer to the target or farther away at the end. A draw curves out and and finishes "on target" -- that means it's still moving toward the target when it stops. A hook curves around too much, so that it moves past the target and keeps moving away from it. A hook is out of control. That's a good way to think about it.
He likens the way you strike the ball with the club to the way a footballer kicks the ball. (For my American readers, we'd call it soccer.) The kicker strikes the ball with the inside of his foot; the inside of his foot is facing the target while his foot is moving out to the right (you lefties would be moving to the left).
And playing off a hanging lie? You just exaggerate this action. A very simple explanation.
If there's one key technical thought I'd like you to remember, it's that you position the ball just slightly back of center in your stance. You want to come at the ball slightly from the inside with your swing -- that's the footballer analogy again -- and moving the ball back slightly encourages that, without having to make a huge change to your swing. You might even want to stand slightly farther from the ball, simply because that will help you hit from the inside more easily, without a lot of conscious thought.
Walters has -- in my opinion -- done a real service to weekend players with this explanation of how to play a draw off the turf with an iron. So spend a little time with this video. It'll be well worth your time.
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