Eddie Pepperell's Favorite Iron Drill (Video)

In this Golfing World video from January, Eddie Pepperell shares his favorite drill for improving his iron play and explains why he finds it so useful.



Eddie says this drill helps him do a number of things automatically, and he describes it this way:

• He addresses the ball with the clubhead outside the ball -- that is, farther from his body than the ball is.
• He presets his wrists so his trailing elbow is in his desired position to start the backswing and his hands lead the clubhead at impact.
• When his trailing elbow swings back, it keeps his arms and hands in front of his chest (that's what he means when he says they're below his chest).
• He re-routes the club (drops his hands) on the way down so his hands swing closer to his body, creating more of an in-to-out swing.
• From there he keeps the clubface slightly open so he can hit a fade.

There's no reason you couldn't use a similar drill to create a draw. To do it, you would want your hands and arms to move a bit more outward on your downswing, flattening your swing a little so it would be easier to close the clubface slightly at impact and create the draw. The way Eddie swings now -- keeping his hands and arms closer to his body on the downswing -- allows him to make a slightly more upright swing while still coming at the ball from the inside, so he doesn't drive his hips and legs too much.

To make that a bit clearer, Eddie's downswing -- with his hands closer to his body -- keeps him from turning his hips so much and helps him to hit that fade. To get the club moving more outward, you would want you use your hips a bit more to get a bigger outward move with your hands and arms. The extra hip action is what flattens your swing.

If you want to try both of them, you'll probably find that one method is easier for you than the other one is. The easier one will probably match your natural shot shape more accurately.

This drill certainly isn't something you need to do. But it's a drill that Eddie finds particularly useful and, since he played so much better in 2018, I thought some of you might want to know what he works on.