Symptom:  Poor iron tee shots on par three holes.  You can't seem to figure out why you can hit your seven iron so sweetly from the fairway, but when you tee it up you sky it high, or jerk it left, or have some other unpleasant experience.

Description:  Tee your your irons low, almost flush with the ground for short irons.

Why it works:  You only get 18 chances per round to give yourself a perfect lie.  So you should certainly use a tee and take advantage of the rules of golf.  A golf ball sitting on a tee, nearly flush with the ground, is a better lie than you can get off the grass.  But don't tee up your irons as if you're hitting a driver.  For most iron shots you will tee the ball very low.  Wedges should be teed flush with the ground, mid-irons slightly higher (perhaps 1/4'') off the ground.  If you tee the ball up higher than this for an iron shot then only bad things can happen:

• You might hit a good shot by making an unnatural swing without a descending blow, but this will screw up your swing the next time around when the ball is on the ground.
• You hit a bad shot (probably a sky-ball) by making a normal swing with a descending blow.

If you tee the ball high, you can't hit a good shot by making a good swing because the ball is in an unnatural position.  So use the tee, but tee it low! And use a broken tee -- you need your unbroken tees for when you hit your driver.  And you should be frugal in these tough times...

For a demonstration of this, let's watch Zach Johnson hit a mid-iron tee shot.  Move the video ahead to 0:55 to see that the ball is teed pretty low, and also to see Zach's excellent descending blow:



But what if you can only hit a good shot when the ball is teed up high?  Then you have a swing fault that needs to change.  Try the hit the sunken tee drill to learn how to hit the ball with a descending blow.  Then it will feel natural and right for you to tee it low.

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In this article, we take a look at two very different approaches to the golf swing as demonstrated by Matt Kuchar and Fred Couples.

Matt Kuchar has one of the flattest swing planes on the PGA tour.  He wraps the club around his body on the backswing, comes at the ball from the inside, and tends to play a draw.  Freddie, on the other hand, has one of the most abrupt and upright takeaways on tour.  His backswing and swing plane is mostly "up", not "around", and he tends to play a fade.

To compare the two, we have video from the 2010 Masters, from the par three 16th hole (see the Master's scoreboard in the background?).  Both are probably hitting about a seven iron, and the pin is in the same place, since the video was shot on the same day.  They also are standing in almost identical parts of the tee box (but at different times of the day, note the shadows are a bit different).

The point is that these guys are attacking the exact same pin on the exact same day, and our vantage point is almost identical.  So it's a very fair comparison.

Have a look, here is Matt:


And here is Freddie:


To compare the two swings, run these videos until the shaft is parallel to the ground, and then have a look at the important angles relative to the target line.  I have put Fred and Matt side-by-side for easy comparison:

Matt Kuchar has a low, shallow takeaway.  Freddie Couples has a high, abrupt takeaway.

Several things stand out.

• Matt is lined up at the target or slightly closed, Fred is lined up open to the target (alignment shown with the blue line).
• Matt's takeaway is low and flat.  Fred's is high and upright.  The shaft is highlighted in green.
• Both Matt and Fred have the clubface (in yellow) slightly closed at this point in their swings.

Overall, you would have to agree that they look quite different at this point in their swings.

Now, if we fast forward to the downswing, to the point where their clubs are once again approximately parallel to the ground, they look a lot more similar than different -- see below:

Despite their very different takeaways, Matt and Fred have their clubs in similar positions as they attack the ball.

Despite the very different paths that these gentlemen have taken to get to this point, their clubs are now in very similar positions.  Matt is still a bit more inside than Fred because he is playing a draw.  Fred has cleared his hips a bit more than Matt because he is playing a fade.  But, overall, despite the differences in their swing planes, these guys look a whole lot more similar than different at this point!

What can the Occasional Golfer learn from this comparison?  Mostly, I think, that you don't hit the ball on the backswing, so your positions on the backswing are not nearly as important as many people would have you believe.  Backswing positions are important only to the extent that they enable you to have a powerful, correct, and reproducible downswing that allows you to release the club down the target line.

The other thing to take away from this is, if you are more upright and outside the target line than Freddie or flatter and more inside the target line than Matt on the backswing, you are probably not in a very good position.  Check yourself out at the range by making a video on your smartphone.  Or find a ground floor window at your house and use it as a mirror to check your position.

One final thought -- most Occasional Golfers will do better with a swing plane that more closely resembles Matt Kuchar's than Freddie Couples'.  Most high handicappers fight a slice, and Kuchar's swing plane promotes a draw.  On most courses, most of the time, you are better off with a draw.

Did you like this side-by-side video comparison of Matt and Freddie?  Then tell your friends!  Like, Share, Tweet or Email below!

Copyright 2012-present, GolfTipReviews.com, All Rights Reserved.
Share this with your Golfing Buddies! -- Did you enjoy this article on Golf Tip Reviews? Then please tell your friends--click a colorful button below and spread the word!
May all your putts roll true -- GolfTipEditor

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