How far should I hit my 7-iron?

Totals and carries are not the same thing: an amateur’s 154 total might be 145 of carry. Even so, the picture holds. From a 25 handicap to scratch the 7-iron grows 46 yards, and the speed difference between those players is far smaller than that. The rest is where the ball meets the face.

1. 1

   The centre of the face

   A strike one groove low or a thumb towards the toe loses ball speed and launches with the wrong spin. Ten balls with foot spray on the face tell you more than any chart. Most golfers who hit it short hit it off-centre.

2. 2

   Ball first, then turf

   A 7-iron is hit slightly down, the divot after the ball. If the low point is behind the ball you get fat shots on soft days and thin ones on firm ones, and both are short. Weight into the lead foot before the club comes down.

3. 3

   Speed, last

   Only when the first two are there does speed pay. And speed comes from sequence, not effort: lower body, then torso, then arms, then the club. A tense swing is a slow swing.

Feel: the hands go through the ball before the chest finishes turning; the club brushes the grass after the ball. Something you can say on the range: “Ball, then grass.”

Drill with reps: a towel one hand-width behind the ball. Half swings, 8 balls, without touching the towel; then 8 at three-quarters; then 8 full. Self-check: if you hit the towel, the low point is behind the ball: start the downswing from the lead foot, not the shoulders. Give it a few sessions and measure it by the divot, not the yardage.

If your 7-iron is short and you do not know why, a face-on video shows the low point and a down-the-line one shows the sequence. The free swing analyzer names one cause and gives you the drill; the full distance chart gives you every club. On WhatsApp Morris keeps your real averages and picks the club from them.