How To Hit The 7 Iron Perfectly – Consistently Straight, Ideal Set Up & Max Distance

How To Hit The 7 Iron Perfectly – Consistently Straight, Ideal Set Up & Max Distance

The 7 iron always seems to be the favorite club for most golfers. We have come to the conclusion as to why.

We believe it comes down to the length and the loft. Yes it is easier to hit a 8 or 9 iron, but it does not go as far, and when it comes to a 6 iron and upwards, we believe the length becomes just that little bit too long, this brings in inconsistencies with regards to strike and direction.

Let’s dive into some more details below to help you maximize your consistency, set up and distance.

Complete Overview Of The 7 Iron In 3 Sentences 

The 7 iron is generally every golfer’s favorite club. It has the perfect loft and length to give you consistent results. To optimize all aspects of a 7 iron the key is to hit down on the ball or in other words create a negative angle of attack when striking the ball.

Key Shot Shapes To Play With The 7 Iron 

The key shot for a 7 iron is to hit a high, the optimum launch is 17 to 19 degrees and the optimum peak height is between 20 – 22 yards in height. Being able to hit a draw or fade is also very important when hitting a 7 iron. Many good players also have the ability to hit a 7 iron low, this comes in handy when hitting into the wind.

Key Shots To Play With The 7 Iron 

Fairway Approaches

Being able to hit a 7 iron from the fairway or even the rough is extremely important. The majority of the time you will be hitting your 7 iron from these positions, it is crucial that you are able to hit a good shot, this will then give you a good chance at making a par or even a birdie.

Bump And Runs

This may be seen as a bit more of an advanced shot, but we feel differently. Being able to play a bump and run shot with a 7 iron can save you a few shots during a round. It is actually very simple, you use a bump and run shot when you are around the green with a lot of green between you and the hole. Instead of taking out a lofted club and flying the ball to the hole, you take out a 7 iron, position the ball back in your stance and make a short putting style stroke on the ball. This gets the ball rolling on the green quickly and eliminates a lot of risk. You can also use a PW, 9 and 8 iron for shots like this.

Off The Tee From Par 3

There is no better place to make a par or birdie on the course than a par 3, you have no obstructions to the hole, and you can give yourself the perfect lie by teeing it up. Being able to hit your 7 iron on par 3’s is incredibly important, more often than not the par 3 distance will be between 120 to 160 yards, perfect for hitting a 7 iron for most golfers.

How Far Should You Hit A 7 Iron 

This all depends on your swing speed, a good range for a 7 iron is between 130 to 175 yards. Let’s have a look at the speed vs distance chart below.

Swing Speed Vs Distance Chart 

Swing Speed (7 iron)	Distance
Under 60mph	Under 100 yards
60 to 70 mph	100 to 120 yards
70 to 80 mph	130 to 155 yards
80 to 90mph	1550 to 175 yards
Over 90mph	Over 175 yards

Why Is My 7 Iron Going Wrong – Heading And Paragraph For Each Reason 

Before we dive into some details here, I would just like to clarify that these reasons may not be exactly what you are doing wrong and might not fix your problem, the below details are just the most popular causes.

The golf swing is a very complex thing, where many different things can cause the same issue.

Slice

The two main causes of slicing a 7 iron is your swing path and clubface. When your swing path is out to in, in other words starting from outside the target line and through impact going inside the target line. This causes left to right rotations on the ball giving you a slice shape. The other cause is the club face being open, when the face is open at impact it also causes left to right rotations on the ball.

Hook

Similar to the slice, the two main causes of slicing a 7 iron is your swing path and clubface. When your swing path is in to out, in other words starting from inside the target line and through impact going outside the target line. This causes right to left rotations on the ball giving you a hook shape. The other cause is the club face being closed, when the face is closed at impact it also causes right to left rotations on the ball.

Topping

Topping the ball is NOT caused by lifting your head, your head lifts because your body shifts towards the ball, this is also called early extension. When your body early extends, it forces your head to lift, this is where the common misconception comes from. All professional players ‘lift’ their head to some extent when hitting the ball, but this is from rotating through the shot, not early extension. Keeping your head down or still through the ball could actually cause you to top the ball even worse.

Another cause for topping the ball is caused from hitting off your back foot, or in other words not transferring your weight onto your left side(right handed golfers) through impact. It is extremely important to transfer your weight onto your left side through impact as this allows you to make solid contact with the ball.

No Distance

No distance is caused by poor technique, not enough physical strength and having an open club face. You will find most times golfers that slice the ball hit the ball shorter than normal, this is because the face is open at impact, it causes the ball to spin more and increases loft making the ball go shorter.

Poor technique and not being physically strong should be addressed by your local pro or personal trainer.

How To Hit The 7 Iron Perfectly

The big question, how do you hit your 7 iron perfectly.There are many aspects to hitting a perfect 7 iron, however there is one thing that you need to do, that even if you do everything else right, and you don’t do this one thing it will affect the way you strike the ball.

The key is to hit down on the ball, or in other words have a negative/downward angle of attack when hitting the ball.

On average the players on the PGA tour have a -5 degree angle of attack with their 7 iron, this does a few things. Firstly, when hitting down on the ball you create compression this will give you distance on your shots. And secondly, this allows you to strike the ball perfectly. Your angle of attack with a 7 iron should be between -2 and -6 degrees.

One misconception beginners and high handicap players have is they think they need to hit up on the ball to get it into the air. This is completely wrong, the iron has enough loft on it for you to hit down on it and for it to still fly high into the air.

How To Hit The 6 Iron Perfectly

Your technique for hitting a 6 iron is exactly the same as a 7 iron. You still want to hit down on the ball creating a negative angle of attack.

This will ensure you strike the ball perfectly and compress the ball to get maximum distance.

The only difference is your angle of attack should be between -4 and -1 degrees, this is because of the set up of the iron, the less loft and extra length requires you to hit less down on the ball.

Game Improvement Vs Players 7 Iron

These are two very different styles of irons, game improvement irons are made from cast iron, this allows manufacturers to include forgiveness and distance elements to the irons.

They do this by increasing the head size as well as adding different types of materials like rubber and sometimes gels.

Players irons are made from forged steel, they are designed for control and precision. There are no forgiveness and distance elements to this iron.

How To Hit The 7 Iron Perfectly & Consistently

From The Fairway

This is where you need to capitalize, generally you will have a perfect lie, so hitting a good shot is a must. Start with your ball position just forward of center between your feet, your shoulders should be level to the ground and depending on your shot shape you should aim accordingly. When striking the ball be sure to take a divot, this ensures you are hitting down on the ball.

From The Rough

The first thing you need to do to play a perfect shot out of the rough is to assess your lie. Sometimes the lie might be so bad that you can’t take a 7 iron and you are forced to take a more lofted club to get the ball out.

Your setup should be the same as hitting out of the fairway, the key again is to hit down on the ball, because the grass is long, it is extremely important to make contact with the ball first, this is done by hitting down on the ball.

Uphill And Downhill Lies

The key for both of these shots is not to fight the slope. The ball position should be in the middle of your stance for both, however get your shoulder parallel to the slope, this allows you to strike the ball better. With an uphill shot you will naturally hit more up on the ball so do not worry about taking too much of a divot, be sure to aim slightly right as the ball will tend to draw more than normal. A downhill lie is the opposite, you still need to get your shoulders parallel to the slope, however you want to try hit more down on the ball, this will help with the strike, naturally the ball will fade, so aim a little bit more left than usual.

Ball Above Or Below Your Feet

The same concept applies here, for both lies get your body parallel to the slope and ball position is in the middle. The difference here is because of the nature of the slope, you will naturally cut across the ball when the ball is below your feet, so you need to aim further left, and you will draw the ball more when the ball is above your feet, so you need to aim further right.

Conclusion

There is a reason why most golfers find their 7 iron to be their favorite club, it is because of the loft and length combination.

It is not too long and has enough loft to still go a decent distance.

The main key to hitting your 7 iron perfectly is to hit down on the golf ball, this creates a negative angle of attack, which will increase your distance and consistency.