YankeeJim:
chrisironsbones: what am i doing wrong with the swing on my longish irons to ALWAYS take a punch shot rather than a more lofted shot????
The position of the ball in your stance-it sounds like it's too far back. Try hitting those irons with the ball inside your front foot as opposed to the middle of your stance or back in it.
Yes sounds about right, as all my practicing with the local pro years ago when i was a young boy had been rubbed from my mind for ever, so was only guessing to what was right & wrong. But yes, the ball seemed to always be in the middle of my feet (thought this was the correct way as the wedges and shorter irons were working fine from same position) TY, I'll go and test it out later from my garden with a load of WGT starter balls (similar to a box of recovered lake balls) as i only have a field at back see if it works better
YankeeJim: Look at where the divots come from-in front of the ball. Picture the arc of the swing and how it relates to taking a divot that comes from in front of the lie. The club is digging into the ground after where the ball lies because you're forcing the ball to climb the face of the club. If it's too far back in your stance you'll be coming down on it at too steep of an angle and will tend to drive it into the ground or come out flat.
Bang on the money, plenty of times i would be hitting into the ground first, i put it down to my rusty, 5hit swing and not playing in years, so i get what your saying if ball was slightly forward i wouldn't be forcing the club on an unusual angle to try and get under the ball, there would be more of a "flow" to it if ball was further forward and i would be catching it on the clubs natural up swing rather than me forcing the issue in trying to get under it.