You can watch nearly every PGA Tour event and quickly appreciate the vital importance of distance control with your iron shots. For the most part, these elite players are masterful at “dissecting” their distances into very manageable “bites,” because a “textbook” 7-iron or gap wedge is a rarity in this game.

As I was reviewing old Wedge Guy articles I’ve written, I came across an interesting anecdote from a reader who shared his story:

“Recently, I wanted to work on my GIR, so I decided to adjust my club selection based on distance. Instead of picking the club that would reach the desired distance with a full shot, I went up a club and played roughly a 75% shot with a slow smooth swing.

“In the first round with my new approach, I shot a 77 (on a par 70), and in the second round I shot a 77 (par 72). I hit a ton of greens, and both are all-time low scores for me.

“My question is….Is this the approach I should always use? Should I always try to use a 75% swing for 5 – 9 iron approach shots? Should the 75% shot be my normal swing?”

My advice to this reader was to let the results speak for themselves. It was pretty obvious what he perceived to be his “75% swing” was producing much more reliable distances for him.

While it might not have actually been a measured “75 percent,” I’m personally a big fan of this “throttled back” approach to iron play. I interact with many golfers who tell me their iron distances and I’m often amazed at what they claim. We often hear of tour players hitting an 8-iron from 175 or a 5-iron from 230, but that’s not the norm by any means, even for them. And it certainly shouldn’t be for the rest of us.

As I often do, I would like to share some wisdom from Ben Hogan, who, in his 1949 book, “Power Golf,” listed his yardages with each iron. In this chart, he showed a normal/minimum/maximum yardage with each iron. While you can discount the actual numbers because of technology, what you should focus on is that with each iron he had 20 yards “in reserve” for when he really needed it. Do you? I mean do you have what you consider your normal range with a 7-iron, and another 20 yards when you want? Or are your “maximum” and “normal” distances about the same?

What this golfer I mentioned earlier discovered is that when he throttles back with his irons, his accuracy and distance control improved dramatically, and I would bet it would be the same for 95 percent of us. Your iron play will improve dramatically if you relearn a more relaxed “normal” swing with your irons, and let the distances be what they are. My favorite analogy to swing speed is to relate it to driving. Drivers get freeway speed—as fast as you can drive safely.

Fairway woods and hybrids are a notch below that, as you don’t have the ball sitting on the tee. But when an iron is in my hands, I think “drive 55”, the old country road speed limit. Fast enough to get where you’re going, but slow enough to stay between the lines on a two-lane road with no shoulder.

And I’m a big fan of gripping down on my irons most of the time to gain even a little more control. Even a half-inch or so down on an iron gives you more control than when you grip it to the end. And most golfers will be more accurate and consistent with a 7-iron gripped down and swung easy than with an 8-iron “ripped.”

There is no room in those little boxes on the scorecard for explanations, only for the numbers. A shot to 10 feet with a throttled-back 7-iron is always better than a nuked 8 that’s wide left or right, long or short.

It can even be fun to jack with your testosterone-pumped buddies who are standing on the par-3 tee deciding between and 8- and 9-iron, when you hit it close and answer their inquiry, “What’d you hit?” with “a little 7-iron.”
It makes their head spin, and it’s fun.