The iron shot step by step: ball position, weight forward, low point in front of the ball and a divot-line drill. With error patterns and wrist safety.
A good iron shot hits the ball first and the turf after. The lowest point of your swing is therefore in front of the ball, not behind it. This is called "hitting down", and it is why good iron shots cut a divot, a piece of turf, in front of the ball.
The honest warning: for this teaching ("ball first, then divot") I have not read a study of my own. It is coaching knowledge. What is documented: how you strike the ball determines how it flies. Measurements showed that the variability of the impact point on the clubface plays an important role in the scatter of launch angle and distance [2]. If you hit the ball on the toe one time and on the heel the next, you get a different ball every time.
And another finding that helps you: even small changes in ball position change the posture at address and the angle of attack [1]. So you have a simple lever to improve the shot before you change anything in the swing.
In an iron shot you do not hit "into" the ball. You let the club run through the ball and touch the ground after.
With a 7-iron the ball sits about in the middle of the stance (practice). With shorter irons slightly farther back, with longer ones slightly farther forward. Important: a shift forward or backward changes posture, head position and angle of attack [1], so always set up the same way.
Toward impact your weight is more on the front foot and the hands are slightly ahead of the ball (practice: about 55 percent of weight forward). In the swing this means the weight moves forward in the downswing [3].
This is the core. Your clubhead reaches its lowest point after the ball. Imagine you are not hitting the ball but a line two centimeters in front of the ball.
Draw a line on the ground (or lay a club down) and place the ball right next to it, on the target side. Goal: your divot starts at or after the line, not before. If you hit the line before the ball, you hit it fat.
Milestone: out of 10 shots, at least 7 divots begin at or after the line and the ball flies toward the target (practice target).
The steps stay the same, only details change (practice): the shorter the club, the closer you stand to the ball, the narrower your stance and the steeper you hit down. The longer the club, the farther forward the ball and the flatter your swing. Start with the 7-iron and only then move on to the 9-iron and 5-iron.
Swing through the ball to a balanced finish. Hold the position briefly. That is the check: if you cannot stand, the swing was too fast or too long.
Divots are ground, not an enemy: replace the turf pieces or fill the holes as the course requires (etiquette). Do not play from roots or stones if you can avoid it, because wrist injuries are a known pattern in golf and avoiding obstacles is named among the preventive measures [4]. Fat shots hurt, and according to a review, upper-extremity injuries usually arise at impact [5]. Stop at pain. Does not replace supervised training.
Use the line not only for hitting but for checking: hit five balls with a 7-iron and see where the divots begin. If they all begin in front of the line, move the ball one centimeter forward. If they all begin far after it, move it back a little. Change one thing at a time. A coach does the same on a launch monitor.
Ball first, then turf: the low point of the club is in front of the ball. You need the ball in the middle of the stance, some weight forward and the hands slightly ahead of the ball. Test it with the divot-line drill.
About in the middle of the stance (practice). Even small shifts change posture and angle of attack [1]. Choose a fixed position, keep it for every shot and check it in the mirror or on video.
Fat: weight back, ball too far back or braking. Thin: standing up in the swing. Variability of the impact point changes launch angle and distance [2]. Check weight, posture and ball position.
Well-struck irons from the fairway usually make a small divot after the ball (practice). More important than a large divot is that the ground comes after the ball.
Not primarily. A cleanly struck shot at moderate speed usually flies better than a badly struck power shot, because the impact point helps determine launch angle and distance [2]. Start with a clean three-quarter swing.
Learn to Hit the Driver: The Tee Shot Step by Step