Michael Kim, after acknowledging he’s a PGA Tour stat leader, offers a bit of self-deprecating humor.
“Surprising, I know,” he said.
Jokes aside, Kim is, in fact, ranked second on Tour in approach shots from the fairway from 200 to 225 yards away, where he typically plays a longer iron — a club category that can sometimes vex players. But maybe lesser so now.
In a social-media post on Friday from one of the more sociable pros, Kim offered his keys to hitting long irons well, and we are sharing them below. There are five in all.
Let’s review.
1. ‘Keep it wide and deep, stay back on the transition and release the club fully’
“Swing-wise, it’s mostly the same stuff I’m working on with my driver,” Kim wrote. “Keep it wide and deep, stay back on the transition and release the club fully. Personally, I have to focus on fully releasing it with my hands and arms once it gets to 6- or 5-iron. The longer the club, the more I have to use my arms and hands to release it. You can’t hold onto it with the longer stuff.”
2. ‘I’m hitting my stock shot’
“Unless it’s blowing more than 20 mph, I’m hitting my stock shot, which is a high, 5-yard draw,” Kim wrote. “You don’t need to cut it so that it lands softer; you can get all the spin and height you need even with a draw with the correct fitted club. No butter cuts, no chip shots, no extra height, only stock shots. It’s a hard enough shot by itself; no need to make it even more complicated.”
3. ‘Pins are irrelevant’
“Pins are irrelevant for the most part when I have a 4-iron,” Kim wrote. “My goal is to hit the green and that’s it. From 225, anything on the green is positive strokes gained. I might favor one side over the other if there’s something I absolutely have to miss like water or a bunker that’s a tough up-and-down.
“Every time I have an urge to do something more with it, I remember my coach telling me, ‘It’s a freaking 4-iron. Just hit the freaking green.”
4. ‘If I’m in between clubs, I’m always taking the shorter club’
“If I’m in-between clubs,” Kim wrote, “I’m always taking the shorter club and swinging harder. I personally have a tendency to leave it out right if I swing soft because I’m not nearly releasing it enough. Much easier to release it fully when swinging harder at it.
“Also, if you swing softer, it’s going to have less spin, and with the longer clubs, it can knuckle slightly, which can make hitting it straight an even tougher challenge.”
5. ‘Use technology to your advantage’
“Use technology to your advantage,” Kim wrote. “I started using a much more forgiving 4-iron starting in 2013, and I’ve never looked back since. It’s just so much more forgiving with distance and accuracy.
“I think 90 percent of ams should be using hybrids or woods, and the longest iron should be a 6-iron. Woods are better from the rough, easier to get up in the air and better off mishits. I still use my long irons because I don’t have as much problem getting the ball up and my dispersion is slightly better.”
