Strange irons issue

So a quick little background, I just started about 8 or 9 weeks ago as a brand new to the sport, never swung a club in my life, golfer. I picked up a cheapo set of Nike Covert 2 Irons 4-PW, a Nike SW(forget which model), and a cheap TM RAC AW. I hit all these fairly consistently and pretty straight without too much difficulty but of course not overly far as I do not have a super fast swing speed and just try and be smooth. The problem came in because I was having problems with my hands and wrists being very swore after hitting a bucket of balls at the range to the point that I did not want to pick them up again for at least 2-3 days after one bucket. I do have smaller hands and all my life have suffered having weak wrists to the point that I get mild sprains in my wrist regularly by simply pulling hard to open a heavy door.(weird I know)

I thought that maybe the problem with the soreness could be resolved by eliminating as much stinging vibration by switching from steel shafted irons to graphite shafted irons. I did go buy and see a local pro and hit both my old Nike 7 and a graphite Callaway XR 7. The graphite did feel better on my hands and I hit it longer as expected. He checked length and lie for me and suggested I order a set of used XR OS graphite shafted clubs. Taking his advice, I ordered a set of 4-5H and 6-PW, SW, AW all graphite XR OS irons. Now this is where the problems all started compiling so bare with me. At the same time, I was having some issues with slicing my driver so I really started working on that more then focusing on irons which I had been hitting well. I finally worked out a few issues with my driver and realized that I really had a death grip with all my fingers and thumbs on both hands on the clubs. I started noticing that I was having difficulty hitting my irons around this time as well and assumed that it came from putting too much focus on the driver. I first thought it was due to having a really bad back that bothers me at times and was causing me to top balls quite regularly but I was not seeing distances I was expecting when making good contact and balls were pretty erratic in direction.

My problems have persisted for a couple weeks and I have been taking lessons every week and specifically trying to focus on this problem. I especially seem to struggle with all my wedges for some reason but none of the irons are very good. We have worked on my stance a bit trying to make a few small adjustments to help with my bad back and a few other things as well. Nothing seems to be helping and today I played 18 with my cousin's husband again struggling all day with my irons hitting mostly low flying runners, topping them, or smacking them all over the place even though my back felt great. I did hit my hybrids reasonably well and of course I did occasionally hit a decent iron shot but by occasionally I mean like 2 and both with the 8 iron if I remember correctly.

So I started thinking that maybe I should pull out my Nikes again and see what happens. I am wondering if my death grip on the clubs was causing the majority of the discomfort in my hands and wrists. I got home and had a bunch of crap balls laying around so I decided to go behind the house and hit my wedges to see what would happen. I very casually grabbed the PW and without any changes in what I had been doing with the Callaways, I hit the first ball a beautiful high shot through some trees in the back yard. I figured it was just luck so started hitting more and almost every time I could hit them straight and get them up off the ground like they should be. I tried both my old SW and AW and found the same results. I figured it can't be the clubs so I got out the Callaway PW and sure enough, could not get it in the air or hit it straight at all. I also grabbed my Nike 5i and again was able to consistently get the ball up in the air high and straight. Now please keep in mind my definition of consistently is I did occasionally hit one bad one but it was rare.

Now I am so confused on what to do. Everyone says its never the clubs its you but what in the world is going on? I don't know if its the extra weight from the Nikes that is helping me or if the oversized heads on the Callaway XR OS are hurting me or what the deal is. Obviously I have a decent amount in the Callaways but got them from Callaway preowned so I can trade them in for most of what I paid. I have an open house to tomorrow and the home sits on a golf course right around the corner from their clubhouse and driving range. I am thinking about loading up the Nikes and taking them with me and see how my hands feel after a bucket of balls. Outside of that I am at a loss as to what to do and why this may be happening. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

I wear a wrist guard on my left wrist. I hit down on my irons hard enough that it can hurt at times. Came with age for me.

I'm guessing your grip pressure may be way to tight. I also never recommend hitting off of mats.

tahoebum said:

I'm guessing your grip pressure may be way to tight. I also never recommend hitting off of mats.

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Well I can acknowledge that it was too tight but that has changed. I still can not explain why I can hit my Nikes pretty consistently before with a deathgrip and now without but I can not hit the Callaways which should be easier to hit consistently at all.

So over the course of 9 weeks as a beginner you’ve had some luck with a few shots. Nothing unusual about that. You’ve had sore hands, nothing strange there.

You are a beginner golfer, just learning the game. I’m not sure what the expectations are but you’re going to have more of this as you progress.

It’s not the clubs, it’s the bad habits learned while trying to hit them. These need to be unlearned so you can swing the Callaway irons. A lighter club that doesn’t require the same aggressive swing the Nike’s did. I’d keep taking lesson and get your pro to really teach you something. Grip, stance and posture are the foundation of the golf swing. Learn the game with the new clubs.

Stretch stretch stretch. There are some good routines on u-tube to stretch the fingers, hands and arms......

Wow did you ever feel like an idiot? I took out the old clubs as planned this afternoon and the only thing I can say is sometimes a visual image can really make things click. It took me a bit hitting balls and thinking about my first couple lessons and I still was not quite there until I was driving home and it all sort of went click in my head. I got home and pulled some junk balls that my neighbor drives through the woods behind my house out and grabbed my nemesis the Callaway PW and went to work. I hit 5-6 balls in a row, no practice swings just got right down to it and guess what? Every single one launched high, straight, and long. When I was staring down at those Nike clubs at the range some of the things my pro was teaching me on those first lessons came rushing back one at a time. I still was not quite right and I was talking to a high school kid I know(local HS just won regional championship and otw to state championship) while he was hitting balls and saw something else that I knew and was not doing correctly. All in all it was about 5 things that were very basic I realized were not quite right and fixed. I guess since I learned first on the Nikes I was just naturally doing enough when I hefted them from familiarity and thought I was doing the same with the other clubs. I knew it wasn't the clubs but dang sometimes...........

Well now I just need to get out on the course and put my Callaways back to work. I have played at a double bogey level all week with crap iron work which honestly I think considering length of time playing the game isn't too bad but dang it I am doing better then that this week now that I should be able to hit some greens in regulation! Yes I expect a lot of myself and push myself to achieve more but I have always had tons of drive that way no matter what it is I am doing. My goal is to drop my scores to bogey or better for a round before October is over.