It’s one of the most maddening feelings in golf: you pure a 7-iron, catch it perfectly a moment later with your 5-iron, and then watch in disbelief as both balls land in the same zip code. If all your clubs seem to fly the same distance, you’re not alone, and more importantly, you’re not stuck. This article will break down the exact reasons why this distance compression happens and give you straightforward, actionable advice and drills to start creating proper yardage gaps between your clubs.
In simple terms, your 5-iron should travel farther than your 7-iron because its longer shaft should help you generate more clubhead speed. If they’re going the same distance, it means you're delivering the clubhead to the ball at roughly the same speed with both clubs. This isn't a strength problem, it's a technical problem. The power you are creating isn't being stored and released efficiently, leading to a "speed ceiling" that all your irons hit.
The primary culprit is almost always an "arms and hands" dominant swing instead of a body-driven one. When the swing is powered by the body's rotation, the longer shafts of your 4, 5, and 6-irons have more time and a wider arc to build up speed. When it's powered by an early release of the hands and wrists, that speed potential is wasted before it ever gets to the ball. Let's look at the main technical faults that cause this.
Casting, or "throwing the clubhead from the top," is the most common swing fault among amateur golfers and a direct cause of distance compression. It means unhinging your wrists far too early in the downswing instead of storing that angle (often called "lag") and releasing it powerfully through the impact zone.
Think about throwing a baseball. You wouldn't uncock your wrist at the very start of your throwing motion, right? You hold the angle in your wrist and arm until the last possible moment to snap it and create velocity. The golf swing is the same. When you cast the club, you release all that speed and energy long before the clubhead reaches the golf ball. The result? By the time your short irons and long irons get to the ball, the clubhead is decelerating or moving at the same slow "cruising speed." You get decent height but no penetrating ball flight, and certainly no distance difference between clubs.
Casting is often a symptom of a larger problem: your body stops rotating through the shot. An efficient golf swing is a chain reaction. The downswing starts from the ground up: your hips begin to unwind, followed by your shoulders and torso, which pulls your arms and the club down into the impact zone. This sequence naturally stores the wrist angle and creates tremendous speed through the ball.
However, if your hips and chest stop turning towards the target and "stall" at impact, your arms and hands are left with no choice but to take over. They have to flip at the ball to try and square the clubface. When your body stalls, this sequence breaks down. No matter how long the club is, you can only move your hands so fast from that dead-stopped position. Your powerful body rotation - the real engine of the swing - has been taken out of the equation. This is why you can smash your driver 250 yards (where you have time for a full, uninhibited turn) but see no distance gap between a 6-iron and an 8-iron.
Before you even begin to work on swing mechanics, your setup has to give you a chance to succeed. A poor setup position can actively prevent body rotation and force a handsy, casting motion.
A common error is playing every iron from the exact same ball position, usually the dead center of the stance. While this works well for your shortest irons (like a wedge or 9-iron), it becomes a problem as the clubs get longer.
A ball position that is too far back with a 5-iron, for example, forces an overly steep attack angle. You have to "chop down" on it, which encourages a handsy flip just to get the ball airborne, killing your speed and distance.
You cannot make a powerful, rotational turn from a slouched or overly rigid posture. A good golf posture is an athletic one.
This "ready" position engages your core and glutes and gives your body the room it needs to rotate fully and create the speed your longer clubs desperately need.
Drills are the best way to retrain your body and turn these concepts into feelings. Dedicate some time at the range to these exercises, focusing on slow, deliberate repetition over hitting a ton of balls.
This is a foundational drill for teaching proper release and eliminating the cast. It forces your wrists and arms to respond to your body's turn.
This is my favorite drill for teaching proper sequencing and promoting an aggressive body rotation through impact. It almost makes stalling impossible.
The pump drill helps you feel what it’s like to maintain lag and deliver speed at the bottom of the swing, rather than the top.
Hitting all your clubs the same distance is a sign that your swing is being driven by your hands and arms and limited by poor sequencing. By improving your setup and using focused drills to retrain your body to lead the downswing, you can unlock your natural power and finally create the speed differentiation needed for proper yardage gaps.
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