He is a tournament statistics leader – using long irons. Here are his 5 keys to beating them

Michael Kim, after admitting he’s a PGA Tour stat leader, offers some self-deprecating humor.

“Surprising, I know,” he said.

All kidding aside, Kim is actually, placed second in the Tour on approach shots from the fairway from 200 to 225 yards away, where he typically plays a longer iron — a club category that can sometimes trouble players. But maybe less so now.

IN a post on social networks on Friday from one of the most sociable professionalsKim offered up his keys to hitting the long irons well, and we’re sharing them below. There are five in total.

Let’s review.

1. ‘Keep it wide and deep, stay back in transition and release the club completely’

“Swing-wise, it’s mostly the same things I’m working on with my driver.” Kim wrote. “Keep it wide and deep, stay back in transition and release the club completely. Personally, I need to focus on fully releasing it with hands and arms once it gets to the 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 it with the longer things.”

2. ‘I’m hitting my shot’

“If it’s not blowing more than 20 mph, I’m hitting my shot, which is a high draw, 5 yards.” Kim wrote. “You don’t need to wait for it to soften; you can get all the spin and height you need even with a correctly mounted stick draw. No butter cuts, no chip shots, no extra height, just stock shots. It’s a pretty hard shot in itself; there’s no need to make it even more complicated.”

3. “Pins are irrelevant”

“The limits 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 stroke earned. I might favor one pair over the other if there’s something I absolutely have to miss like water or a bunker that’s hard up and down.

“Every time I get an urge to do something more with it, I remember my coach telling me, ‘That’s a scary 4-iron. Just hit the freaking green.”

4. ‘If I’m between clubs, I’m always taking the shortest club’

“If I’m in the middle of clubs,” Kim wrote“I’m always taking the shorter club and swinging harder. I personally have a tendency to drop it if I swing gently because I’m not ready to let it go enough. Much easier to release it completely when you rock harder on it.

“Also, if you swing softer, there will be less spin, and with longer clubs, it can bend a little bit, which can make hitting the ball even more of a 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. It is 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 than rough, easier to lift in the air and better than meat. I still use my long irons because I don’t have as much trouble getting the ball up and my distribution is a little better.”

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