Golf instruction is always evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In GOLF.com’s new series, Timeless Tips, we highlight some of the greatest advice that teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today, we’re looking back at our July 1998 issue for Fred Couples’ tips on crisp iron shots.
If there’s one person in golf worth modifying your swing after, it’s him Couples Fred. With a move that looks beautiful and effortless, it’s hard to argue against Coppie’s place among the smoothest swingers of all time.
Over the course of Boom Boom’s PGA Tour career — which featured 15 wins and a green jacket — the now 67-year-old birdied in bunches. And many of those circles on the scorecard can be attributed to his pinpoint accuracy with his irons from the fairway.
For recreational players, the easiest way to make more birdies is to be like Couples and hit your approach shots close. And for help with this, we turn the pages of GOLF magazine back to 1998, when Couples shared five tips for making crisp iron shots.
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5 Wrenches for Iron Precision, by Paul Marchand
Couples Fred he is famous for his long blasts off the tee, but incredibly accurate iron play has been a key to his career. Throughout the 1990s, Fred’s name peppered the top of the PGA Tour’s year-end statistics not only for driving distance, but for greens in regulation, low scoring average, and eagles and birdies, all products of his laser-like precision with his irons.
Case in point: In last year’s Players Championship, he bogeyed the fearsome par-3 17th at the TPC at Sawgrass. Later in the year, he blew approach shots at the Open Championship, the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. And at this year’s Masters, Coppie led the field in driving distance, but more importantly, he posted four under-par rounds with iron shots that looked like they were shot with the help of a lens and a crosshair.
These kinds of results certainly involve good luck, but ball-striking skill is the backbone of any game that produces as many “lucky” hits as Fred has. In this article, I will explain the five keys to precision that I have seen Fred execute masterfully since we were teammates at the University of Houston. As Fred’s coach, I’ve found that when all of these keys work, Fred is hard to beat. His precision skills give him the ability to hit the ball where he wants, when he wants.
Whatever your ability, increasing your accuracy is a surefire way to lower scores.
1. Freedom of movement
Fred’s mental and physical approach to golf can be summed up in three words: freedom of movement. It is also the main characteristic of his swing. Do not force movements or manipulate the club for impact. Fred understands that the great paradox of the swing is that the more you try to control the club at impact, the less control you have over the shot.
Trying to drive the club at impact is an epidemic fault among amateurs, sometimes even among those with strong swing mechanics. Mechanics is certainly the foundation, but playing golf requires a swing that goes beyond positions. It needs to be a free flowing movement to be effective.
Work on positions has its place: the practice range. When practicing your mechanics, don’t worry too much about where the ball is going. Your goal should be to develop a feel for the skill you are trying to learn. Before you finish a practice session, however, it’s vital to add freedom of movement to your swing by trusting the new feel you’ve been working on.
2. Rhythmic transition
Fred has a very long swing that gradually, almost imperceptibly, builds acceleration in the downswing. Its markedly effortless appearance is the result of the rhythmic movement in the transition area, where the backswing ends and the downswing begins.
It is in this transition zone that most amateurs are victims of “hits from the top”, swinging the club out and away from the body while trying to rush the club back to impact. Fred does the opposite: When the club reaches the top of his swing, he begins the downswing by moving his hips and left leg diagonally to the right of the target line. Simultaneously, his right elbow begins to drop quickly, albeit smoothly, to his side and then his torso relaxes powerfully.
These synchronized movements result in a very shallow club head path from just inside their stance line. This path promotes full release of the clubhead for impact, a consistent low point at the bottom of the swing, and the ability to repeat and control the speed of your swing.
3. Clubface (and body) rotation
The ability to consistently square the club face at impact is the essence of accuracy, but conscious manipulation has never done the job. In the hitting area, the club face must rotate on an arc from open to square to closed relative to the target line. “Trying to force this action, with your hands or right shoulder, will lead to wild inconsistency.
When the club swings through the hit area, the clubface rotates at a rate similar to the amount the body is rotating – if you let the club swing freely. The more the two rotations match, the more accurate you will be. This takes the obligation of squaring the clubface literally out of your hands.
“To understand how the face of the club moves in harmony with the body, make a complete practice swing, stopping the club at waist high on the backswing and waist high on the traverse. At both points, the toe of the club must be pointed upwards, and the shaft and the clubhead must be in front of your body and parallel to the target line: In this case, your swing is squaring the clubface through impact and your body is rotating in sync with it.
4. Develop the sense
Good mechanics and feeling are like the chicken and the egg: It’s a puzzle to understand which came first.
You need to understand how your swing works mechanically, but you need to know what it feels like when it works. A popular term for this is “muscle memory”. Scientists may argue whether this term is accurate or not, but it conveys the notion.
To better execute your swing on the course, you need to be sure that you can repeat the feeling of a good swing from memory. Then the mind is free to leave the body. This is an intangible feeling that Fred trusts and leans heavily on, and you should too. Golf may be a thinking person’s game, but trusting your swing and letting it happen is where golf becomes a sport.
One of the best ways to develop this feel is to hit shots from different distances with the same club. Start with a 6 or 7 iron, making a full turn and swing, but swinging so smoothly and slowly that the ball flies half its normal distance. See how many balls you can hit solid and that same shortened distance. Then vary the distance by gradually changing the speed of your body’s rotation.
The last test is a favorite of Fred’s: hitting a driver or 3-wood to a short par-3. For example, Fred hits a 3-wood from 147 yards, about half of his potential with this club. The only change he makes is to slow down his body and keep the club moving in sync with the slower spin.
Learning to vary the speed of your swing will give you a great feel for the club. This awareness will build confidence in your ability to repeat the movement without thinking, an instinct that leads to more consistent dancing.
5. Consistent pre-shot routine
One characteristic that all professionals share is a commitment to their pre-shot routines. Fred is no exception. Amateurs, on the other hand, rarely have a routine, which is puzzling, since it is the easiest “pro move” to imitate.
Once on the ball, a pre-shot routine activates the mind and body to swing from memory, not from a list of mechanical instructions. Executed correctly, a routine will clear your mind of everything except target visualization and a sure anticipation of how it will feel to execute the shot.
Fred limits swing thoughts to the practice tee. And when he works on something, he doesn’t care where the ball goes. He only concentrates on his mechanical thinking until it becomes part of his feeling. Once it is achieved, it changes its focus back to the target with the help of its routine and leaves the thought of swing. Additionally, Fred often repeats the key shots he needs on the course while on the practice tee, complete with his pre-shot routine.
Throughout this article, Fred and I have defined key concepts such as freedom, rhythm and feel that can make your swing more accurate. These keys, once a part of your golf instincts, combine to improve your accuracy. Use it on your next lap and you can hit one in the hole like Fred.
The 2026 GOLF Top 100 Teachers Summit will take place November 1-4 at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.
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