Hitting the turf before the ball with my iron tee shots...

Lay a towel flat about 3 inches behind your ball. Focus on not hitting the towel

Instead of looking at the back of the ball pick a spot and focus about two inches in front of the ball. Don’t let your eyes drift back to the ball in your backswing. I haven’t looked at the ball in years.

Sounds like you might be trying to swing harder than your normal iron shot. Just focus on exactly what you do when your in the fairway.

quote:

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I haven’t looked at the ball in years.

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That explains a lot

When I hit behind the ball it is usually because 1) I am swinging too hard or 2) because I shifted too much weight back on my take away and can't get it back to the left leg.

Chunking it in the fairway is easily my most frustrating and reoccurring shot. I’d rather hit from the first cut. My problem is over swinging, which creates a “casting” problem. Flushing one from the fairway is pretty rare for me with an iron lately, drives me fricking crazy because I’ve gotten a lot more consistent off the tee and around the green. I waste entirely too many shots in the fairway though.

Pretty simple solution for you though if you only have this problem on the tee box. Don’t use a tee. Might try clubbing up as well so mentally you don’t try to over swing

Tee the ball up a little higher. So that you can see a bit of the tee shaft. And try to make contact with the tee. You’ll stop hitting irons fat.

Tee it up higher and work your way down.

Make sure your grip pressure isn's changing. From the start of the swing to transition to impact, try to keep it the same. Players forget about it sometimes...helps alot

One simple thing i do when I am hitting it fat....little more weight on front foot and I just curl my toes in when I swing. It works, trust me!