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How He Hit That: Nail your irons the Luke Donald way

Editor's Note: Every Monday Kevin Hinton, Director of Instruction at Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley, N.Y. and one of Golf Digest's Best Young Teachers, tells you how a tour player hits a key shot. This week Kevin examines the pinpoint iron play of new World No. 1 Luke Donald, who flushed a 7-iron from the rough to six feet to win a four-man playoff at the Transitions Championship at Innisbrook.* Here, Kevin explains how Donald hits those great iron shots, and how you can, too. **

Roger Schiffman

Managing Editor

Golf Digest

Twitter @RogerSchiffman**

*Here's Kevin:**__ __Perfect balance, effortless power, consistently rhythmic tempo. . . . Luke Donald makes the golf swing look far easier than it really is.

Besides being the best putter in the world in 2011, Luke can thank his remarkable iron play as one of the many reasons he has recaptured the world's No. 1 ranking. He continued the trend this weekend with a sharply played 7-iron that secured the victory.

Here are a few things we can all learn from Luke Donald:

1. Have one swing thought and make it a simple one. For Luke, it's often "Hold your finish on every swing...all day"

2. Maintain your spine tilt. For more details, and a look at Donald's iron swing in sequence photos, [click on the link here.

](http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/blogs/theinstructionblog/2011/05/monday-swing-analysis-luke-don.html) 3. "Seal the Deal." Luke has always been a closer. While Luke was at Northwestern, I saw him up close many times while I was playing for Michigan. His rhythm never changed, and I never saw him give away a tournament....some guys just know to finish.