Need some opinions. Does a too-wide stance for mid-to-long iron shots have a negative impact ? I seem to get wide on most of these, usually without realizing it. I am struggling with these shots, but not my shorter irons which sort of force me into narrower stances. Thanks !

hard to tell without looking at your swing, but i'll throw in a quickie response with a few questions.

how wide of a stance do you take with your wedges/short irons?

on your mid/long irons/driver, are your feet shoulder width apart? more? less?

when you say problems, what type of shot are we talking about? fat? thin? slice? all of the above?

every golfer has their own preferences, but if i were to generalize, the wider stance could possibly restrict your turn on the backswing, while your short irons/wedges are narrower giving you a more natural body turn. some people need that, some people don't. like i said, could be a number of things.

I should have given more info. What I have found is that nearly ALL of my stances were getting wider, even driver stance. Both feet outside shoulders, which usually result in thin contact, especially irons. It's like it happened gradually without my being aware. Kept fiddling with ball position, grip, aim, etc. and just never saw the stance thing!. And yes, I can now see how it was doing a restriction on my shoulder turn.

i can imagine that what is happening is that your right side is getting stuck behind and because your stance is wide, its hard to get that right side through the ball so you lunge slightly forward to compensate. results are inconsistent, but i assume it would mean slice-topped shots.

like you said, sometimes these things just happen because you're trying to make other adjustments. for example, changing your grip can change so many things about your swing because of the way your muscles react to the way you hold the club. a swing is supposed to be natural, your body reacting naturally to the momentum and motion. best of luck to you sir.