Well, you shouldn't. Here's why (then I'll tell you how to fix it)...
A fat golf shot is simply the result of the club striking the ground behind the ball. That's easy to understand, right?
But you hardly ever see pro golfers hit fat shots, why is that?
Here's why I believe that is the case.
Professional golfers have trained themselves to swing so the low point in their swing is in front of the ball.
Studies have found that the low point in pro's swings is about 4 inches in front (towards the target) of the ball.
So if the low point for a pro is normally 4 inches in front and they do a poor swing, the low point will almost always still be in front of the ball... meaning they will hardly ever hit a fat shot.
But for most amateur golfers the low point in their swing is the ball or behind it.
So if you fat golf shots often (at least 1 fat shot per game) then you need to work on improving your low point contact, and here's how.
Get some card of some sort. A business card is good to use for this. But it could be any card about the size of a business card or slightly larger.
Then setup somewhere that you can swing and brush the ground. Get out your 7 iron and setup to an imaginary ball, but before you swing place the card so it's 2 -3 inches in front of the leading edge of your clubface. Once this is setup then simply swing and try to contact the front of the card with your golf club.
Do this over and over again until you get good at contacting the leading edge of the card. Once you can do that consistently, then repeat this but put a golf ball just before the leading edge of the card. Once you've done that then swing while still trying to contact the leading edge of the card.
You'll find when you do this that it's tough at first to get your swing to bottom out in front of the ball, but it's like any habit, it takes time to change it.
Just remember this, if you hit fat shots your current habit is to have a swing bottom that is either at the ball or behind it.
You just need to change your swing habit and when you do, like a pro, fat shots will be a thing of a past.
So go do that drill often, and you will hit better shots and lower your handicap.
Also, go here and check out a program that will help you build a more consisent golf swing that will make ball striking a lot easier for you.
Drill: Start Each Swing With A Smooth Take-Away
Jack Nicklaus has said many times that the first 2 feet of the swing are the most important.
And it's totally true. You see, the swing is a chain reaction, and the first two feet of the swing is about the only part of the swing that you can consciously control.
You want to start each swing with a smooth, low take-away. So here's a great drill to teach you how to do this.
Setup to a shot as normal, but place a tee about 15 to 18 inches behind your ball just inside the target line.
Now simply practice swinging and taking the clubhead back. As you take your clubhead back it should knock over the tee. If you don't knock it over, then stop your swing and start again. Keep doing this until you consistently knock over the tee.
When you're first doing this exercise, start your swing smoothly in a one-piece motion using the entire upper body, and move the club away slowly.
Once you get good at doing this exercise with a slow take-away, then speed up your take-away until you're swinging at full speed while hitting the tee in your backswing.
Do this exercise for 30 days and you'll notice a huge improvement in your and shot patterns.
And to further help you improve your ball striking go here to check out this FULL step-by-step program that will help you build a tour quality golf swing
There's no timing. You're swinging and you hit the ball, and you get a thud instead of a nice click at impact.
Often times it doesn't mean your swing needs a major overhaul, but you just need better timing. Well, for times when that happens, here's 4 simple things you can do to improve your timing.
1. Practice hitting shots with little 1/4 swings. Doing this will simplify your swing and help you to improve your timing.
Once you're hitting better shots with 1/4 swings, then increase your swing length to half swings, then 3/4 swings, and finally full swings.
But there's no point hitting full shots if your timing is off. You may as well work on improving your timing with little shots first and then build up. And when you do this, you can also incorporate this next drill...
2. Get a towel and put it under your armpits.
Then make little swings back and through, keeping you arms and body connected in the swing.
I only suggest you do this with 1/4
- 1/2 swings, however, because in a good golf swing the arms should disconnect from the body in terms of the space under your armpits. If that doesn't happen your swing will be too flat and rounded. But this towel drill is a great way to get your body and arms back in sync.
3. When you're swinging and something is slightly off, it's very easy to tense up on each subsequent swing.
And increased tension is the worst thing for trying to improve your golf swing timing. So to help you improve your swing timing, you need to release the excessive tension.
To do this, I suggest before each shot you tense and hold your entire body for 5 seconds. Then relax your muscles and shake out your arms and hands. After doing that then hit the golf ball.
You can obviously do that when you're on the driving range. But it's not quite so easy on the golf course.
However what you can do is tense and hold your arms and hands for 5 seconds before each shot and then release and relax.
By tensing your body up before each golf shot, you'll be reducing the chances of tension ruining your real golf swing. And without excessive tension you'll have more chance of improved timing.
4. It's been proven over and over again, that sports people get better results when they visualize themselves doing a task successfully.
So very simply, visualize yourself performing a perfect, insync golf swing for you, over and over again. See yourself hitting great golf shots, see your swing as having perfect timing.
Feel the golf club hitting the ball perfectly. This is always good to do the night before a game of golf in preparation for your game, but you should do it before each shot too.
Naturally, there's a lot involved in building a great, consistent golf swing. But it is doable if you follow a proven, step-by-step program. And here's the best one I've found to help you do this...
Hi
So you want to hit the golf ball straight, consistently?
Here's My #1 Tip For Straight Golf Shots...
Before we begin, there's one big problem with hitting straight golf shots which is this...
THE GOLF BALL IS ROUND!
Imagine if the golf ball was square. I know, I know, it wouldn't be called a ball then would it?! Duh!
But let's for a second imagine a square golf ball. Do you think it would be easier to learn to square the clubface up at impact?
I think it would.
And having a square clubface at impact is much more important for straight golf shots than swing path.
And when I say much more important - I'm not kidding.
Research has found that the alignment of your clubface at impact is 80% - 85% more important than the path you're swinging on.
That's huge!
Naturally you want the swing path to be going directly towards your target, along with a square clubface... but working on a square clubface alignment is MORE important.
And here is how I suggest you do this....
To do this drill, you'll need to get a box in which you purchase three golf balls (a three ball box).
Then take two golf balls out of the box so just one golf ball is left. Then I want you to position this box directly at your target and make sure the ball is at the end of the box where you're going to strike the box. I suggest you do this with a 5-iron.
Now the great thing about doing this drill, is that it's going to force you to really accelerate through the ball. Plus, it's going to help you to square the clubface up, because you're going to be hitting into a square edge rather than the round ball.
So smack the crap... ah... ball rather, out of the box!
The only problem with doing this drill is that after just one shot you're going to kill the box. So you need to find a good supply of 3 ball golf boxes to do this. Here's an idea... heard of dumpster diving? :-) No - just joking.
Jokes aside, this is a great way to combine training yourself to hit it longer AND straighter. And if you can find a good supply of 3 ball golf boxes, do it regularly for longer and straighter drives.
Naturally, there's a lot more to hitting long, straight shots than just practicing this. Because if your grip is bad it will be very hard for you to square the clubface up at impact.
If your alignment is poor then again, it will be tough to square the clubface up at impact consistently. And I could go on and on. But what you need to do is build a professional golf swing one step at a time.
And to help you do that I have for you The Long Game Mastery program. This program gives you a step-by-step plan to build a tour quality golf swing in the shortest amount of time. To find out more about it go here:
Hi
If you put a gun to my head and said...
"give me your best tip to help me hit longer drives."
...here's what I would say.
Focus on hitting the ball out of the center of the clubface more often. You do that and you WILL hit the ball longer. Because Golf Digest did a study, where they found these results for a 100 mph swing...
Center Hit - 258 yards 1/2 inch off center - 243 yards 3/4 inch off center - 237 yards 1 inch off center - 227
So contacting a golf ball an inch off the center of the clubface with a 100 mph swing speed, results in a 31 yard loss of distance!
Now a close second to that advice would be to speed up your swing at impact. That's because for every 1 mph of swing speed you improve by, you'll gain about 2.2 yards in distance.
So if you swing at 90mph at impact and you increase that by 10 mph, then you would have gained about 22 yards in distance!
Now imagine, combining swinging faster with hitting the ball in the middle of the clubface more often.
That's a great combination, and I'm going to give you two things you can do the next time you go to the driving range to help you do that.
The first tip is to help you swing faster, and it's really simple.
When you're at the driving range, in between shots turn your driver upside down and swing it as fast as you can. Then carry that "speed" over to your next shot and feel the difference.
By doing that, it will force you to swing faster than you're maybe used to - which is a good thing, because your mind likes to keep things exactly the same.
Now that increase in swing speed is only going to be of much use if you hit the center of the clubface more often.
To help you do that you need to get some feedback on where you're hitting your driver.
But sadly, because the drivers these days can be so dead when you hit them, it's tough to know when you hit it right out of the screws. However, it is doable if you increase your awareness.
And to help you do this I want you to get some impact tape and put it on your driver.
Then, hit your drives with your faster swing speed. After you hit each shot I then want you to predict where on the clubface your ball hit.
The strange thing about this is that often times awareness can be curative. For example, if you think you're hitting the ball out of the middle of the clubface but 9 times out of 10 it's on the toe you'll naturally make corrections in your swing to hit the ball more in the middle of the clubface.
If you didn't know this, of course you wouldn't do anything different, because you wouldn't know there was a problem.
But please remember this... you never want to think about impact or what you're doing at impact.
Impact is not a position, it's something you move through and you should not be thinking when you're doing this.
So when you're being aware of your impact ball position, do not try to hit the ball on the center of the clubface. Use observation and awareness to improve your results.
So there you go... use those two tips to help you hit longer drives and enjoy playing golf more.
Now something else that will help you to make a massive difference to your ball striking is if you follow this proven step-by-step program to build yourself a tour pro quality golf swing.
Go here to check it out.
Hi
There's one place in your golf swing that you can improve to add extra distance to your shots. And that place is the transition.
What is the transition?
It's simply the moment of time in your golf swing when your swing is moving from the backswing to the downswing. And it's called the transition because there should not be a stop to your backswing and a start to your downswing.
You transition between the two. And in fact, the transition is the START of you finding amazing power in your golf swing that you never thought existed or was even possible!
This amazing power will come with much greater accuracy too when you master the transition.
If I had to name one place in the golf swing (apart from impact) that separates the great ball strikers from the average ones it's the quality of the transition.
So if you want to become a great ball striker this is one aspect of your golf swing that you're going to have to really spend some time practicing.
But the pay off for doing this is huge i.e.... Longer and More Accurate Golf Shots!
Now like everything where only a small percentage are successful, the great ball strikers have spent a lot of practice time perfecting their transition from backswing to downswing.
And to be completely honest with you, the transition is the hardest move in the golf swing to perfect. The reason for this is obvious.
During your swing, for a brief second your upper body should be completing the backswing while your lower body is starting to move towards the target.
So to complete the transition successfully you should have two main segments of your body (upper and lower) going in different directions.
I know that sounds hard....and that's because it is!
But it's doable. And when you "get it" you're going to get so much more enjoyment from this game due to the extra distance and accuracy you'll gain...you're going to love it!
Now if you've ever taken part in any other sport that requires kicking (e.g. soccer), throwing (e.g. baseball), hitting (e.g. tennis) you would've experienced the transition move that is needed in the golf swing.
And one move that almost every one can relate a transition to is the action of throwing a ball.
So if you wanted to throw a golf ball as far as you possibly could down the fairway would you?
a) shift your weight to your back foot as you're taking the ball back and then shift the weight to your front foot to throw the ball, or
b) keep your weight evenly distributed the entire time you're throwing the ball.
I hope you picked "A" because that's what any athlete would do to throw a ball as far and fast as possible. Just take a look at a baseball pitcher for example.
When they pitch they move their weight to the back foot. And they do this so much so that when they're taking the ball back they lift their front foot up.
Then to change directions they shift their weight aggressively to their front foot and keep moving all of their weight so that at the end of the pitch basically all of their weight is on their front foot.
That's an example of a powerful transition and one that you'd do well to model in your golf swing and here's a great way to feel this move.
Get out your driver and setup as normal (but without a golf ball). Then swing to the top of your backswing and stop. While you're stopped bring your front foot back so it's together with your back foot. Then to start the downswing simply move your front foot back to the position where it was at address and swing down and follow-through.
By doing that you'll quickly learn how the transition into the downswing should start with your lower body.
But once you have that drill down the next thing you should do is take out the stop of your backswing.
So swing back and as you're swinging back move your front foot back to your back foot and as you're completing the backswing move your front foot back to where it was at address.
Doing this will help you to feel your upper body going back while your lower body is moving forward.
This is super powerful!
For more great tips like this and a step-by-step plan to build a tour quality golf swing go here and check out this program.
Drill To Hit The Ball Straighter
then you know your swing path was either too far left or right
The shortest distance between two objects is via a direct line. So if you're starting the ball way too far to the left or way too far to the right of where you want your ball to end up, then that's going to cost you distance.
To hit the ball longer, more consistently you need to work on starting the ball straight where you want.
Years ago a golf magazine had an article with Ken Green, and it showed him hitting golf balls out of his living room through the ranch-slider doors that were open about a foot or so and the ball was flying out onto the golf course that was next to his house.
Crazy stuff!
Now although that may seem a bit crazy it's actually a great way to work on improving your swing path so you get the ball starting consistently on the line you want it to start.
To do this place some objects in front of where you're hitting balls so that your ball has to go through them to travel directly towards your target.
A couple of closed golf umbrellas, with the top points pushed into the ground works well for this.
Once they are standing up on their own they essentially form a gateway for your ball to travel through to ensure your ball is starting off on the correct path.
If you hit either umbrella then you know your swing path was either too far left or right, and you'll know how to correct this by seeing which umbrella you hit.
Now when you're working on your club path you should do so with small swings first. Start off with chip shots trying to hit them through the gate you've setup. Then move up to half swings, then three quarter swings and finally, once you've mastered all the shorter swings, then full swings with a driver.
Also, you can move the gate closer together so the gap your ball has to fly through is smaller, thus making it harder when you start to get really good at this.
Also, you'll have to experiment with the distance you position your ball from the 'gate'. If you really get into doing this you can record how close you've got the gap your ball has to fly through and then try to get it closer and closer together.
Make it a competition and try and beat your best.
When doing this you might want to use softer than normal golf balls rather than real golf balls, because if a ball ricochets off your gate and comes back to hit you it might hurt!
Let me know how you get on if you try this.
Also, here's something else you need to try. It's called The Long Game Mastery Program. And this program will teach you, step-by-step, how to build a tour pro quality golf swing. Go here to check it out:
