If you are hitting fat golf shots, the first place to start is with your address position. With your mid irons, the ball should be positioned slightly forward of middle in your stance so that your sternum is over the ball. Importantly, your hands should be a fraction ahead of the ball.
How do you stop hitting golf balls fat?
How to Stop Hitting Fat or Thin Golf Shots – 5 Quick Tips 1. Check Your Setup. A vast majority of the issues amateur golfers face can be traced back to a poor set up. If you’re hitting fat golf shots, make sure the ball is positioned properly in your stance by using your breast bone (middle of the chest) instead of your feet.
What causes you to hit a fat golf shot?
What Causes a Golfer to Hit it Fat?
- Ball Position This is the most common mistake I see among amateur golfers. Fortunately, it’s also the easiest to fix. ...
- Pressure Shift I talk about pressure shift a lot. It may seem overly simple, but trust me: When my students get the pressure shift right, they see major improvement ...
- Angle of Club Shaft
How to stop hitting a fat golf shot?
Video Drill To Stop Hitting The Ball Fat
- Have a friend take a video or record your own (preferably a slow-motion video if possible) of you hitting a golf ball.
- Then, draw a circle around your head at address, using a free app like “Hudl Technique.”
- As you watch the video, focus on your head. ...
- Be sure to notice your biggest tendencies. ...
How far do average golfers really hit the ball?
The average distances an amateur golfer drives a ball is 200 yards. A pro golfer on the PGA tour hits the ball further, with an average distance of 270 yards off the tee. It’s no surprise that golfers can be a very competitive bunch of people. Many golfers like to see who can hit the ball the furthest.
Why am I hitting my golf shots fat?
The main reason that a fat shot occurs, though, is that a player has unnecessarily moved their “swing center.” You can think of your center as one of two things, either your head or your sternum. I tend to use the head reference more often because it doesn't twist throughout the swing as the sternum does.
How do I stop hitting my golf clubs fat?
Shifting your weight forward correctly on the downswing is another way to stop hitting it heavy. As you draw the club back, your weight should shift to your back foot. To eliminate a heavy strike, shift your weight back across to your front foot as you finish your downswing.
What causes hitting the ball fat?
Hitting the ball fat is when you hit the ground before the ball and as a result you have grass and dirt get between the club and the ball. The result to your performance is you lose distance. Angle of attack: The farther back the steeper the club will come down on the ball.
Can a strong grip cause fat shots?
Fat shots. One of the other signs of an overly strong grip is the tendency to hit the ball fat, especially on short iron shots. As mentioned above, a strong grip makes it easy to release the club on the way down, and an early release could cause you to stick the club in the ground behind the ball.
How to beat the fats in golf?
FIGHT THE FATS. Grab your 7-iron, take your address position, lift your right foot off the ground, and then hit balls while standing on your left foot only. With all your weight forward, you’ll make a descending blow and ball-first contact. To beat the fats, strive for this front-sided feeling when you play.
What is fat iron shot?
Fat iron shots are the scourge of the average player. The club hits the ground behind the ball, turf goes flying — and the ball goes nowhere. If you can get to the fat shot’s root cause — hanging back on your right leg through impact — you’ll fix it quickly.
How to fix a fat shot?
The best way to go about fixing the fat shot is to look at your own swing and try to determine why you’re hitting the ground before the ball. You can look at your own swing recorded on video, or you can get someone else to look at your swing and try and isolate the problem. Also note that it is impossible to eliminate fat shots completely — every ...
Why is it important to shift weight in golf swing?
It is important in any good golf swing to shift your weight when transitioning from the backswing into the downswing. This will encourage a swing arc that is more forward relative to the ball, and it will increase your chances of hitting the ball first.
What happens when you try to kill the ball?
Also note that when a less experienced golfer tries to force a shot or “kill” the ball, they become much more prone to making a sharp transition at the top of the backswing and coming into the ball too steep. As noted above, this will tend to cause a fat shot.
Why are fat shots called fat divots?
Fat shots are often steeper, so that the club produces a larger and deeper divot than normal. These divots are sometimes called fat divots, and that may very well be the origin of the term “fat shot”.
What happens if your swing is too steep?
If your swing is too steep, your club will tend to reach the ground quicker and your divots will tend to be larger. This problem is common in over-the-top swingers who also tend to have issues with slicing the ball.
What is a fat shot?
The opposite of a thin shot, a fat shot is a shot in which the club (typically an iron) makes contact with and digs into the ground before it reaches the golf ball. This normally does two things: it slows the club down immensely and it throws up a layer of sod/turf between the clubface and the ball. This typically results in poor contact, reduced ...
Why is my swing arc bottom out?
Cause #1: The ball is too far forward in your stance. This is fairly straightforward. If your ball is too far forward, your swing arc will bottom out before you reach the ball and you will hit it fat.
What is a fat shot in golf?
In golf a fat shot – or a golf shot hit fat – is one that sees the club penetrating the ground before making contact with the ball. This is in contrast to a better shot that sees the clubhead making contact with the ball before it proceeds to penetrating the ground, as should happen in shots made with irons and wedges.
What is the error in golf that leads to fat shots?
A typical error that golfers make which can lead to fat shots is that they fail to keep this spine angle constant throughout the golf swing.
Why does swinging make you fat?
Swaying can lead to fat shots because it moves the bottom of the swing arc away from where it was set at address.
Why do fat shots occur?
The fundamental causes behind fat shots relate to the arc of the swing itself and more specifically to the position of the bottom of the swing arc. Indeed, in order to produce a shot that sees the club penetrating the ground before contact is made with the ball – such as the case with fat shots – the bottom of the swing arc needs ...
Why do golf clubs penetrate the ground?
Another reason for why your club could penetrate the ground too deeply has to do with the placement of your hands on the grip. Certain shots require you to grip down on the club in order to shield yourself from hitting fat shots. Notably, a ball that is above your feet will require you to grip down on the club, among other things.
Why is my golf ball so far forward?
Is the ball located too much forward? One of the reasons your club may penetrate the ground before it hits the ball has to do with the placement of the ball itself in your stance , in relation to your feet. A ball placed too much forward – towards the target – can prove tricky to hit cleanly and can result in fat shots.
How to swing at full speed?
The general guideline for swings at full speed is to place the ball in the center of your stance for wedges and short irons and to incrementally move your feet back in order to find the ball forward as the length of the clubs increase.
How to hit a tennis ball with your back?
First, make your initial move from the top a little bump onto your front foot. Feel like you’re shifting toward the target, so your chest is over the ball. Second, get to impact with the back of your top hand facing the target (left), not pointing upward. A good image is that you’re back-handing the ball, like a tennis stroke.
What is a good image for a tennis player?
A good image is that you’re back-handing the ball, like a tennis stroke. If you get those two moves right, you’ll swing into impact with your weight forward and your wrists firm—two things every good ball-striker does.
Who were the two golfers in the 2003 Presidents Cup?
In the 2003 Presidents Cup in South Africa, two of the sweetest swingers at that time, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby, were matched against two of the most unconventional, Jim Furyk and Jay Haas. As they warmed up, murmurs from the crowd suggested the “pretty” swings had it made. At one point, Jay said to Jim, “I bet those people don’t give us much of a chance.” Jim laughed, and the Americans went on to win, 6 and 5, one of the most lopsided victories in the history of the event. Don’t get me wrong, Adam and Stuart are tremendous talents. (I taught Adam for years.) But the only real barometer of a golf swing is the shots it produces.
Do golfers hit the ground first?
A lot of golfers never get over the instinct to lift the ball off the ground. They swing off their back foot or flip their hands through impact, both of which make the club bottom out too soon. As a result, they hit the ground first (fat shot) or catch the ball on the upswing (thin shot).
