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why do you chunk a golf ball

by Edmund Carroll Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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7 reasons why you are chunking the ball

  1. Condensed posture Proper posture is one of the most important fundamentals to good contact. Giving yourself enough...
  2. Ball position too forward Ball position is one of the most important fundamentals. All it takes is playing your golf...
  3. Stance too wide Ideally, for a ball on the ground your stance should be approximately...

Chunked or fat shots are often the result of having a “low point,” the vertically lowest point of the swing's arc, too far behind the ball. What we see with many golfers that chunk their irons is the upper body bends too far forward in the downswing and then stays there during the follow-through.Aug 10, 2018

Full Answer

How do I stop chunking the golf ball?

4:566:30How to Stop Chunking Your Irons (Golf Chunk Shot Fixes) - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipOk the leading edge tends to dig into the ground. So you might be doing everything correct. But ifMoreOk the leading edge tends to dig into the ground. So you might be doing everything correct. But if your hands are too far forward the club is just digging too far down on the ground and therefore you'

Why do I chunk my pitch shots?

0:536:10STOP CHUNKING CHIP & PITCH SHOTS FOR GOOD - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipVery shallow divots you know almost grazing the turf really utilizing the loft and the bounce. AndMoreVery shallow divots you know almost grazing the turf really utilizing the loft and the bounce. And it means they have a much larger margin of error.

What does trapping the golf ball mean?

What does it mean to trap an iron shot? Basically, you are 'trapping' the ball between the face of the club and the ground. By hitting down through the shot, you can compress the ball against the face of the club, which will provide the shot with both power and spin.

Why do I chunk my wedges?

0:057:23How to Stop Chunking Wedges and Get Better Contact - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIt's one of the easiest to hit but you're in a good spot because today i'm going to share with youMoreIt's one of the easiest to hit but you're in a good spot because today i'm going to share with you the three main reasons why most of you are chunking your wedge shots.

Why do I keep chunking my golf swing?

If you crowd your club and stand so close that your arms do not have enough room to hang and swing can often result in your golf club getting stuck into the ground. Being too crowded, effectively makes the club too long relative to your body, so it has nowhere to go but into the ground.

What club should I use for chipping?

For a basic chip, use a 52- to 56-degree wedge. Play the ball center, and get your weight forward so your left shoulder is over your left foot.

Should you choke down on golf clubs?

Choking down lightens the club's swing weight and effectively makes the shaft stiffer.” Sadly, Anthony Kim has seemingly left the game forever but Trevino is right about how gripping down affects the club. Choking up does change the weight and makes the club shorter and slightly stiffer.

What does Worm burner in golf mean?

worm burner (plural worm burners) (baseball) A hard-hit ground ball. Jones smashes a worm burner between third and short. (golf) A low, hard-hit shot.

Do you compress the ball with a driver?

0:4714:17Week#13 Compress the Driver for more Distance!! - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipDrop your arms drop your elbow into your right side seal your elbow. Head behind the ball andMoreDrop your arms drop your elbow into your right side seal your elbow. Head behind the ball and release through the ball okay. Now. So here we go so the driver is the biggest club in your bag.

Why do I FAT my irons?

One of the main reasons that golfers hit fat shots is they are desperately trying to get the ball in the air. Instead of keeping their upper body over the ball (where the sternum is directly above the ball at impact), they lean back through the contact.

What happens if you stand too far away from the golf ball?

Standing too far from the golf ball will result in poor posture, which could result in inconsistent shots and no control over the ball. Standing too far can result in less distance, heel shots, and can cause you to lose balance easily. Standing too far from the ball is pretty common for beginner players.

Why do I top my irons?

Typically, a ball is topped because the club has not gone far enough down towards the ball or you catch the ball on the way up, instead of at the bottom point. A lot of things can cause this to happen: A club that's too short. An awkward stance.

What does it feel like to chunk a golf shot?

All golfers know the pain of chunking golf shots. You take a powerful backswing, you feel like you’re about to hit a quality shot, then you swing down and feel the club hit the ground. When you look up, you see a huge piece of turf traveling down the fairway. Meanwhile, your ball has only gone a few feet. The chunk shot is a common problem.

Why is chunk shot so common?

The chunk shot is a common problem. But it’s not common because it’s hard to overcome. It’s common because so few amateur golfers have gotten the right advice for preventing heavy shots.

What is a Chunk Shot?

You may hear the term “fat shot,” “heavy shot,” or “chunk shot.” Whatever you like to call it, it’s all the same problem.

What Causes a Golfer to Hit it Fat?

Right now, I’m talking specifically about chunking your irons. As you may know from past articles on hitting stellar iron shots, you want to catch the ball on a downward motion. To put it another way, you have to make contact with the golf ball before you reach the low point of your swing.

Why is the low point of a golf swing important?

This is significant because the low point of your swing follows the pressure in your feet. If most of your pressure is still in your back foot when the club comes back down, the clubhead is going to hit the ground well behind your golf ball. You wind up chunking the shot.

How to swing a golf ball with your feet together?

An easy way to do this is by standing with your feet together and the ball aligned with the center. Then, step your lead foot forward and your trail foot back and equal distance. Second, notice the pressure on your feet as you take your swing.

How to start pressure on a golf club?

You should start with most pressure on the lead foot, shift to the trail foot on the backswing, and shift pressure back to the lead foot as you swing through. You can find more tips on pressure in the feet here. Third, check the butt end of your club at setup.

How does weight shift happen in golf?

As we wrote about here, weight shift happens in the golf swing naturally during the takeaway, but as you lift the club to the top of your backswing, your weight begins to move back towards the target — and keeps moving towards the target all the way until impact. Keeping your weight more centered like this prevents swaying, and keeps the bottom of your golf swing consistently ahead of the ball.

Why is Jack Nicklaus' centered turn bad?

In short, swaying is bad, because it means the bottom of your golf swing is moving all over the place during your swing, which is makes it impossible to hit the ball with consistent contact — hence the chunked iron shots. As we wrote about here, weight shift happens in ...

Why does shifting your weight sound so simple?

It sounds pretty simple, because in many ways it is. Shifting your weight like this is a very intuitive product of the way humans move — you do it as you walk without even noticing.

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Why does my golf club get stuck in the ground?

If you crowd your club and stand so close that your arms do not have enough room to hang and swing can often result in your golf club getting stuck into the ground. Being too crowded, effectively makes the club too long relative to your body, so it has nowhere to go but into the ground.

When you set your golf club on the ground behind your golf ball, is it important that you set it properly?

When you set your golf club on the ground behind your golf ball, it is important that you set it properly. This can often look odd to golfers when it is correct, in particular for the more lofted clubs in your golf bag. The aiming line on a golf club is the leading edge and the more lofted the club the more crooked the top line may look.

What is the aiming line on a golf club?

The aiming line on a golf club is the leading edge and the more lofted the club the more crooked the top line may look. Often golfers will not set the club properly on the ground as a compensation — they hit slices, for instance, so they set the club closed at setup.

How to make good contact in golf?

1. Crowded posture. Proper posture is one of the most important fundamentals to good contact. Giving yourself enough room to bow from your hips so that your hands can hang below your shoulders puts you into a balanced position that allows you to be athletic throughout your swing.

Why is it important to have a clubface at address?

The reason this is important is because the more twisted the clubface is at address, the more likely one side would dig into the ground at impact.

How to know if your golf club hits the ground?

You can easily check this by taking a practice swing and seeing where, relative to your feet, your club hits the ground. If your club hits the ground centered in your stance, it would be greatly to your advantage to place your golf ball there. 3. Flat footed forward swing.

How to keep a club from getting stuck in the ground?

When you make your forward swing, you want to be athletic and just let it go and keep going. This often also helps to pull the trailing heel off of the ground. This athletic momentum, where the clubs stays in motion, can also keep the club from slowing down where it may get stuck.

What happens when your weight is leaning back behind the ball?

Ball Position - If you have the ball positioned too far forward in your stance , your club will hit the bottom of its arc before it gets to the ball.

Why does my club strike the ground first?

Why does your club strike the ground first? Simply put, the bottom point of your arc is behind the ball rather than in front of your ball as it should be. It's really that simple! When hitting most shots in golf you want CBG (club, ball, ground) contact in that order. Obviously some shots are different such as sand, where we actually want club, ground, ball contact as we intentionally hit the sand first.

What factors affect where your club bottoms out in the swing?

Factors that affect where your club bottoms out in the swing include weight distribution, ball position, posture and release. Let's explore each of these individually.

What does "you club" mean?

You club is hitting the ground behind the ball.

What happens if you release the club head too soon?

Release - If you are releasing the club head to soon and allowing it to catch up to your hands before you get to the ball, you will bottom out too soon.

When should the club head catch up to your hands?

Lastly, the club head should not catch up to your hands until the moment of impact. As long as the club head trails your hands it is still descending. The moment it catches up to your hands it bottoms out and then will start its ascent. Your rear wrist should remain bent backwards until impact.

Is it bad to hit the ground before the ball?

Fat, heavy, chunky, behind, chili dip...whatever you want to call it...it's not good. Hitting the ground before the ball hurts! It hurts you physically, but it really hurts your score as you lose significant distance. A thin shot can advance and not put too much of a damper on your score, but when you meet earth before you meet ball, it's never a happy ending. We've all been there. A big wind up, 100% of our effort and strength and then thud! The earth flies farther than our ball.

What causes a chunk shot in golf?

What Causes a Chunk Shot? The most common movement that causes a chunk shot is that the golfer’s weight moves too far behind the golf ball and causes the club to bottom out before the ball. We call this movement a lateral shift.

How to keep your chest from getting over the golf ball?

The center of your chest should now be passed the golf ball. Practice making swings keeping your center ahead of the golf ball and feel the weight stay over the ball. Make sure your head stays down during the whole duration of your swing so you don’t lift up and hit the top of the ball.

How to stop chunking chip shots?

How do you stop chunking chip shots? To stop chunking chip shots, the golfer needs to put more weight on their front leg and accelerate through the ball keeping the same clubface angle throughout the swing.

How to chip a golf club?

3 Chipping Steps to Change you Game 1 Setup- Start with a narrow stance when addressing the golf ball. Remember to keep your weight on your front hip and keep it there during the chip shot. 2 Backswing- Keeping your weight over the ball, use your shoulders to take the club back. The lead arm will stay extended and the center of your body will still be over the golf ball 3 Follow Through- The key of the follow through is to make sure that you keep the club’s face angle the same while accelerating through the ball. What do I mean? Pretend that there is a glass of water that is balancing on top of your clubface. That class of water should not fall off after your follow through your shot. (The clubface will still be facing the sky)

How to hit a flop shot?

To hit a flop shot, the golfer needs to use a high lofted club (like a sand wedge or lob wedge), play the golf ball in front of their front foot, open the clubface and accelerate through the shot.

How to keep your chip smooth?

Correction: Keep the tempo of your chip smooth, like a pendulum. Once you take your club back, make sure you follow through keeping the arms away from the body. Weight moves during backswing- Many golfers when first learning the chip shot will move their weight back with their arms during the backswing.

How many chipping steps are there in putting?

Now that we have fixed the lateral shift moving behind the ball, its time to learn the 3 chipping steps to become more consistent around the putting surface!

How To Stop Chunking The Golf Ball?

The golfer must strike the ball and then the ground with irons and fairway woods. Utilizing drills is the quickest way to stop chunking the golf ball.

How many yards does chunking the ball go?

You stand there on a 135 yard par 3 over a somewhat simple shot. You have your 8 or 9 iron in hand and you hit behind the ball and it goes anywhere from 5 to 125 yards. You are left in bad shape and you hope to save the hole by saving a bogey and you are starting ...

Why does my golf swing move forward?

A second cause that is connected with the center ed moving is when the golf slides too far in front of the shot. Instead of keeping the head centered and back, the golfer may shift forward.

What to do if you see yourself shifting off the ball?

If you see yourself shifting off the ball, make sure you check out solution 1. If you are sliding past the ball then check out video 2. The golf swing can be complicated, but getting a general understanding of where your head and your hands are in the golf swing is a good starting point.

What is the number one indicator in golf handicap?

The best golfers in the world are able to control their low point 99.9% of the time. The number one indicator in handicap golfers is the ability to strike the ground. The higher the handicap the great gap between the spots where the golfer will hit the ground.

How to keep your head stable in golf?

Stay centered in the golf and learn to use your tilts and bends to keep your head stable. A simple amount of weight on the front side will also help control the bottoming out of the club.

Why does my head move so much in golf?

The golf swing is difficult enough with a stable center. Moving off the ball and then back to the ball or ahead of the ball takes timing and practice. Most amateur golfers, do not have the time to perfect the timing that it takes to drift off the ball with the head.

Where does the skull hit the golf ball?

On a skulled shot, the leading edge ( the front edge of the club where the bottom of the clubface meets the sole) strikes the golf ball near the ball's middle, sending the ball screaming off on a low trajectory with little or no spin. A skull often travels farther than expected or desired, especially on skulled shots around the green.

What is a golf iron?

Golf irons are designed to strike a descending blow on the golf ball. "Hit down on the ball" is a common refrain among golf instructors. See: Hit down on the ball to make it go up. Hitting down and chipping: Improve your chip shots. Skulls can also happen when a golfer's head moves too far forward (toward the target) at impact, ...

What does it mean to hit a skull shot?

Brent Kelley. Updated May 24, 2019. To "skull" the ball, or to hit a "skulled shot," means to contact the golf ball with the leading edge of the iron or wedge. Skulling is a synonym, in other words, for "blading the shot" or " hitting it thin ," although skull is typically a term reserved for the more egregious types of those mishits.

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