Instruction

Why you’re hitting fat shots and how to fix them

Published

9 years ago

Jan 20, 2015

Hitting the ball fat is one of the most costly shots in golf. It’s embarrassing, the ball goes almost nowhere, and sometimes it even hurts. A player can hit the ball thin and get away with it most of the time, but fat is a killer.

In order to correct your fat shots, you first have to know what KIND of fat shot you’re hitting.

You can hit the ball fat from having an angle of attack (AoA) that is too steep or one that is too shallow. You can hit it fat from having too inside of a swing path or one that is too outside. Fat shots can also be caused by a release that is too early, moving your swing center too far off the ball, or even a reverse weight shift. By knowing your OWN swing habits, you can get to the correction straight on.

In this story, I’ll discuss the four most common causes of fat shots and how to fix them.

From Steep AoA

Steep, fat shots are kind of obvious; they leave big holes in the ground. They are the most costly ones because the ground behind the ball does not give very much when you hit it. So if this mishit is your problem, you’ll need to shallow out your attack angle a bit.

There are a few ways to accomplish this.

First check your posture. Be sure you’re giving yourself enough room to swing your arms down through the ball.

Many people who hit the turf before the ball are pleasantly surprised when they simply raise their swing center a bit at address. You may also try standing just a little bit further from the ball.

Also, consider flattening your swing plane a little. An image here might be a bird diving into the water opposd to one gliding into it. Your swing action might feel more around instead of up and down. A bigger, more level shoulder turn in the backswing with the arms swinging more across the chest can help you shallow out your attack angle.

You might try hitting balls on a sidehill lie above your feet to get a feeling of a flatter action. See my previous article on swing plane for more.

From Shallow AoA

Shallow fat shots are a little more difficult to detect, but they are fat shots nonetheless. I think of these as “drop kicks,” which happen when the sole of the club just “scuffs” the ground behind the golf ball. There are no deep divots here, just less than solid contact from brushing the grass first.

In this case, you’ll need a steeper attack angle. There are a few ways to accomplish this. Again, check your posture. Be sure you have sufficient hip bend at address with your arms hanging naturally under your shoulders and your rear end extended. You may also consider moving in a little closer to the golf ball to help you swing a little more vertically.

Reach for the sky in the backswing; get your arms and club to swing more upright. Your shoulders should feel a steeper turn and your pivot should stay fairly centered. In this swing your lead arm can come off the chest a little and swing up, less around than when trying to shallow out your angle. And be sure to feel a more aggresive turn through the ball as you swing. You must get to your left side into impact; hanging back on the right side is a common cause of a shallow attack angle.

From Posture

There is also the fat shot that is caused by posture loss during the downswing, and it’s usually a pretty significant crash into the terra firma!

I see this a lot with students who RAISE up going back and then try to rectify it by diving back down on their downswing. Try to remain level and turn around a more fixed center as you swing. Hitting ball on a sidehill below your feet can help this feeling.

From Casting

Finally, there is “casting,” or too early of a release that can cause fat shots. When the lead arm and club get extended too soon (from the inside) you’ll crash.

This one is almost always associated with an inside-out path and insufficient pelvic rotation into impact. It’s the “hang-back-and-cast” move.

If you are an early releaser of the club, you need to be keenly aware of getting off your back foot early in the downswing. The reason this is an inside-out related swing issue is because if you come over the top with an early release, you usually do not crash. But casting from the inside is a death move.

The Bottom Line: If you tend to hook the ball, your miss is probably a shallow fat shot shot. If you tend to slice the ball, your miss is most likely a steep fat shot.

Thinking about the corrections above will help both issues.

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Dennis Clark

Dennis Clark is a PGA Master Professional. Clark has taught the game of golf for more than 30 years to golfers all across the country, and is recognized as one of the leading teachers in the country by all the major golf publications. He is also is a seven-time PGA award winner who has earned the following distinctions: -- Teacher of the Year, Philadelphia Section PGA -- Teacher of the Year, Golfers Journal -- Top Teacher in Pennsylvania, Golf Magazine -- Top Teacher in Mid Atlantic Region, Golf Digest -- Earned PGA Advanced Specialty certification in Teaching/Coaching Golf -- Achieved Master Professional Status (held by less than 2 percent of PGA members) -- PGA Merchandiser of the Year, Tri State Section PGA -- Golf Professional of the Year, Tri State Section PGA -- Presidents Plaque Award for Promotion and Growth of the Game of Golf -- Junior Golf Leader, Tri State section PGA -- Served on Tri State PGA Board of Directors. Clark is also former Director of Golf and Instruction at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Dennis now teaches at Bobby Clampett's Impact Zone Golf Indoor Performance Center in Naples, FL. .

12 Comments

Gian11

Apr 13, 2016 at 10:13 pm

Spot on. I have this problem before and the cause is from shallow aoa.

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cody

Feb 12, 2015 at 6:23 pm

could you explain what you mean by this statement? ” If you are an early releaser of the club, you need to be keenly aware of getting off your back foot early in the downswing.”

I know that I lose posture and my right heel comes off the ground fast, but I do not rotate well. Seems that this statement may be related. i would like more explanation here. Thanks.

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Dennis Clark

Jan 23, 2015 at 5:36 pm

Several really; try this: Put an aim stick 2 inches behind the ball. Rest the club on the aim stick and try hitting some wedges without hitting the stick. Carefully!

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Ponjo

Jan 23, 2015 at 1:16 pm

I have been getting encouraged to get off the back foot by setting the club 6 – 9 inches behind the ball. This is probably the most beneficial movement I have been taught.

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Jarrette Schule

Jan 23, 2015 at 12:03 pm

any range drill suggestions for an early releaser such as myself?

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W. Scott

Jan 22, 2015 at 5:23 pm

Great article. I need the help. Thanks! Scott

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derek

Jan 21, 2015 at 4:19 pm

“Many people who hit the turf before the ball are pleasantly surprised when they simply raise their swing center a bit at address”
I am not sure what u mean by this? please explain.

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- Dennis Clark
  
  Jan 21, 2015 at 7:16 pm
  
  Stand up a bit; don’t bend as much at the hips. Give you more room to swing your arms.
  
  Reply Report comment
Phat

Jan 21, 2015 at 2:37 am

Thanks Dennis, not sure if it fits somewhere in your summary above, but there’s also Trevino’s old simple tip of checking that your first few fingers of the left hand have an adequate grip on the top end of the shaft/grip. It seems to help me, so would that be mainly to prevent casting? Fix one flaw and you sometimes create another, it would seem…!

Reply Report comment
- Dennis Clark
  
  Jan 21, 2015 at 7:57 am
  
  yes good point…pressure on the little and ring figure of the top hand is mostly an anti-hook measure (as mentioned by Hogan and Tom Watson most recently) but also retards ulnar deviation (casting). Very true.
  
  Reply Report comment
Nolanski

Jan 20, 2015 at 9:46 am

Thanks Dennis. I’ve been struggling with hitting fat shots all of 2014. Unfortunately I live in MI and will only be able to hit off turf. Maybe I’ll put a broken tee or something 2-3 inches behind my ball to be able to tell if I’m hitting fat.

Reply Report comment
- Dennis Clark
  
  Jan 20, 2015 at 6:23 pm
  
  I hope this helps. If you’re an early releaser, stay on your left side as much as possible
  
  Reply Report comment

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

1 day ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

4 weeks ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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