Can't take divots!!

Hello,

I've been struggling forever now with my game. Shanks, thin shots, and really short irons and wedge shots. My driver shots sometimes go dead left, like the opposite of a shank.

Right now it's usually a shank or an iron shot that goes a really short distance without me taking a divot.

I've gotten really committed to a good grip and it's making a little bit of a difference already.

I still can't take a divot with my wedges. I hit underneath them and hit them REALLY short. I know you're supposed to hit the ball and then the ground on the downswing, but what is a good drill to get that feeling?

I just can't get a feel for what a good swing plane is supposed to feel like. I try to visualize Hogan's pane of glass and a good take away, and I just can't get it.

Any advice or drills that have helped you get your swing back?

Don't try to take a divot just for the sake of taking a divot. Divot does not necesarily mean it is a good shot. Work on holding off the release as long as you can and maintaining your wrist cock/club head lag. The solid iron shots and divots will take care of themselves.

Like Nassau said you shouldnt take a divot just to take a divot but you can try making your swing plane a little steeper. If you are constantly getting under the ball then your swing is a more around yourself. If you take a slightly more vertical angle then you will hit the ball more solid and you probably will take a divot.

Make note of what and why a divot is caused. If you were swinging without a ball and you take a divot it means the lowest part of your swing is below ground level, that is what causes a divot. The reason you should want one...you want to hit the ball on the way down (irons) so it pinches off the turf, then when the ball is gone, the club continues through the turf causing a divot. It also for spin control.

Practice swinging without a ball picking different points in your swing, you should find a point where you take a shallow divot, then you place the ball before that divot, I would bet normally you have the ball too far forward in your stance.

Mangine,

I know what you're going through.For the last half a year, I've been guilty of the same and after a lot of hard work, I'm just overcoming these flaws and am more successful hitting down into the back of the ball and creating divots afterwards.

Here's what I did and I'd suggest for you.

1) Stop swinging with active hands and arms!!!! Don't let your hands take over, correct, flip, or manipulate your club in any way. For a while before, I thought that I was hands inactive. But when I analyzed some high speed video at Golf Tec, I could see that I was wrong.

2) Slowly turn your club back with your shoulders. Allow them to eventually pull your hips along the way. Don't turn your shoulders more than 90 degrees as it will be difficult to precisely rotate back to the ball. Don't sway or allow any hip weight beyond your back foot's instep. Prevent your head from swaying back too much either. Keep your knees flexed. Aim to feel the torsion in your right leg and the stretch along your left torso and side.

3) If you executed #2 correctly, you can now initiate the downswing by rotating your hips CCW, with the left hip going a little bit up as it turns. By doing so, your legs and hips will pull down your upper body into an inside slot. Again, no arm action. Keep them relaxed!!!

4) Just before your club is pulled down to a horizontal position by #3 above, aggressively rotate your right shoulder down, around and then toward the target. Allow your weight to shift forward. As your right shoulder is rotating down, your passive hands release the club down into the back of the ball. Even so, do not activate your hands, let it happen automatically. It's your shoulder pivot/rotation and connection that drives the club face into the ball. By connection, I mean the triangle formed between your shoulders and biceps must be maintained throughout the swing. Actively align/position your hands/grip in front of your chest using your biceps, not your hands.

Again, hit down into the ball and make the divot with your shoulders. I can't stress this enough.

Best of luck

The way I tried to remember it was to try to hit the top of the ball before you hit the ground (just imagine it and try to hit down on it)

Try making your swing a bit steeper and see what happens. I used to have this problem too, I'd find it weird i wouldn't divot with my 3 or 4i. I found that I wasn't shifting my weight forward much during my downswing so I felt that really worked for me. But I don't divot all the time with my short irons and still hit very straight and long shots.

I would not worry about divots when it seems like just getting the ball airborn has been a problem.

Go to the range and just hit 7 irons for a nice big bucket. 7 is a good club because its not a short iron and not a long iron. Just focus on good solid contact. Don't think too much about results in terms of shot shape, don't think about mechanics, just nice smooth contact and an air-born ball. Once you can get 95/100 in the air and reasonably straight, then you can start thinking more about everything else.

trust me this will help you if you really are shanking every shot.

Also, if you are hitting high short wedges, move the ball back almost opposite your right foot (for right handers). I was hitting a 50* wedge about 70 yards at the beginning of this season, and now that I've moved it back its my 120 club... it makes a HUGE difference.

If you submit a video I'm sure that the experts on this forum will be able to pinpoint your problem.

I would try the feet together drill for getting the feeling of a good downward strike with a divot taken. Put your feet together and slowly begin your takaway making sure to have your wrists hinge at least 90 degrees. when your hands get waist high stop for a moment and just allow gravity to bring the clubhead down and through. I had problems like you and I started seeing a pro recently and now I am striking the ball much better with much less effort. My pro started me over from scratch meaning grip, stance, ball position and posture. I didn't even take a full swing for 3 weeks. Once everything was put together though, my swing feels natural and rythmic. I still have much work to do but, once I got on the right track i feel much better about golf this summer and in the future.

PS sorry for the long post.

Seems like everyone is advising the OP to not worry about taking a divot, but it seems like a nice divot equates to bring a good player and making good ball contact. What I'm saying is that 99.9% of all pros take nice divots with all clubs below a 5 iron.

That said, i take extremely small divots with most my irons. I have no problems getting the ball up and stopping them on green. I primarily use divots as a tool to check my swingpath more than anything else.

I couldn't take a divot either until I played a really nice course.
The course I learned to play on was once a cow pasture and the ground is packed very hard.

After playing a "real" course, I found golf to be much easier.