finding a new bottom..

I found a new bottom today. I'm not talking about a new level of depravity-- I already bottomed out on that long ago. I was helped by *shanksamillion* once again in this respect-- after reading one of his posts the thought started to percolate that I could conceivably change the way I thought of the bottom of the swing, and then other voices I've heard started to reverberate in my cranium. I just downloaded Utley's new short game lesson videos, which I highly recommend, btw. And he also mentioned bottoming out 'ahead of the ball'. So what I've been focusing on is that the bottom occurs not at the ball, or even a little ahead of the ball, but actually even further ahead than that. This concept was so helpful to me when chipping and pitching from tight lies that it seemed to just about solve my tendency to hit fat. So, I just thought I'd relay that bit of info. I'm sure many here will already know this quite well, but I thought that someone might benifit from it. In my mind it also goes hand in hand with Utly's concept of "tilt left". I reason now that you can tilt left all you want, but if you are aiming your general contact point too far back you'll still have a tendency to hit it fat. Just mentally moving the point a few inches forward of the ball really did the trick. I also realized that there's a big difference, for me, between changing the overall swing so that it bottoms out further up, then just trying to force the clubhead to do something midswing, which I fear I was also guilty of. If I do it right, then I'm just swinging the club, and not manipulating it.. so much easier...

Also, videos of me, when compared with to Stan the man, on a 40 yd pitch, betrayed a jerkiness through the ball that I am now convince was caused in part by this error (we'll see if new videos of me are any better now that I've seen the light). Fantastic result today for sure. And it's such a small thing!! The average quality, consistency and ease was improved considerably, even and esp. on the tighter lies. It really did for me. At least today, that is...

Can't disagree with anything you've written. The club should definitely make contact with the turf in front of the ball.
This happens automatically if I manage to do two things right in my swing.

1) Not let the head drift laterally towards the target during the swing. This one I've struggled a lot with when chipping. Set up with the weight a bit forward, tilt even further forward and end up hitting it fat.
2) Make a good weight shift.

How you got to hcp 6 without knowing this though, is beyond me.
I guess it's the difference of picking the ball off the turf and taking a divot in front of the ball.

thanks shanks! At one point I also had thought about 'not taking a divot' on long shots, which is probably how I fixed my fat problem there. But for some reason now that I'm mainly focusing on the short shots it seems as though I need to relearn everything... It was really amazing how much more 'room for error' it made when I moved the point forward... what a wonderful feeling!!! I hope it lasts!

Me too about 9 years ago, then all of a sudden I'm married with 3 kids...

Yes, the margin for error jumps dramatically. My idea of a mishit went from a top, shank, or fat, to a shot that's not totally purely struck on the day I was taught that.