Struggled today with my irons

I'm a beginner golfer with a high handicap and I just came off my best round ever. Anything I hit with my irons was going long and dead straight. Then today was just terrible. I kept picking up huge divots before the ball, so I'd get them in the air but they'd go nowhere and I just couldn't make clean contact. It started to play with my psyche and I just had no confidence at all.What causes a huge divot before making contact with the ball?

I used to do this all of the time.. still do, but less frequently. What caused me to do it was that I was dipping my left shoulder during my backswing and basically changing my swing path to aim straight into the ground. I muscled it through but i think I could have fit my arm in some of the divots.

If you aren't going to have an instructor help you then at least take a camera to the course (range or actual play) and get a look at what you're doing wrong. Post the video on the forum and you'll get your answer, plus some free advice (and some of it will be good advice!).

Good luck.. and keep it up. Each milestone makes golf a brand new game.

I sometimes have these problems on the course and find that's it's due to one of the following;

• I shifted my hips back on my backswing
• I did not shift hips forward on downswing.

If I take a proper backswing and trigger the downswing with my hips my divots are always in front of the ball not behind.