Hi guys,
Been lurking here for a while and thought I'd share something that really helped me today, though I'm not sure if its a bandaid or a legit strategy. For the past few weeks, I've been struggling with the dreaded fat iron shot. On my practice swings, I was scraping the grass well forward in a good spot, but put the ball there and bam, fat shot after fat shot.
I was playing a par-3 with a friend today and after the 3rd chunk, decided to not look at the ball when swinging, but instead look at a spot about an inch in front of the ball (btw the ball and target). It felt weird for the first 2 swings, but the rest of the round I was hitting the ball flush first and taking a good divot in front.
By staring in front of and not at the ball, I think it helped in two ways: first, by not focusing on the ball, it almost tricked me into thinking it was just another practice swing and took a lot of the "hit the ball" pressure out of my mind. Second, it also allowed me to focus on where I wanted to club to bottom out and get my weight forward.
Just wanted to see if this is a swing thought anyone else uses.