Hitting Down on the Ball?!

[Hoovedawg]

A few things that helped me out alot are things that will help with your irons in general

-Make sure you are keeping your hands in front of the ball at impact
-Play the ball back in your stance a little
-Eliminate any wristy stuff
-Have a slightly more upright swing

I changed these things and I went from a sweeper to a divot taker (im not sure what you call this)

But it really helped my iron game a lot

[CalBoomer]

Here's somewhat different advice from someone who had the same problem. Don't think about hitting down on the ball--it only leads to fat hits and very ugly divots. Be sure to address the ball with the club leaning forward in hockey stick fashion, hands ahead of the clubhead and ball. Maintain that right wrist angle in your backswing. Take several swings to determine the natural low point of your swing. Now set up with the ball about 1-1/2 inches back of the low point. Then just use your natural swing. The club head will contact the ball in a descending arc just before reaching the low point which will then create a divot beginning just about at the front of the ball. Thus the adage: "Hit the little ball before the big ball (the earth)." The club strikes the ball before hitting the turf, hence there is no deceleration of the clubhead before the ball is struck.

Hope this helps

[tm22721]

The term 'hitting' exposes your problem. Hands and arms should be passive, just holding onto the club. Let the pivot, gravity and momentum do all of the hard work.

[Jell0b0y]

I used to be a picker of the ball. Most better golfers who pick the ball probably don't properly transfer their weight - that was my problem, anyway.

Thank You! I couldn't visualize what you were saying about the hips then i found this video of Hogans swing (2nd video close to the bottom). I actually worked on that today and when i made good contact and made the divot in front of the ball I gained about 25 yards on my 9 iron. I was only hitting my 9 about 125 when I would sweep the ball but when I did hit down correctly I was hitting it around 150

I am hitting some fat shots but Rome wasn't built in a day and I will keep working on it Hogan http://www.••••••••••••••••••.com/golfswings_pro/

[c4m]

I tried the putting a penny 3 inches infront of the ball and sweep the penny and I have to say, I wish someone had told me about this drill sooner.. Every ball I hit using this technique seems straighter and longer than usual, and I get way more backspin on my wedges. cant wait to try it out on the course

[kurtwainwright]

This is all fascinating stuff, and the tips are all great. A good read, especially the right/left eye dominant part. I have an eye condition in my left eye that prevents me from seeing clearly... so I'm extremely right eye dominant to the point where my brain actually ignores information from my left. I had surgery last year to correct some of it, but I'm still not all the way there. My eye condition is holding me back on my putting. I usually 2 or 3 putt because I have a hard time reading greens due to my lack of seeing 3 dimensions. I do, however, take divots. My long iron play is decent, but sporadic. I'll hit a great 3i on one stroke and duff it the next.

Anyway, I have a question to add to the discussion. Hitting down on the ball... pinching the ball between the iron face and the ground... works great. But what do you do when it's extremely wet? Saturday I played a round following an intense thunderstorm the night prior. Parts of the fairway were very wet and I duffed several shots in a row because my ball dug itself into the soft fairway instead of leaping into the air. How do I modify my swing to get around this effect? Maybe it's good to practice both hitting down AND picking?

[grantc79]

Hitting down on the ball... pinching the ball between the iron face and the ground... works great. But what do you do when it's extremely wet? Saturday I played a round following an intense thunderstorm the night prior. Parts of the fairway were very wet and I duffed several shots in a row because my ball dug itself into the soft fairway instead of leaping into the air. How do I modify my swing to get around this effect? Maybe it's good to practice both hitting down AND picking?

That's not possible.

Hitting down on the ball is a great idea and good "feeling" but it is literally impossible to do unless you completely top it. You simply hit the ball fat and the slosh grabbed your club. You might have only caught it marginally fat that would have been not so big of a deal in dry conditions and the problem was magnified in wet conditions. But believe me it wasn't your ball getting stuck it was your club before it hit the ball.

[Wisconsin Golfer]

I have stupid question. When people say they hit the ball "fat or thin" what do they mean?

[iacas]

I have stupid question. When people say they hit the ball "fat or thin" what do they mean?

I'll answer your question because it's so short, but in the future, please try not to threadjack...

Fat = hitting the ground behind the ball. Thin = hitting the ball low on the clubface. Blading the ball = hitting the ball with the leading edge of the clubface (severely thin).

[Zeph]

The penny trick is a good advice, can use a tee also. Another way is to put a tee behind the ball and avoid hitting it. Moving the eyes and point of focus can help. I hit the ball better if I look 2" in front of the ball at nothing.

[c4m]

Today at the practice chipping/putting green I practiced the penny trick with my short pitch shots, but I couldnt get hardly any backspin, even from about 20-30 yards out they would roll almost off the green.. I made sure I was accelerating through the ball and took a divot infront of hte ball.. I think the grooves on my 56 degree might be dull, but idk

[golfaddiction]

Today at the practice chipping/putting green I practiced the penny trick with my short pitch shots, but I couldnt get hardly any backspin, even from about 20-30 yards out they would roll almost off the green.. I made sure I was accelerating through the ball and took a divot infront of hte ball.. I think the grooves on my 56 degree might be dull, but idk

I bought my 56 degree used about 4 years ago, and my grooves must be non-existent. But I don't worry about it cause I like the feel of the club.

I did want to get some new wedges though, but I've spent too much on equipment so far this year already.

[c4m]

so I see some groove sharpeners on ebay for like 20 bucks but it looks like something I could do with a flathead screwdriver or flat piece of metal. Anyone ever tried this?

[bunkerputt]

Brilliant! This seem to go with my findings of staring at the left part of the ball and having better success hitting down. I'm going to try with my right eye closed.

I'm not entirely sure it's brilliant because I'm not entirely sure it's substantiated by facts, but I'll tell you what led me to it. I was standing with my right side facing the microwave like this diagram:

[MICROWAVE] --------------------ME /emoticons/wink.png" title="Wink"/> I've spent a couple of range sessions going through my practice swing while looking at the ball with my left eye. I sort of get the picture of how I want to hit it with my left eye and then I open both eyes and let 'er rip. I'm definitely hitting down on the ball more and I'm getting a good feel for the difference between a well-struck shot and a perfectly pure shot. Most of the time I can hit a solid shot, but it wasn't until I started doing this drill that I hit a lot of pure shots. I would say I'm probably at around 65% solid, 25% pure, 10% not-so pure. That's quite an improvement from where I was a couple of weeks ago. I was really shocked by how different the ball position looks from the left eye. When I set up to a 5-iron and look at it with my left eye, it feels like I'm setting up a wedge. That makes a huge psychological difference in my mind and may be a contributor to my improvement.

[Wisconsin Golfer]

I tried the dominant eye theory today. I am right handed, however left eye dominant. This has posed a problem with putting in the past. Today, instead of fighting it I tried to use it to my advantage. I took your advice and it worked. I never more than 2 putted all day and the alignment was perfect almost everytime, I would have had even less putts, but I am still getting used to my new putter.
I used it to hit down on the ball, too. It took me a few holes to get used to it, but by the 7th hole, I was dropping the ball on the green pretty nicely.It is going to take some practice, however great advice. Thank you BUNKERPUTT.

[bunkerputt]

Thanks Wisconsin. I'm encouraged that it helped you out. Keep on swinging.