Good divots on bad shots, Poor divots on good shots?

[kennay92]

Often this happens to be, on occasion when i hit a ball fat ill get a perfect looking dollar bill shape divot, but what the ball does is furthest from perfect, on a good shot my divot is like a little tiny sliver of singe on the grass(about the size of a pinky), usually only from the toe of the club.. Thoughts?

[zeg]

Where is the position of your "perfect" divot? My suspicion is that you are consistently bottoming out before contact, so when you bottom into the turf, it comes out fat. When you have more of a sweep and don't bottom out into the turf, you make acceptable contact.

[kennay92]

Where is the position of your "perfect" divot? My suspicion is that you are consistently bottoming out before contact, so when you bottom into the turf, it comes out fat. When you have more of a sweep and don't bottom out into the turf, you make acceptable contact.

behind the ball. And its not consistently, just when its a fat shot, i get a really good looking divot.

[zeg]

behind the ball. And its not consistently, just when its a fat shot, i get a really good looking divot.

Just to clarify, when you get the nice divot, it starts behind the ball in the sense that it starts farther from your target than your ball was resting? And on your normal shots, you get a very shallow toe divot that starts closer to the target than the ball was resting?

[kennay92]

Just to clarify, when you get the nice divot, it starts behind the ball in the sense that it starts farther from your target than your ball was resting? And on your normal shots, you get a very shallow toe divot that starts closer to the target than the ball was resting?

correct...

[Zeph]

Let's look at both shots.

a) The perfect divot, poor ball contact. I'd wager you are hitting the ground before the ball.
b) The good contact, but not a lot of divot.

Depends on what clubs you are hitting of course, a wedge should take a larger divot than a 5 iron. Either way, if you are hitting the ground first, your weight is most likely too far back, could also be a result of flipping. Perhaps even both. On the second shot, you hit the ball clean off the ground, so you might have bent and pulled the arms up to prevent that first fat shot. The swing itself could be pretty identical, having the common feature of a swing bottom too far back.

Bottom of the swing should be 2-4 inches in front of the ball. If you are taking a divot, it should start in front of where the ball is sitting.

A video would help to identify what you are struggling with, but if you don't have that option, I would look into getting the weight forward and maintaining the flying wedge. You may not need both, but like I said, without video it's hard to say. If I was to take a non-educated guess, I would go with weight forward first.

If the divot often is mostly from the toe of your club, you should check the lie angle, as it could be too flat. You could be needing a more upright angle. At address, the toe of the club should be pointing up, the sole of the club should not lie flat on the ground. When you swing, the clubhead droop and bends towards the ground. If the club sits flat at address, the toe will point down when you swing it.

[kennay92]

Let's look at both shots.

the clubs are fitted for me. But ive known to have problems with both things you listed in the past, ill do some work on those 2 things.

and anyones elses thoughts are appreciated.

[ugottabjoshinme]

I don't see how your divot is "good" on your fat shots if you know that it is beginning behind the ball....is that just what you want your divot to look like on a good shot?

Your normal divot is small because you might be picking the ball of the ground instead of hitting down on it. Perhaps your shaft is vertical at impact and not leaning forward? That would make sense if you are hitting a lot of fat shots because you aren't getting your weight infront of the ball and you are flipping at it.

[kennay92]

I don't see how your divot is "good" on your fat shots if you know that it is beginning behind the ball....is that just what you want your divot to look like on a good shot?

A good looking divot is what i mean.

[nevets88]

I think he means dollar sized divots on the fat shots, good looking divots. The bad looking divots sound like when you're picking the ball clean.

To me, a good divot starts at or past the ball. It's not only the size of the divot, but where it starts. On your longer irons, your divots get smaller or you just see a scrape in front of the ball.

Look at how a good player makes a divot in slo mo closeup.

[ohiolefty]

Any divot that's not in front of where the ball was is horrendous.

If Giselle Bundchen looked like Giselle Bundchen but you knew she had herpes - she'd be nasty. Nobody wants herpes.

[sean_miller]

Any divot that's not in front of where the ball was is horrendous.

I'd still go for coffee with her - yes, that's how nice I am.

Do people actually analyze their golf swing based on divots? Contact with the ball should be number one. The only time I give a flying **** about my divot is on the course and that's to go get it and replace it if it's viable.

[NI4NI]

Ditto on the ball contact comment from Mr. Coffee above :)

Could care less what the divot looks like if I'm making great ball contact.

[ohiolefty]

Do people actually analyze their golf swing based on divots? Contact with the ball should be number one. The only time I give a flying **** about my divot is on the course and that's to go get it and replace it if it's viable.

I'm concerned about 2 things:

1 - That my divot doesn't start before the ball. On the course, this is tougher to monitor. On the range, I use a visual aid (usually a broken tee I pick up off the ground) to monitor this 2 - That the divot doesn't display any evidence of weird face twisting or path stuff. This is something, on the range, I look at more intently than the course.

[sean_miller]

I'm concerned about 2 things:

Whatever works for you, I guess. Being more of a sweeper, I get that information from the sound, the ball flight, and how the club felt in my hands.

[kennay92]

what i mean by it is good looking divot on bad shots and bad looking divot on good shots.. i already said the placement and stuff was bad.. read the thread.

[Game]

what i mean by it is good

And all we're saying is that no divot

looks good if it starts behind the ball. I mean maybe if you were walking the course and came upon it, not knowing where the ball was you'd think it looks asthetically pleasing? Really the only thing that matters is moving that divot up a few inches.

[sean_miller]

And all we're saying is that no divot

Yeah, starting point is the one thing I'd look at. The uniformity of the divot would imply I was trying to keep club head travelling perfectly down the target line after impact. Don't people usually swing in an arc type motion? Why would a long divot be uniform?