Generally speaking, a thin or fat shot is caused by having your swing center too far behind the ball at impact. This error causes your club to bottom out too far behind the ball and will cause you to hit the ground first (a fat shot) or hit the top of the ball (a thin shot).
What causes fat and thin shots?
A lot of golfers never get over the instinct to lift the ball off the ground. They swing off their back foot or flip their hands through impact, both of which make the club bottom out too soon. As a result, they hit the ground first (fat shot) or catch the ball on the upswing (thin shot).
Why do I keep hitting fat shots?
A very common reason we hit a fat shot is because we stay on our back foot. This limited weight transfer will deliver the club behind where we setup. By placing the ball slightly more forward in our stance, we may be able to encourage ourselves to transfer our weight in our golf swing.
What does it mean if you hit a fat shot?
A "fat shot" happens when the golfer's club hits the ground prior to making contact with the golf ball. That's not something the golfer ever wants to do (except with bunker shots), and it leads to grass or even a chunk of turf/sod coming between the clubface and the ball.
How do I stop hitting fat iron shots?
Shifting your weight forward correctly on the downswing is another way to stop hitting it heavy. As you draw the club back, your weight should shift to your back foot. To eliminate a heavy strike, shift your weight back across to your front foot as you finish your downswing.
24 related questions foundHow do you stop fat shots?
If you are hitting fat golf shots, the lowest point of the arc will be before the ball causing the club to strike the ground first. When hitting irons, your divots should start after the ball. For the best possible iron contact, you should aim to strike the ball and then the ground.
Why do I always hit the golf ball fat?
Fat and thin shots are caused by the same problem: The club bottoms out before the ball. The cause often is that the swing is out of sequence. When I get out of sync--say, an overactive lower body--I feel I'm late with my hands, so I release the club to catch up. And I hit it fat.
Why do I hit the ground before my golf ball?
When a player hits the ground before the ball it is generally because their club is attacking the ball from too shallow an angle. Golf coaches refer to this as the "Angle of Approach".
Why do I keep hitting the ground first with my driver?
Hitting the ground first is because your angle of approach (angle at which the club is striking the golf ball) is too shallow. To put it in another understandable way, you are trying to hit the ball with an upwards motion.
Why do I hit my irons thin?
Golfers who hit a lot of thin shots tend to swing the club too steeply into the ball. That's because they slide past the ball on the downswing and have to force the club down to make contact. When they slide too far, they catch only the top half of the ball, hitting it thin.
Can a strong grip cause fat shots?
Fat shots. One of the other signs of an overly strong grip is the tendency to hit the ball fat, especially on short iron shots. As mentioned above, a strong grip makes it easy to release the club on the way down, and an early release could cause you to stick the club in the ground behind the ball.
Why do I keep hitting behind the ball with my driver?
Improper weight transfer and dropping the right shoulder can lead to "fat" shots. Hitting behind the golf ball, or hitting it "fat," is a common problem, especially with high handicappers. It is a frustrating mishit that results in added strokes to the scorecard.
Why do I miss the golf ball?
The most common one is when you're too close to the ball, whether you start out that way or you fall toward the ball on the downswing. You also could be swinging too much around your body in the backswing, which can make you swing outward too much on the downswing, exposing the hosel to the ball.
Why do I hit behind the golf ball with my driver?
A common problem is to whip the club inside on the takeaway and over rotate the hips. When this happens the backswing becomes flat and inside and it's very easy to hit behind the ball. To avoid this, feel as though the hands, arms, and club move away as one piece during the takeaway.
Why do I hit behind the ball when chipping?
If the leading edge of the club hits just behind the ball it will dig and shot will be chucked. A better way is to feel the bottom of the club thumping the ground. The goal is avoid taking a divot. If you do this and start feeling the ground your margin for error will be much higher.
Why do my golf shots go along the ground?
Specifically, players who hit ground balls are leaving too much weight on their right foot as they come down into the ball. When your weight gets stuck on your foot in the downswing, the club will bottom out before the ball – meaning it will be on the way back up when it actually arrives at impact.
Why is hitting a golf ball so difficult?
A golf ball isn't difficult to hit, it's just difficult to hit well. A golf ball is difficult to hit well because you're attempting to hit a small object, with a small club face at speed in a specific direction to a point a set distance away.
Why do I thin my hybrids?
Trust the loft of the club to get the ball in the air. When you stop turning your shoulders through, the bottom of your swing moves too far behind the ball. That results in hitting shots fat or thin.
Why do I hit my fairway woods fat?
Another common cause of fat shots is setting up too low. This is typically seen when your left arm (for right hand players) remains too bent through the backswing, so that when you initiate the downswing and the weight of club straightens out your arm, the club bottoms out well before the ball.
Why do I hit my driver so low?
First, hitting low drives will always mean that you are falling short of your distance potential off the tee. Getting the ball higher into the air should mean more yardage on your drives, which will lead to shorter approach shots – and hopefully lower scores.
Why do I keep topping my hybrids?
Why do I keep topping my hybrid? The main reason you're topping your hybrids is that you're trying to hit it like a fairway wood.
