Why A Player Hits A Fat Iron Shot And How To Fix It

Hit The Ball Not The Ground

For the inexperienced golfer, the game of golf will seem to provide never-ending moments of frustration due to making poor contact with the ball.

You may have practiced your swing, producing a fluid-like graceful backswing only to make impact with the ball so badly that a lump of dirt and grass travels further than the ball itself. This ugly scenario is a fat shot.

The Fat Shot Problem

The fat shot simply means that the clubhead is hitting the ground first, before making contact with the ball.

Not only is the fat shot an embarrassing experience, but wrist injuries are also somewhat common because of the club hitting the ground, which sends a jolt through your hands and wrists.

Most Common Causes Of The Fat Shot

For the majority of golfers facing this issue, their fat shots are the result of the bottom of the swing arc being too far behind the ball. The cause of this mistake can vary.

One reason is whats called a steep fat shot where you are coming down and your divot is too deep and your divot is behind the ball because the club is travelling in an outside to in path.( Left photo)

The second reason is when the club travels too far from the inside and runs into the ground before the ball because it is swinging from to shallow of an angle.(Right photo)

How To Fix The Fat Shot In order to eliminate the chances of creating the fat shot, you need to make a few adjustments, as described below:

For Reason 1. Make sure you are not bending into the ball during your downswing. Maintain the same amount of bend within your waist, hips, and knees, throughout the entire downswing. Keeping your spine straight can help and become aware of the axis and direction of your shoulder turn, if you are tilting the shoulders too much this will cause the steep swing path.

Drill: Hold the club above the ground and take some baseball cuts developing a more rounded plane.

For Reason 2. Get the club to swing more infront of the body and hence develop better angles to make solid contact with the ball. This is normally a good player mistake and I think it has alot to do with most players concept of what inside is.