Can I Use The Divot To Tell Me Anything About My Golf Swing? (Video) - by Dean Butler
Can I Use The Divot To Tell Me Anything About My Golf Swing? (Video) - by Dean Butler

So, can you use a divot to kind of give you any sort of information about the golf swing? Well, absolutely. If I set myself up to play a golf shot, and that’s just to take it down this line here, and we found that the divot as I hit the shot came in at this angle here where my shot is coming across, that is telling me that at the top of the backswing, that I’ve actually thrown the club outside. So, if the divots coming across from the right to the left, just go and pass my left foot that direction, and I have exaggerated this, it means that from the top, you have thrown the club out, and of course what goes out swills the hips, that from here the club comes across. And the shot that’s produced from that sort of swing path, is one that starts to the left. It could be a putt when it goes left and stays left, or it could be one that snakes from the left to the right which is a typical slice. So, you can learn a lot there.

And of course if you found yourself in this position here with the divot aimed to the right, well it’s told you there is that you’ve come into the hitting area too much from the inside, you’ve come from this part here. You’ve come from the inside, from the inside you can imagine the face is going to be almost sort of path and the ball will either go to the right and stay to the right which is called a push or it will start its journey there and snake back which will be a hook. So the direction of a divot is very, very important and you can learn an awful lot from that. And it’s not just a direction but also the depth of the divot. So if you find that you’re divot starts behind the ball. So if I put that ball down here and the divot starts here just behind it, and it’s gone in nice and steep as you’ve hit through that ball, and you’re hitting say a 8 9 wedge and sandwich, it’d say that’s a perfect strike. You hit the ball then the turf. But if you found yourself curving and you’ve hit the divot, three or four inches behind, and it’s a very, very steep one, then you can imagine that by the time the club got towards the ball, deceleration would have happened. If deceleration happens, obvious factors, lack of distance, and the other factor is because you’re coming so steep, that the club face is more liable to twisting one way or the other. So divots are very, very important. If you don’t have golf lessons, which I do recommend that you do, because that’s the best way of curing any sort of faults that you might have. But if you can look at your divot and say wow, my divots aiming this way but I’m actually aiming towards you and the camera and you know that the swing on the way down came from that direction to this direction. What you got to say to yourself is, right how do I actually correct that? Well from there we will then take the club back and say right I’ve gone on the inside now let’s concentrate and bring the club from the inside and then hit out and through. So, you can very, very quickly correct the actual direction, that’s the easy one to correct quick, and if you can do it’s on the golf course, but what you've got to do is make sure that when you make this alteration that you’re totally 100% committed to doing it. If you’re doing it 50—50, you’ll end up none the wiser. So now, remember next time you go out, you’re looking at divots. There’s a lot of information there that you can take on board which will help you possibly get on to that next shot and think, right but at least I’m not going to do same fault again. If you struggle with this simply go and see your PJ professional because he’ll help you sort it out on a one to one basis within 5-10 minutes with you. 2014-08-04

So, can you use a divot to kind of give you any sort of information about the golf swing? Well, absolutely. If I set myself up to play a golf shot, and that’s just to take it down this line here, and we found that the divot as I hit the shot came in at this angle here where my shot is coming across, that is telling me that at the top of the backswing, that I’ve actually thrown the club outside. So, if the divots coming across from the right to the left, just go and pass my left foot that direction, and I have exaggerated this, it means that from the top, you have thrown the club out, and of course what goes out swills the hips, that from here the club comes across. And the shot that’s produced from that sort of swing path, is one that starts to the left. It could be a putt when it goes left and stays left, or it could be one that snakes from the left to the right which is a typical slice. So, you can learn a lot there.

And of course if you found yourself in this position here with the divot aimed to the right, well it’s told you there is that you’ve come into the hitting area too much from the inside, you’ve come from this part here. You’ve come from the inside, from the inside you can imagine the face is going to be almost sort of path and the ball will either go to the right and stay to the right which is called a push or it will start its journey there and snake back which will be a hook. So the direction of a divot is very, very important and you can learn an awful lot from that. And it’s not just a direction but also the depth of the divot. So if you find that you’re divot starts behind the ball. So if I put that ball down here and the divot starts here just behind it, and it’s gone in nice and steep as you’ve hit through that ball, and you’re hitting say a 8 9 wedge and sandwich, it’d say that’s a perfect strike. You hit the ball then the turf. But if you found yourself curving and you’ve hit the divot, three or four inches behind, and it’s a very, very steep one, then you can imagine that by the time the club got towards the ball, deceleration would have happened. If deceleration happens, obvious factors, lack of distance, and the other factor is because you’re coming so steep, that the club face is more liable to twisting one way or the other.

So divots are very, very important. If you don’t have golf lessons, which I do recommend that you do, because that’s the best way of curing any sort of faults that you might have. But if you can look at your divot and say wow, my divots aiming this way but I’m actually aiming towards you and the camera and you know that the swing on the way down came from that direction to this direction. What you got to say to yourself is, right how do I actually correct that? Well from there we will then take the club back and say right I’ve gone on the inside now let’s concentrate and bring the club from the inside and then hit out and through.

So, you can very, very quickly correct the actual direction, that’s the easy one to correct quick, and if you can do it’s on the golf course, but what you've got to do is make sure that when you make this alteration that you’re totally 100% committed to doing it. If you’re doing it 50—50, you’ll end up none the wiser. So now, remember next time you go out, you’re looking at divots. There’s a lot of information there that you can take on board which will help you possibly get on to that next shot and think, right but at least I’m not going to do same fault again. If you struggle with this simply go and see your PJ professional because he’ll help you sort it out on a one to one basis within 5-10 minutes with you.