Stop Hitting the Ball Fat with this Golf Drill (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Stop Hitting the Ball Fat with this Golf Drill (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Now, one of the most frustrating shots out in the golf course is the fat shot. The fat shot by definition is hitting the ground before the golf ball. So, all that power that you've built into the club head just gets wasted by a very inefficient contact where you hit the ground a couple of inches before the golf ball, you get grass and turf stuck on the club face, the club slows down, sometimes even twists and the ball doesn't go anywhere. So a fat shot is too much ground first. And it's often caused by having the body weight behind the golf ball at the point of impact.

If you understand that the club bottoms out underneath the center of your gravity, now if you're leaning back at that point, then the club will bottom out well behind the ball. But if you're leaning forwards at that point more to your left side, the club bottoms out much more after the golf ball and that is the right way to strike the ball. So here's a great drill to make sure you're getting that feeling of getting onto your left side for impact.

Take your normal address position, get out a relatively short club here, maybe something like a seven iron with a decent amount of loft. Play the ball pretty much in the center of your stance for this drill but now lift your right heel so you're already kind of pre-turned into the ball, so the body weight sits on the tip toe of your right side and start like that. Go ahead and make a backswing and you're already feeling like you're turning into your left side. It's a great way of stopping you leaning back, pressing body weight onto the right heel. So, we kick the heel up into the air, kick the knee in, stand on the left side and strike.

And you can see that there's a real confident hit down into the floor, quite a loud noise comes off the mat there, but it's all after the golf ball. Anything where I'm caught leaning back with the reverse pivoting action and hitting the ground here, we don't really want that. That one's going to be the fat shot. So, a nice setup, kick the knee in and hit down onto that left side. There's a really nice strike on the golf ball. And once you get the feeling of hitting the ball and the turf and you got that nice feeling, that drill should be nicely executed and brought into a full speed swing. And you can always feel like you're getting forwards and this will actually be your impact position going forwards into the future.

 2012-04-13

Now, one of the most frustrating shots out in the golf course is the fat shot. The fat shot by definition is hitting the ground before the golf ball. So, all that power that you've built into the club head just gets wasted by a very inefficient contact where you hit the ground a couple of inches before the golf ball, you get grass and turf stuck on the club face, the club slows down, sometimes even twists and the ball doesn't go anywhere. So a fat shot is too much ground first. And it's often caused by having the body weight behind the golf ball at the point of impact.

If you understand that the club bottoms out underneath the center of your gravity, now if you're leaning back at that point, then the club will bottom out well behind the ball. But if you're leaning forwards at that point more to your left side, the club bottoms out much more after the golf ball and that is the right way to strike the ball. So here's a great drill to make sure you're getting that feeling of getting onto your left side for impact.

Take your normal address position, get out a relatively short club here, maybe something like a seven iron with a decent amount of loft. Play the ball pretty much in the center of your stance for this drill but now lift your right heel so you're already kind of pre-turned into the ball, so the body weight sits on the tip toe of your right side and start like that. Go ahead and make a backswing and you're already feeling like you're turning into your left side. It's a great way of stopping you leaning back, pressing body weight onto the right heel. So, we kick the heel up into the air, kick the knee in, stand on the left side and strike.

And you can see that there's a real confident hit down into the floor, quite a loud noise comes off the mat there, but it's all after the golf ball. Anything where I'm caught leaning back with the reverse pivoting action and hitting the ground here, we don't really want that. That one's going to be the fat shot. So, a nice setup, kick the knee in and hit down onto that left side. There's a really nice strike on the golf ball. And once you get the feeling of hitting the ball and the turf and you got that nice feeling, that drill should be nicely executed and brought into a full speed swing. And you can always feel like you're getting forwards and this will actually be your impact position going forwards into the future.