Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

So there's lots of different issues that can relate to why a golfer might fat the golf ball. We are just going to go through a little checklist here, we will just try and tick these off each time, just so we can identify what the issue with the fat shot might be and how it might be happening in your game.

Now the first one I am going to talk about is an overactive right hand. So a golfer who is coming down into the golf ball and releasing the right hand a little bit too early. So looking at this from the front on, we would like the club to be coming down in towards the golf ball and taking the ball and then the turf, but if the golfer fires the right hand a little bit too early and tends to flick the ball up into the air, that's going to be a little bit of a problems with coming into the golf ball.

Now, second thing we could look out for a golfer is going to be lack of mobility in the lower half, so lack of driving the legs, lack of moving the hips. So a golfer that gets up to the ball, swings to the top and then hits with the upper body and doesn't really shift the body weight across, so lack of mobility from the lower half. If I were to do that and swing down, chances are I am going to hit under the center of my gravity. I am going to hit the ground before the golf ball, which is going to be a bit of a problem.

Another thing, the third thing on the list of things that might be causing the fat shot is simply just changing the level of your swing, so effectively losing your level. We should be making a swing that comes back and around, then hits the right point at the right time, but if we lose our level and we drop down too much and hit the ground behind the golf ball, that's going to be a little bit of a concern. So we'd like to be able to keep our level, turn back, turn through, and skim the ground at the right level. If we're going up and down too much, the changing the height could be quite a big concern.

Area number four on the list of things that we've got to consider if we are fatting the golf ball, is a poor ball position, particularly, a golfer who positions the ball too far forwards in their stance. So the arc of the swing, the position of the divot might be perfect, but if the ball is not there and the ball is over here and your divot is therefore before the ball, effectively a fat shot. So you are going to be careful with your ball position. Position the ball in the center of your stance with your short irons moving it gradually towards the left-hand side as you go through the bigger clubs. So if I set up the ball with my 7-iron, my divot is going to be here, my ball is too far forward, that's going to cause me problems by having a golf ball position too far forwards.

And the last thing when you come to hitting the golf ball fat may just be a lack of commitment or a lack of confidence and as you're swinging down towards the ball, you’re just not committed or confident enough to make an accurate strike on it, you get a little bit passive into the ball, body weight stays on the back foot a little bit and we fat the ball forwards. We don't really drive through the ball with enough commitment.

So all those different areas could be reasons why you're fatting the golf ball. What I'd like to do is re-watch this video and just go through them one by one just with ticking them off and making sure that's not you, that's not the reason why you are fatting it, and I think if you are fatting the ball, one of these areas will be the reason why you are fatting it. Get that out of your game, improve that area, you should no longer be fatting the golf ball as regularly.