Equipment Issues Can Cause Golf Fat Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Equipment Issues Can Cause Golf Fat Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you've gone through your swing technique in your game and worked out that that shouldn't be causing too many of the fat shot issues, yet the fat shots are still in your game, you might consider, well, maybe it's the clubs I am using, maybe it's the tools we're using. So many golfers probably blame their clubs incorrectly when they are doing things wrong technically. But actually sometimes the clubs could be at fault or maybe the clubs certainly aren’t enhancing and aren’t helping you as much as they could be. Particularly, when you're hitting this fat shot, there are some key areas that you could look for.

Now, my general advice would be make sure you get correctly custom fit so either an online custom fitting or actually a person to person custom fitting. If you get custom fit, you should trust the fitter that the clubs are going to be correct for you. But if you are still struggling with fatting the golf ball, there are some issues that you could look for. One of them might be that simply the clubs are too long for you. If you’re dealing with a set of golf clubs that don't fit you and particularly that they are too long, that could be one of the reasons why the club just comes crashing down into the ground on a regular basis and hits the ground before the ball. The other issue related to that might just be simply the weight of the golf club. Clubs that are too heavy for you are going to make you sway back, lean back and hit the ground before the ball. We often see that with all the golfers who struggle with the weight of the clubs or even very young golfers and juniors that are using clubs that have incorrectly the wrong length or incorrectly the wrong weight and they are leaning back and hitting the ground with the clubs, so that could be a concern. Another concern we might look at is going to be the lie angle. So lie angle is this angle between the sole plate of the club and the shaft of the golf club, the way the club sits on the floor. Now, a lie angle that makes the club sit like this or a lie angle that makes the club sit with the toe on the ground is going to cause you problems because if you were to fatten the ball with the heel on the ground, the heel hits the ground first and slows down the fastest, the toe end carries on, we end up closing the face. So we hit fat shots that pull off to the left-hand side of target. We've also got the opposite end of that is a toe end that hits the ground and again, the toe end flows down, opens the heel up and we get a fat shot that goes to the right of the target. One last consideration with the golf club is the shaft. Just making sure the shaft is the right flex for yourself. It probably won't cause the balls to be fat or to be thin, but it will cause an imbalance in your overall swing, a lack of control in your overall swing. Generally speaking, we talk about the shaft of the golf club as the engine of the golf club, so it's important we invest a bit of time and effort and potentially even some money in making sure that we’ve got a decent shaft. So when you’ve got your technique sorted, make sure you've also got your club sorted. The correct equipment with the correct technique should result in less fat shots to improve your golf. 2016-08-22

If you've gone through your swing technique in your game and worked out that that shouldn't be causing too many of the fat shot issues, yet the fat shots are still in your game, you might consider, well, maybe it's the clubs I am using, maybe it's the tools we're using. So many golfers probably blame their clubs incorrectly when they are doing things wrong technically. But actually sometimes the clubs could be at fault or maybe the clubs certainly aren’t enhancing and aren’t helping you as much as they could be. Particularly, when you're hitting this fat shot, there are some key areas that you could look for.

Now, my general advice would be make sure you get correctly custom fit so either an online custom fitting or actually a person to person custom fitting. If you get custom fit, you should trust the fitter that the clubs are going to be correct for you. But if you are still struggling with fatting the golf ball, there are some issues that you could look for.

One of them might be that simply the clubs are too long for you. If you’re dealing with a set of golf clubs that don't fit you and particularly that they are too long, that could be one of the reasons why the club just comes crashing down into the ground on a regular basis and hits the ground before the ball.

The other issue related to that might just be simply the weight of the golf club. Clubs that are too heavy for you are going to make you sway back, lean back and hit the ground before the ball. We often see that with all the golfers who struggle with the weight of the clubs or even very young golfers and juniors that are using clubs that have incorrectly the wrong length or incorrectly the wrong weight and they are leaning back and hitting the ground with the clubs, so that could be a concern.

Another concern we might look at is going to be the lie angle. So lie angle is this angle between the sole plate of the club and the shaft of the golf club, the way the club sits on the floor. Now, a lie angle that makes the club sit like this or a lie angle that makes the club sit with the toe on the ground is going to cause you problems because if you were to fatten the ball with the heel on the ground, the heel hits the ground first and slows down the fastest, the toe end carries on, we end up closing the face. So we hit fat shots that pull off to the left-hand side of target. We've also got the opposite end of that is a toe end that hits the ground and again, the toe end flows down, opens the heel up and we get a fat shot that goes to the right of the target.

One last consideration with the golf club is the shaft. Just making sure the shaft is the right flex for yourself. It probably won't cause the balls to be fat or to be thin, but it will cause an imbalance in your overall swing, a lack of control in your overall swing. Generally speaking, we talk about the shaft of the golf club as the engine of the golf club, so it's important we invest a bit of time and effort and potentially even some money in making sure that we’ve got a decent shaft.

So when you’ve got your technique sorted, make sure you've also got your club sorted. The correct equipment with the correct technique should result in less fat shots to improve your golf.