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A fat golf shot is one where the club head strikes the ground before it hits the golf ball causing a dramatic loss in club head speed and momentum, usually meaning that the golf ball only travels a very short distance.

Most golfers lean back to try to get underneath the golf ball to lift it up into the air. As the body weight tips backwards, the bottom of the swing is moved to a point behind the golf ball and so the club connects with the ground too early, before the ball, rather than afterwards as is desired. At impact, the ideal scenario is that approximately 80% of the bodyweight should be on the front foot making sure that the club head travels down through the ball on its way into the ground at the lowest point of the swing.

To drive forwards during the shot and make sure that the body weight is on the front leg at impact, use this drill.

1. Set up with a tee peg to aim at that is positioned opposite the little toe of the front foot. This is an extreme position but is important to obtain the sensation of feeling where the body weight is during the swing motion.

2. Take some practice swings aiming to hit the tee peg and take some turf with it. While doing this, really drive the body weight forward on to the front foot. Do this by lifting the back heel off the floor during the down swing so that you are standing on the front foot at impact. It is okay if you overbalance after the shot as it is this feeling of weight movement that we are trying to encourage.

3. Replace the tee with the golf ball or put a ball on the tee. Make sure that you are striking the ground and taking a divot around the tee or ball.

4. Put the golf ball back in its normal ball position but still keep the tee peg where it is and focus on the weight movement to hit the tee peg.

5. Remove the tee peg but keep moving the weight forward and hit the ground after the ball.

Stop hitting those fat shots by getting in front of the ball with this technique.

The ground is hit first and so you put the ball back to hit the ball before the ground. Sounds good but you are training yourself to hit downwards too early and eventually will begin to lean back more and more to get the ball airborne - particularly with the longer clubs that when hit will be too low because of their low loft. Inevitably, the problem will become worse.

Many golfers who hit the ground first try to avoid the ground altogether. To strike the ball with maximum consistency and power, the club head needs to travel downwards through the ball into the ground. Avoiding the ground will cause mis-strikes and even top shots as you pull up to miss the floor.

Just because the club is bottoming out too early in the swing does not mean that the clubs are too long. "A bad workman blames his tools" rings true here. Do make sure that your golf clubs have been custom fitted for you. This is an important part of improving your golf game, but dont blame them for your swing errors either.