What can you tell from your divots (Video) - by Pete Styles
What can you tell from your divots (Video) - by Pete Styles

Well, it's about time we had a conversation about divots. We don't really talk about divots to much because we're on the driving range and we don’t take divots but we all know that on the golf course, that divots is something that could happen to us.

Now first thing that you should be aware of is in divot is a good thing, most of the time you should be taking divots. There's this perception in golf that only bad golfers and hackers take up divots. And maybe bad golfers and hackers do take divots, but also good players take up divots. You'll see all the time when you're watching golf on the TV, the player hits the shot and the divot flies off into the distance and the caddy runs around and grabs the divot and pulls it back. For some reason the player never does that job anymore, do they? The caddy always has to do that job. But good players do take divots and good players should take a divot.

You'll notice that when you're taking your shorter irons, the divot should be bigger and deeper. When you're taking your longer irons, the divot would be shallow and smaller, and ultimately, when you're taking you're woods, there's no divot at all, sometimes because the ball's upon a tee peg. But your divot would come from a position where middle of your stance when you've got a pitching wedge, the divot would start pretty much just after the ball. Now stress that, it's just after the golf ball. There's at no point where a divot should happen before a ball.

As soon as the club hits the ground and takes a divot, the club slows down. If the divot is before the ball, the ball's not going to go very far at all. So focus on taking a divot, it’s going to start from after the golf ball as you're moving your body weight forwards. So when you've got your ball back towards the center of your stance, you've got a nice high lofted golf club, you're body weight moves forward as you hit down, it's quite a steep divot. It might be as much as an inch deep and around about the size of a 5 pound note or a dollar bill, maybe a couple of inches long, a couple of inches wide as you swing through. Then as you go to a mid-iron, the ball will move slightly more forwards in your stance, the divot shape would shallow out a little bit, you're not so much hitting down. Then as you go to your bigger clubs your hardwood clubs and your woods, the ball moves nearer to your front foot. Again, the divot shape, the bottom of the arc is shallower. You might just be cutting the leaves off the grass but you're not gouging out great pieces of turf.

So once we've discussed the fact you should be taking a divot, we've discussed where the divot should be coming from. Here's a couple of checkpoints to make sure you're divots are looking good. A couple of things, if you're swinging your club not in straight path, so you're not swinging straight down the target line, if we look from this angle, straight down the target line here, away from the camera to a target. If I was swinging very violently out, in, and across, and hitting down, I might see that my divots are pointing left. And I stress might because there are ways to sort of manufacture this and cheat this a little bit but if you're cutting across a lot and you're seeing a good consistency to the shape of divots cutting left, that might indicate that your swing path is coming from the wrong position, likewise very much into out slightly more rarely but very much into out, you might see a divot pointing down the right hand side. It also might highlight a problem with your alignment. If you're aiming to the left hand side, you might see divots going in the wrong direction there. So have a look to see where your divots are pointing, whether they're pointing in the right direction.

The other thing, just to check on the fact you're not hitting the ball heavy, you're not hitting the ball fat, would actually be just to pop a tee peg in at the side of the ball before you hit the ball. So if your ball is here on the ground, push your tee peg into the floor, dead opposite the ball, then take your shot, take a divot, and then have a look where your divot started and you'll see if your divot started behind the ball, you're losing power, you're not hitting the ball as far as you could. Your divot should start level with the tee peg, or slightly after the tee peg to prove you've had a nice, descending blow. So when you're practicing, you could pop a tee peg in the floor next to your ball. The reason I would use a tee peg is sometimes it's difficult once you've hit the ball, to work out exactly where it was. And you do need to be quite precise with this because anything where the club hits the ground, even slightly before the ball, it loses an awful lot of its power. So don’t forget, you should be taking divots. They should be in the right place, they should be relevant to the right depth, for the club that you've got as well, and then you can use them to see whether you're swinging or whether you're aiming in the right direction. So practice looking at your divots, do a bit of diagnosis on your shots, and improve your golf.

2013-01-15

Well, it's about time we had a conversation about divots. We don't really talk about divots to much because we're on the driving range and we don’t take divots but we all know that on the golf course, that divots is something that could happen to us.

Now first thing that you should be aware of is in divot is a good thing, most of the time you should be taking divots. There's this perception in golf that only bad golfers and hackers take up divots. And maybe bad golfers and hackers do take divots, but also good players take up divots. You'll see all the time when you're watching golf on the TV, the player hits the shot and the divot flies off into the distance and the caddy runs around and grabs the divot and pulls it back. For some reason the player never does that job anymore, do they? The caddy always has to do that job. But good players do take divots and good players should take a divot.

You'll notice that when you're taking your shorter irons, the divot should be bigger and deeper. When you're taking your longer irons, the divot would be shallow and smaller, and ultimately, when you're taking you're woods, there's no divot at all, sometimes because the ball's upon a tee peg. But your divot would come from a position where middle of your stance when you've got a pitching wedge, the divot would start pretty much just after the ball. Now stress that, it's just after the golf ball. There's at no point where a divot should happen before a ball.

As soon as the club hits the ground and takes a divot, the club slows down. If the divot is before the ball, the ball's not going to go very far at all. So focus on taking a divot, it’s going to start from after the golf ball as you're moving your body weight forwards. So when you've got your ball back towards the center of your stance, you've got a nice high lofted golf club, you're body weight moves forward as you hit down, it's quite a steep divot. It might be as much as an inch deep and around about the size of a 5 pound note or a dollar bill, maybe a couple of inches long, a couple of inches wide as you swing through. Then as you go to a mid-iron, the ball will move slightly more forwards in your stance, the divot shape would shallow out a little bit, you're not so much hitting down. Then as you go to your bigger clubs your hardwood clubs and your woods, the ball moves nearer to your front foot. Again, the divot shape, the bottom of the arc is shallower. You might just be cutting the leaves off the grass but you're not gouging out great pieces of turf.

So once we've discussed the fact you should be taking a divot, we've discussed where the divot should be coming from. Here's a couple of checkpoints to make sure you're divots are looking good. A couple of things, if you're swinging your club not in straight path, so you're not swinging straight down the target line, if we look from this angle, straight down the target line here, away from the camera to a target. If I was swinging very violently out, in, and across, and hitting down, I might see that my divots are pointing left. And I stress might because there are ways to sort of manufacture this and cheat this a little bit but if you're cutting across a lot and you're seeing a good consistency to the shape of divots cutting left, that might indicate that your swing path is coming from the wrong position, likewise very much into out slightly more rarely but very much into out, you might see a divot pointing down the right hand side. It also might highlight a problem with your alignment. If you're aiming to the left hand side, you might see divots going in the wrong direction there. So have a look to see where your divots are pointing, whether they're pointing in the right direction.

The other thing, just to check on the fact you're not hitting the ball heavy, you're not hitting the ball fat, would actually be just to pop a tee peg in at the side of the ball before you hit the ball. So if your ball is here on the ground, push your tee peg into the floor, dead opposite the ball, then take your shot, take a divot, and then have a look where your divot started and you'll see if your divot started behind the ball, you're losing power, you're not hitting the ball as far as you could. Your divot should start level with the tee peg, or slightly after the tee peg to prove you've had a nice, descending blow. So when you're practicing, you could pop a tee peg in the floor next to your ball. The reason I would use a tee peg is sometimes it's difficult once you've hit the ball, to work out exactly where it was. And you do need to be quite precise with this because anything where the club hits the ground, even slightly before the ball, it loses an awful lot of its power. So don’t forget, you should be taking divots. They should be in the right place, they should be relevant to the right depth, for the club that you've got as well, and then you can use them to see whether you're swinging or whether you're aiming in the right direction. So practice looking at your divots, do a bit of diagnosis on your shots, and improve your golf.