What Divot Shape Can Tell You About The Golf Swing (Video) - by Peter Finch
What Divot Shape Can Tell You About The Golf Swing (Video) - by Peter Finch

The shape of a divot that a player will take is quite an interesting thing to have a look at. Again it’s something which not many players pay attention to. Shape in divots, you can get obviously longer divots and you can get shorter divots, if it’s a very long deep divot then the angle of attack has travelled down through impact and it’s just continued to travel down through the point of impact. If it’s a very shallow clip divot then the angle of attack is quite shallow and the ball has been nipped very cleanly off the surface. However the most interesting ones are when you actually start to get odd shapes within the divot and that will start to give an indication as if you are hitting the ground first with the heel or with the toe. What tends to happen if you come in with a very high handle, so the shaft angle gets very steep on the way down, the hands lift up towards the ball. What can happen is you hit the ball and then through the point of impact the toe impacts the ground first and twists the club face off to the right hand side.

If this happens and you have quite an unusual combination, say you’re swing out or in as well of a divot patterns which is travelling left but that almost curving off to the hand right side, that’s the case of the toe digging in and bringing the heel forward. It’s exactly the opposite if you’re coming in with too much heel. So the hands getting very, very low, the heel contacting the ground before the ball and flipping the club face over. And you can start to get a very abbreviated almost rainbow pattern if the heel is catching the ground first. And again, these are things that when you’re on the golf course you can look at and you can say okay, I’ve got that swirl off to the right hand side, it must be a more of a toe impact first, okay I’ve got that rainbow shape, that must be more of a heel impact. You can always check your divots to give you quite substantial answers about what you’re doing with your technique. So next time you go out, please take that time, have a look, and see what you find. 2016-08-31

The shape of a divot that a player will take is quite an interesting thing to have a look at. Again it’s something which not many players pay attention to. Shape in divots, you can get obviously longer divots and you can get shorter divots, if it’s a very long deep divot then the angle of attack has travelled down through impact and it’s just continued to travel down through the point of impact. If it’s a very shallow clip divot then the angle of attack is quite shallow and the ball has been nipped very cleanly off the surface. However the most interesting ones are when you actually start to get odd shapes within the divot and that will start to give an indication as if you are hitting the ground first with the heel or with the toe. What tends to happen if you come in with a very high handle, so the shaft angle gets very steep on the way down, the hands lift up towards the ball. What can happen is you hit the ball and then through the point of impact the toe impacts the ground first and twists the club face off to the right hand side.

If this happens and you have quite an unusual combination, say you’re swing out or in as well of a divot patterns which is travelling left but that almost curving off to the hand right side, that’s the case of the toe digging in and bringing the heel forward. It’s exactly the opposite if you’re coming in with too much heel. So the hands getting very, very low, the heel contacting the ground before the ball and flipping the club face over. And you can start to get a very abbreviated almost rainbow pattern if the heel is catching the ground first. And again, these are things that when you’re on the golf course you can look at and you can say okay, I’ve got that swirl off to the right hand side, it must be a more of a toe impact first, okay I’ve got that rainbow shape, that must be more of a heel impact. You can always check your divots to give you quite substantial answers about what you’re doing with your technique. So next time you go out, please take that time, have a look, and see what you find.