How to Avoid Thin or Heavy Shots

Do you have problems with ground out point, hitting shots thin or heavy?

Do you have to tee your driver really low? When I play with people, I can tell how good of a driver they are by how high they tee the ball in a regular situation. If they tee it kind of high, they generally will be pretty good. If they tee it low, to the point where the ball is not even above the crown of the driver, they will have a long day.

The good news is, there is a solution for this, and it comes out of your hips in the address position.

A simple way to create a proper descending strike on the ball from a normal fairway lie is to tilt your hips DOWN and TOWARDS the target. You will very likely feel more weight on your front foot. This is normal. Now you are trying to turn around this constant tilt!

A great drill for this feeling is to hit wedges off of a downhill lie making solid contact. Swing along the slope, and let your weight go forward with the slope. This will create a proper negative angle of attack (AOA), and hopefully a divot after the ball.

For the driver, you want to have a positive AOA, or swing UP. So we do the opposite. Start with your hips tilted back and up. You may feel more weight in your back foot to start and this is ok. The drill for this is to actually tee up driver and git shots off of an upslope. Swing along the slope. Trust me, this is proper, visit swipenclean.com.

The reason I would want you to do this, is for non teed shots it keeps your centre of mass on top of, or just in front of, the ball. For driver it should stay behind. Remember, wherever your centre of mass (COM) is at impact is likely where you will ground out.

Give it a try, and become a better ball striker!

Clinton Schmaltz

 

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About the author

Clinton has been a PGA of Canada member since 1993 and has taught thousands of golf lessons in his career and has learnt that we need to be flexible when teaching as everyone is unique in terms of how they move the club. With the use of today’s modern technology Clinton believes he can make any level of player enjoy the game more and improve. Along with focusing on your golf swing Clinton also believes that to be the best player you can be you need to look at nutrition, fitness and the mind.

Along with teaching, Clinton has been helping clients get fit into the correct equipment. He is certified with most of the major brands and with the use of our Flightscope technology he can ensure you get clubs custom designed to fit you.

Clinton Schmaltz is the Director of Instruction at The Willows Golf Club. He has been nominated the last 6 years in a row for Teacher of the Year in the Saskatchewan Zone.