In this video, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Ged Walters explains the main cause of fat and thin shots and demonstrates an easy drill that should help elevate your ball striking abilities! He also helps with that particularly destructive and expensive shot, the skied drive using a simple but clever drill that involves a headcover.
► This video was shot on location at Sandiway Golf Club in Cheshire.
► This video was shot on location at Sandiway Golf Club in Cheshire.
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00:00The fat, the thin and the top, the most destructive shots in golf.
00:04Jed, please, help us fix these.
00:07Um, they all live in the same house, they all come from the same issue,
00:12and that issue is not being able to control where the lowest point of the golf swing is.
00:18So, sometimes you might hear the term low point, it's the bottom of the arc of the swing,
00:23and if that is either in a real variable place, or it's just way too far back from the golf ball,
00:32you're always going to struggle. Um, and then from there, that's where we start to sort of
00:37cast, release, scoop, all those sort of knock-on effects all come from golfers who
00:43struggle to control where the low point is. So, the low point, where should it be?
00:49Well, I mean, I've got a six iron in my hands here, but even if I had a driver in my hands,
00:55um, there is still a bottom to the circle, and it would be over here, it would be forward.
01:03As a reference point, you could think about it as being not a million miles away from being in line
01:09with your front heel, yeah? Because when we're making our downswing, we are moving the pressure
01:16of the body towards our target, so that is shifting where the bottom of the circle is going
01:21to be, so that's going to move it over here. So, if we think about those golfers who hit fats and
01:26thins, a lot of them keep the pressure on their trail side, so we can career into the ground back
01:32here, or we keep the club moving away from the ground to avoid that, and that's where the thins
01:37and the tops come into it. So, the bottom of the circle of the golf swing is back here, where the
01:41club wants to meet the ground. We want to shift it and move it more towards the target, so it's
01:46more on this side over here, and as you can see, as I keep doing that and brushing and hitting that
01:52part of the ground, it is on the target side of the golf club. So, a little drill that you can do
01:57to practice it is, if you're on a grass range like we are here, just get two tee pegs to create a
02:03gate and put the golf ball right in the middle. Your task is to hit the golf ball and the ground
02:08on the left-hand side of the gate. If you're on a normal driving range where you're on a mat,
02:13get some chalk, just chalk a line, and then put the golf ball behind it, so that if you
02:18move the golf ball, nice strike, brush the chalk away, then you'll have the chalk dust on the bottom
02:23of the golf club. So, you're getting constant feedback on whether or not you are or are not
02:28controlling where the low point of your swing is. Jed, if you mind, let's have a look at this
02:34drill in action. So, taking your normal setup, and then we just want to focus, and you can, rather
02:41than looking at the golf ball, keep your focus on the ground that's over here. So, all you've got to
02:47make sure you do is, when you get to the top of the backswing, is you are moving the pressure of
02:51the body towards the target. Some people will start to do that, and then they'll sort of back
02:57themselves up. Some people will just be way over on this side. Just try and keep that focus on
03:02moving towards your target, and strike your shot. And as you can see there, the divot starts
03:10right where the gate of tees are, and that's where the low point, the bottom of my circle is.
03:16So, there we go. An easy fix for the top, you're thin and you're fat. No excuses now to go out and hit
03:22that perfect golf shot. And finally, we're going to be looking at probably the most expensive,
03:27destructive golf shot, and that is the sky. Skying your driver. Now, can you tell us why this happens,
03:35and how we can go about fixing that? It's painful to watch. It's one of those when you cringe,
03:40when you see it happen, you know the dread that the golfer's going to have to look down on
03:46forever until he can afford to buy a new one. It's a sort of two-pronged attack of what's
03:53happening. When we get the club traveling down too much, and it can travel down too much
04:01from both in to out, as well as out to in. A lot of people think it's just going to travel down
04:07steeply, and then come down and across, and we get this sort of contact here. But there are golfers
04:13who travel too much from the inside, but they've got too much forward handle. So, the club head
04:21is still traveling down at the point of contact, and the face is now this way, so it's exposing the
04:27top of the golf club. But yes, down being the big key. If we're hitting down on it, then the club
04:34has not reached the bottom of its circle before it's made contact. And with the driver, ideally
04:40for most of you, you need to be hitting up. And hitting up on the ball, is there any drills or
04:46anything we can do, that you can take home to your driving range, to help fix? There is, I've got a
04:51head cover here. You could use, you know, an empty box of balls. You buy your box of balls, take the
04:58sleeves out, use the empty box that it comes in. And really, all you want to do, depending on how
05:03much down, and how quickly it pops up into the air. You could probably look, I mean, if I was to put my
05:09foot here, I would say, well, if you were to put your head cover, your driver, about there. So,
05:18it's probably about then 18 inches in front of the golf ball. Then, you just want both golf ball,
05:25and club head, to avoid hitting the head cover. Anyone who's hitting down, the ball will go up,
05:35but the head of the driver, will just career into whatever you've got there. So, if it's the empty
05:40box, it'll just obliterate the box. If it's the head cover, it'll just move the head cover out
05:43the way. It won't damage the club, but you'll get your feedback on whereabouts your contact is. So,
05:50what we want to be thinking of, is when we're making our swing here, we want the club head,
05:57to feel like it passes the hands a little bit more. And it travels a little bit more on the up,
06:02as we go through the shot. So, the whole focus is not so much on trying to hit your fairway,
06:08stop your slice. It's about making sure that you avoid the object that you've put in front
06:12of the golf ball. So, nice visual representation. Yeah. So, hopefully, it should look like this.
06:24So, ball's been hit on the up, and as you can see, head cover is still in place, missed by both
06:30ball and club face. Perfect. A nice, easy drill for you to take back to your driving range.