This is going to sound… extremely stupid

BUT

Is there something wrong with my swing if i am not taking a divot?

I get plenty of contact on the ball… every now and then i might hit one a little thin and my 9 iron might fly 160m+... but only very rarely and if i rush my swing or something.

The only reason i ask is you always see the pro’s taking huge amounts of grass with them… if anything all i do is skim the grass, cutting it a little shorter then it already was :D

Read Guru’s first articles on freddy and you should be able to answer your own question…

http://www.iseekgolf.com/go...

http://www.iseekgolf.com/go...

also refer to my signature.

nik: Its not stupid at all. It is a great question. This could be the biggest lightbulb moment of your golfing life when you read the articles and come back having read them. Tell us what you learned and also keep asking questions if those articles did not make sense to you.

I saw Greg Norman warming up at the PGA a few years ago.He seemed to flush every single shot yet took very little if any divot on all clubs but his wedges.

Johnny Miller said “I don’t take much divot.”

I guess there are always going to be differences between golfers in terms of how close to the ball the bottom of the swing arc is, which for the most part determines how long and deep the divot is going to be. From gurus lessons this will vary from club to club, a good 3 iron will probably only rip some grass off the top after impact.

But if you always nip the ball off the turf with every club, chances are like me you will also have inconsistent impact and compression because there is little margin for error. Chances are your ball flights and spin rates will vary considerably, leading to unwanted variations in distance through the air and response when the ball hits the deck.

Most pros take big divots with their wedges which reflects a sharply descending club head making solid contact with the ball then driving into the turf. This gives them the ability to hit balls with consistent flight, spin and distance so they can stick balls next to pins.

So like guru said, let your search for the missing divot lead you on to bigger and better things…

Train yourself to take a divot by hitting balls out of an existing divot.

No shot off the carpet ‘aint worth a lick unless you are shifting some sod in the process – woods included.

Longer clubs, less sod; shorter club more sod and more back spinning “stopability”. A divot is testimony to a solid down and out impact.

PS: Please put the sod back from where you took it and repair your own pitch marks on greens and any others you find. This used to be the ‘norm but sadly no longer seems to be so.

ok so the arc or radius thats created with the club and my arm maintains (should maintain) the same length… so addressing the ball in the stance with the natural lean on the club towards the target means that after impact with the ball the club at its full extension (when its straight) should impact the ground after the ball.

makes sense… i think i need to correct my address to the ball because my club does not look as it should in Fig 8 in part1… which might explain why i am prone to duffing the irons or having trouble with direction and the odd slice as the club face is not sitting true.

might go down the driving range this week and practice… as much as i hate using driving ranges its probably the best place to drill.

Driving ranges are great things. Even ones with matts. Learn to listen to the matt. You can tell by the sound of impact if you bounced the head into the matt first, ball first then matt (good) or thinned the ball. Indoor matts really yell this at you. Outside you have to listen a little harder.

Good luck out there.

During the lesson I had last week, the instructor helped me change my swing considerably. The major change that I feel physically is the shape of my downswing with my right arm, and boy has it generated results.

I’m not 100% on if I’m saying this right, but what I think changed was the steepness of my clubhead’s trajectory on the downswing, which has resulted in my divot moving forward of the ball (indicating contact first with the ball) as opposed to behind the ball where it was before, and the result is a much greater level of consistency. With my PW I’m now consistently dropping the ball with very little carry within 5-10 metres of the 100m marker at the driving range. Shots with the 5-iron now also feel a lot crisper (no horrible jarring feelings up the arms), and trajectory is straight and possibly longer, too. Oh what a difference that lesson has made.

Mr Bunny… Please explain?

How did your pro get you to swing more steeply?

Also mister bunny what do you mean by very little carry on the PW? I thought the opposite was desired. And yes I do agree that lessons make a world of difference, amazing how the littlest things can hold your swing back.

Guessing carry = more carry on ie roll on landing?? :)

Okay, here goes, hope it makes sense:

To get the feel of the new motion with the right arm, the instructor got me to hold my right arm just above the elbow with my left hand, holding my arm to my torso. By swinging the club back with your elbow held at your side, the club comes up at a steeper angle. He then said, in a similar vain to Muntz’s signature, that even though it makes no sense at all, to push my forearm down behind me in the total opposite direction of where i’m aiming. By keeping the elbow tucked in closer to my torso, it ensured that the clubhead came down on a steeper angle, and ensures the clubs swings with the correct in-to-out shape.

If that’s not a succinct or clear enough answer, I’ll try to find an alternative method of explaining myself.

Hope that helps :)

my head hurts even trying to understand what it is you just said… theres so much more to golf then i was expecting :) so much to take in

Right elbow stuck to right hip with the arm fanning up and down like with a hammering motion. It is a punching sort of motion. It keeps the elbow from getting behind the hip too soon and really drills in the down and out.

Yeah, exactly what the guru said. It still feels completely alien to me and I’m sure it will for some time yet, but it’s fixed at least one of the problems I had.

And sorry to MrConsistency, I didn’t see his question. The answer to that is if I’m trying to shape my shot to drop and stop on the green without it moving very far (say if you’ve got a tight lie with the pin at the front of the green with a hazard right in front), then I don’t really want the ball to carry, or roll on too far.

Its OK OKBunny, I have turned the eye in the sky off now:)