hitting behind the ball

[BillyB]

i keep hitting behind the ball, which is causing me to loose alot of distance. does any body have any suggestions on how i can solve this problem? thanks.

[baguleys]

Re: hitting behind the ball

i keep hitting behind the ball, which is causing me to loose alot of distance. does any body have any suggestions on how i can solve this problem? thanks.

Billy
I always have a picture in my mind of striking ball then turf.
Try punching down with your right hand, and taking a divot just after the ball.
Hope this helps
Baggers

[GregJWillis]

Re: hitting behind the ball

Where are your eyes focusing while swinging? Wherever they are, keep then on the same spot. I like looking at the front of the ball.

[TeachingPro]

Re: hitting behind the ball

Without seeing you swing the golf club, it's a tough one but I'll give my best shot.

Let me tell you how fat shots are caused and maybe a friend can look at your swing and help you find the problem:
<1> you chop down on the ball from the top of the backswing instead of swinging down. You can normally detect it by a folding left arm and your right shoulder becomes much higher than the left. Sometimes your left shoulder dips down significantly. These all increase the angle of your downswing.
<2> you don't transfer your weight forward to the ball during the downswing. You can normally detect this if you are leaning back at impact. What this does is: when you swing back the centre of gravity and the centre of your swing moves to the right as you turn back. If you don't shift them forward again you hit the ground before restoring the centre to where the ball is.
<3> the club passes your hands before impact. This is difficult to detect without a video camera but when this happens the bottom point of the swing gets lower and so it will hit the ground before it should. A quick-ish way of detecting this at impact is to feel you have a flat left wrist at and through impact.
<4> you don't maintain your knee flex and you lower the bottom of your swing. If you dip into the ball obviously you will move the swing arc down towards the ground you're bound to it it fat.

Those are the common causes of hitting the ground before the ball. I know it's not clear advice but I hope it has helped nonetheless. If you can post a swing or e-mail me or whatever, I'm sure I can do better.