To Divot or not to Divot

[chessbum]

For most of my golfing career, I have hated to take a divot. I don't know why. Now, I think it is probably better to take a divot. I have started to think about hitting down and through the ball with the divot beginning on the target side of the ball. Frankly, it's still a mystery to me.

Any advice on hitting the irons and creating a proper divot would be greatly appreciated. Would this improve my ball striking with the irons?

I would love to hear your advice.

Chessbum...

[CanOfCorn]

Re: To Divot or not to Divot

Divots are definitely good. CBS had some excellent slow motion video last year of club heads coming through at impact. I really learned a lot from watching it.

[GoNavy]

Re: To Divot or not to Divot

This is basically the same question posted in the new golfer section. Here is what I said, it applies here as well:

Making a divot is simply a byproduct of making a descending blow on the ball with your hands ahead of the club head, this is usually produced by a correct swing. My guess is you are flipping your hands through impact, thereby clipping the ball at the bottom of your swing (hands will usually be even with or behind the clubhead at impact). This is also the reason divots usually only occur with mid/short irons, swing is more upright, because they are shorter, and you are standing closer to the ball, and the ball is played towards the middle of your stance. Long irons, fairway woods are more of a sweeping hit, still not flipping, just played further forward in your stance to allow them to be hit at the bottom of the arc. Drivers are played slightly more forward to allow a slightly upward hit, the arc bottoms out behind the ball, without hitting the ground, hence, why it is on a tee.

The best way to stop flipping is to think of the shaft (handle end) leaning foward at impact, this will compress the ball into the ground, thereby putting backspin on the ball and making it get airborn. Golf is a strange game, gotta hit down to make it go up.

If you look at your clubs, they are designed with different lofts. What most new golfers don't realize, these lofts are based on the club being soled correctly, a PW requires a forward lean on the shaft, set them up on a table and see for your self, all the irons require this leaning for the lofts to be correct and to be hit correctly, a 6 irons just doesn't require as much lean as a 9 iron. So let say you hit a PW with 56 degree of loft, if you hit it with your hands even with the ball (no shaft lean, club is straight up/down) you basically just added a whole bunch of loft, much more then 56 degrees, and you didn't compress the ball, so your not getting backspin.

Your question: Any advice on hitting the irons and creating a proper divot would be greatly appreciated. Would this improve my ball striking with the irons?

Absolutely, if you are not hitting your irons with a downword strike, shaft and hands forward, you are robbing your self of both power and distance. In other words you are turning your 7 iron into an 8 iron or 9 iron depending on how far back your hands are from where they are suppose to be, in addition with little or no backspin, you are losing height (trajectory) as well, also a big loss in distance.

[chessbum]

Re: To Divot or not to Divot

Dear Gonavy,

Thanks for the nice write-up. I agree and understand all you have said. I am going to continue working on it and thanks for taking the time to respond.

Chessbum...