Hitting fat golf shots can be a common occurrence for amateur golfers, but that doesn't make them any less frustrating. They are up there with shanks and pull shots in terms of scorecard destroying habits, so how can we banish heavy strikes for good?
In this video and article, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Dan Grieve shares the probable causes and runs through some of his expert tips to help you overcome heavy strikes with your irons...
Stop Striking Your Irons Heavy – Causes
The most common cause of heavy iron strikes is swaying off the ball. When you move away from the target during your backswing, your lower half does not turn correctly.
It then makes it very hard to return to the golf ball consistently, but fortunately there are some drills you can use to improve this. As I demonstrate in the video, try moving your right foot forwards. As you swing back, feel like you maintain the pressure on the inside of your right foot, as opposed to the outside, which should lead to a more stable swing. Hit some shots to bed in this feeling, and you should notice less heavy strikes.
Another great drill to prevent swaying is to put your ball on a tee and move it forward in your stance by around four or five inches. This will look similar to a driver address position, with the ball just inside your left heel. Moving the ball further forward in your stance will encourage you to transfer your weight onto your left side more effectively through impact.
Another common cause of the fat strike is a lack of wrist hinge. In the backswing you want to see about 90 degrees of wrist hinge, creating an 'L' shape between the arms and club. That will allow you to maintain this angle in the downswing and make better contact more often.
Here's a simple drill to encourage this feeling. Take your normal stance and lift the club up so it's level with your hands and parallel to the ground and then manipulate it into the takeaway position. Check out the video at the top of this article to see how it's done.
You've now got a 90-degree wrist hinge and you can just rotate to the top of your backswing. Do it without a ball at first and then add a ball in and you should start to strike it better.
