- I'm Adam Bazalgette,
two-time PGA Teacher of the Year award winner
down here in Naples, Florida.
Welcome to the channel and today's subject,
how to stop hitting fat golf shots.
Stay tuned.
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Well, a lot of us wanna know
how to stop hitting fat golf shots,
so that's what we're gonna focus on, here.
I'll show you the main thing you have to do
to stop doing it,
I'll show you what I think is a major pitfall,
as you try to fix that, and then I'll give you a drill
that really encompasses or covers both of them a little bit.
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There's already a lot there. Let's check it out.
So let's start with this principle.
If you're gonna be a good iron player
off a normal sort of a lie,
this is a perfect fairway lie here,
with no tee under the ball,
you have got to brush the ground, at least,
if not take a slight divot.
As we've shown you in other videos,
that puts the sweet spot up against the ball,
but the key, of course, is you have to do that
on the front side of the ball.
Now, believe it or not, the true bottom of the swing,
when they measure this with high tech equipment,
is about five inches in front of the ball.
It isn't right there, at the back of the golf ball.
So that's the key, getting the bottom of the swing forward.
Then, we'll show you the big pit fall.
But let's get started.
Let's look at a Tour pro do this and look at a couple
of the features that help him do this.
Who does it better than this guy, Sergio Garcia?
Let's have a look then.
And the camera is just fractionally off from straight on
but it will certainly serve our purpose.
So you can see, as Sergio comes in,
how the divot is in front of the ball.
If I was to highlight the angle he'll have coming in
and beyond the shot, it's about like that.
So, you can see that the bottom of his circle
is much more in this area and that is what makes him
such a consistent iron player.
And you could equate that, if you like,
with the shaft gets vertical, right about there,
beyond the golf ball.
It doesn't get vertical at the ball,
it gets vertical beyond the ball.
And when it's vertical, that is usually about the lowest
that golf club's gonna get.
Other things you'd look at as he does that.
You can see how narrow his swing arc there is.
It's pretty close to his body
and how much wider it is on that side,
so it's a great deal wider past impact than before impact.
That's certainly a helping clue as to how he does this.
And finally, if you look at a reference from the golf ball.
Again, the camera angle's just a fraction off,
but let's do that reference.
It'll certainly serve.
Couple of things you'll notice.
Number one, how far past the ball the handle gets
before he releases.
Now, it's not like he's not releasing.
He's releasing it aggressively, right there,
but it's past the ball before it happens.
And secondly, how much towards the target his hips are.
That shaft, that yellow line, is more in line
with his back hip than his front hip as he hits the ball.
And when you can do those things, hips forward,
handle past the ball and release it to the club,
straight there, you'll see that the bottom of your swing
will be several inches in front of the ball.
Okay, as we get started, let's use this little alignment rod
to help us work some things out.
And what we're going to look at briefly, from this angle,
is a pitfall that people get into when they first discover
geez, my swing's gotta be that far in front of the ball
or the bottom of the swing does.
What they tend to do,
this is at about the angle of my 8-iron,
they tend to come down steeply too much,
which in some ways does help.
It has a lot of problems that go with it, but if I had,
say, a poisonous snake on the ground over here,
it would be much easier to hit it from a steep plane
than it would be from a shallow plane.
So you can kind of cheat your way forward
if you get steep, but we don't wanna do that.
If you get steep, not only will you hit slices
and lose power, but you can dig the club into the ground
and start taking huge, deep, heavy divots.
So, stick an alignment rod in the ground
at the angle of the club you're using.
Should be a short iron, this is an 8-iron.
Move back a few inches
and just make some little swings underneath that.
Just little half swings
and then you know you're not getting steep
and it sets the table to really work
on this thing the proper way.
Let's check it from this angle.
So this stick is invaluable from this angle as well.
Number one, of course, I can tell how far past
the imaginary ball I'm hitting the ground,
but it gives me a great reference
for the handle of the golf club.
As we've shown you before,
in order to hit the ground forward,
all you've got to do is get the handle past the ball
before the club hits the ground,
before the club reaches true vertical.
And if you can do that, you're gonna have some success.
So I can experiment here with the feeling
of how far past the stick I can get the handle
and play around a little bit with my brush point.
It is not that difficult to do.
Another reference you can get from this is the hips.
As we showed you inside with the pro,
most of them, even though their head's still,
that shaft is pretty far back, say off the right hip.
So you can start to get a feeling for hey,
I can afford to go well forward with my weight,
well forward with the handle
and then hit the ground over here a little bit.
Great references.
As I said, you can put this in the back yard
and just play with it at home,
really develop some skill.
Now, one little thing here, in passing.
Always, when you're working on something new,
feel free to be playful and experiment a little bit.
Once you've done it a few times,
you're feeling you're having a little bit of success,
go ahead and make your swing
where you don't move your hips forward so much
and the club hits the ground here a bit.
Contrast that with the feeling of hitting way over there
and then maybe come back to something
a little bit more like you'd like to do.
Mix it up a little bit
and you'll develop a lot more skill and a lot more feel.
And when the ball starts to get in the way
with some small shots,
don't prioritize solid contact initially.
Just see if you can playfully move the bottom
of that swing forward and you're gonna have some success.
Well, I hope that was helpful to you.
I hope it gives you a starter
on how to stop hitting fat golf shots.
ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my website.
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