Hitting under and over the ball

[Floris]

Dear Tathata members,

I am now at day 22 and have improved a lot and my scores are getting better.
I have just started the game of golf since summer 2016 and have my handicap 54 (Official Dutch golf license).
In the case that I am hitting a ball it is fluently and goes in the right direction and length. But my problem is that this only happens in 50% of the hits.

My problem in the 50% of bad hits is that sometimes I am hitting under the ball, which is in most of the cases and in a few cases I am hitting the ball at the top.

Could yu please tell me how I can avoid this!
Because this is costing me a lot of bad hits which go only 10 or 20 meters. Also I hit a lot of bad shots from the tee-box. Maybe it is the anxiety of wanting to hit the ball extra good from the tee. But it also happens on the rest of the golf course when I am struggling with the hight and the resistance from the grass.

Hope you can help me with this specific problem.

Best regards, Floris from The Netherlands

[Les]

Floris,

I believe that the main cause of this is early acceleration. You are applying too much downward hand and arm pressure too early in the swing because you are focused on the ball. That usually leads to an over-the-top move and you have a hard time controlling the bottom of the arc of the swing.

Best thing I can recommend as this worked for me are two things:
1) Practice going slow motion from the top of the backswing until impact then full speed out of impact. In the normal swing you want pressure at a 5 or 6 just prior to impact. For this drill think only 3 or 4 in pressure.
2) Place a second ball or tee or a few tees in front of your ball in line with your target. Make that tee or ball at least 6 inches or more (15 – 30 cm) in front. Now when you swing instead of trying to hit your ball, try hitting the tee and let the first ball just get in the way.

The goal of these two drills is that you want to feel the speed out in front of your ball and not at the ball. When you do this combined with a proper body movement through the strike it should give you much better control of your low point. Chapters 3 and 4 will also help with this as you learn how to pressure your body.

[David]

Hi Floris,

Here are a couple of links that might help. Your thin hits might be an over correction from the many fat shots. Interestingly, I have not seen any posts where people asked about topping the ball. Hope this helps.

Hitting fat shots

Fat hits

[Floris]

Les, thank you for your 2 tips. I am going to try it the next time.

And thanks David for the redirection. I didn’t knew it was called fat shots in golf terms.

Best regards, Floris