Getting under the ball

February 1, 2015 6:13 pm

By Jon Woodroffe

I think I am living proof that you do not need a brain to be a golfer; in fact it can be a considerable handicap. The danger is that we think logically about things so when the golf ball is not lifting in the air off the fairway, you are likely to use the immortal phrase “I am not getting under the ball”. This will then probably lead to on the next shot you will try to get under the ball thus leaning your weight back onto your back foot. This only makes the club swing down and reach the lowest point of the arc of the swing well behind the ball and then the club is on the way up when you strike the golf ball, causing you to hit the upper half of the golf ball again meaning that you top the ball again and fail to get any height, thus leading you to think again that you are not getting under the ball, and so the cycle continues.

TIP-getting-under-the-ball
 

To stop the topping, what you have to do is to hit down on the ball, so that the divot actually starts after the ball. Here is a great tip to help you get this feeling at the golf range. Just place a score card about 3 inches behind the golf ball as you can see in the picture. If you hit the card while striking the golf ball then you have bottomed out the arc of your swing too early, you have to continue to practice until you can strike the golf ball cleanly without hitting the score card.

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