Dreaded fat shots are some of the most frustrating shots in golf.

Sometimes you will hit a great drive setting yourself up for an easy 100-yard shot into the pin. In your mind, this ball is going to land about ten feet from the hole setting you up for an easy birdie.

However, if you hit the ball fat, chances are your shot ends up about fifteen yards ahead of you.

Hitting fat shots can be stopped. A few tweaks to ball position, address position, and even spine angle can have you hitting the ball clean and crisp once again. Here are my 5 best tips to finally stop hitting the ball fat.

What Causes a Fat Shot in Golf?

A fat shot is caused by taking a divot behind the ball as opposed to in front of the ball. This can happen for various reasons, including improper weight transfer, too much head movement, and even the wrong mental picture of what it takes to hit a golf ball up in the air.

Hitting fat shots is a very common mistake in the game of golf. Many players would rather hit the ball thin than fat.

How Does This Compare to Hitting a Thin Shot?

When you hit a fat shot, the golf club hits behind the ball before it makes contact with the ball. Hitting a thin shot means you strike the golf ball only, or even partially up towards the middle of the ball. Fat shots are often hit as the club is still moving downward, and thin shots are hit as the club moves up.

5 Tips to Stop Hitting Your Golf Balls Fat

If you have a tendency to hit the ball fat, here are some things you can do to prevent that from happening. The common causes of hitting the ball fat can usually be fixed with a few sessions at the range.

Keep Your Head Stationary

One of the most common causes for hitting behind the ball is that your head moves up and down or side to side in your golf swing. If you look at videos of great players, you can see that there is, in fact, a bit of head movement.

However, most of the time, the head stays level, and it can return to the same exact position when it’s time to strike the ball. For many players, this head movement becomes a significant issue. As they turn back, the head dips down, and then it needs to move up at impact.

As you might have guessed, this movement up never happens. Therefore the club strikes into the ground too far.

If you can learn to keep your head stationary and focus on it, staying right over the golf ball, you will be less likely to hit the chunk.

Check Ball Position

Ball position is so often overlooked by amateur golfers. It’s kind of boring to work on ball position in your golf swing; we get that. However, it’s incredible how one tiny golf ball positioning can make or break your ability to have the clubhead strike in the proper position.

Ball position that is pushed too far forward towards the left foot (for right-handed players) can become a problem. Instead, it makes sense to have the ball just a bit closer to the center.

As we talked about, a fat shot can come from hitting the ground before the ball, and if the ball is too far up in the stance, you will strike grass first. Use a series of alignment sticks to help you

map out the proper feet position and ball position.

Move Weight Towards Left Foot

The goal of every golf swing is to finish with your weight forward on your left foot, standing square to the target with a full rotation. However, most players get stuck on their back leg. This leaves them feeling like they can’t get full distance, and it often results in hitting fat shots.

Sometimes golfers get lazy and have a bad swing habit that keeps their weight back. Others have a tendency to overswing, and it becomes too much effort to get the weight forward.

One of my best tips here is to start with a little bit of weight on the left foot. Don’t load up so that 90% of the weight is on the right foot at setup. Take a few swings like this and see if you can feel that weight making its way to the left side a little easier.

Play with this balance and transfer until you can find a happy medium that allows for a cleaner and crisper transfer of weight.

Mental Perception Changes

Are you one of the golfers that believe you need to lift the ball up in the air? If you are, you need to get that thought out of your mind. One of the reasons golfers hit a fat shot is because they think they need to lift the shot up in the air with their hands.

Don’t do this!

If you hit the golf ball at the bottom of the swing arc and take a divot directly after the ball, the launch, ball flight, and distance will be perfect. Start to get a mental picture in your head of what the proper impact position looks like.

Golf clubs and golf balls are designed in such a way that you can quickly get the ball up in the air by striking down and through it. Don’t overcomplicate the process by trying to lift the ball yourself.

This concept is really easy to learn when you practice chipping. Start taking some more compact chipping type golf swings and notice how much easier it is to hit a clean and crisp golf shot if you can keep your hands forward as opposed to flipping them to get the ball up in the air.

Narrow Stance with Room to Swing

We talked about ball position, but there are some things about the stance and setup that are also important for golfers to understand and implement. Hitting fat shots is not always caused by the swing. Sometimes the way you address the ball has you set up for hitting a fat shot.

The first step here is to take a narrow stance. If your stance is really wide, you may have a tough time transferring the weight. There are not too many downsides to a more narrow stance as long as you have some balance and stability.

In fact, many golfers that are struggling with their swing will take a narrow stance to see if they can control things and get it back to the standard position.

Next, make sure that you have enough room to swing the club. If you stand too close to the golf ball, you will hit behind it. As your hands come through the impact position, they get too close to your leg, and it causes you to hit behind the ball.

Play around with different distances to the golf ball. The longer the club, the further you will stand from the ball. In addition, make sure that you can fully transfer your weight and get to the forward position with all of your weight on the left side.

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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Although skulling the golf ball may not happen to you often, it seems to always occur after a perfect drive or right when you gain the lead in a match against your best friend. What is it about this shot sneaking up at the worst possible times? 

We will look at what a skulled golf shot is, why it happens, and most importantly, how to fix it. Whether you are a new player or have a long history in the game, this guide should be able to help. 

What is a Skulled Golf Shot

A skulled shot is a ball that typically flies just above the ground and sometimes almost on the ground. A skulled shot is typically not something that can be controlled, and it will probably fly further than you expect. 

The skulled golf shot is the result of a ball that is hit very thin, and the leading edge of the golf club strikes the upper part of the ball. The goal in golf is to get the clubface to make contact with the ball and not just the leading edge. 

Common Causes of a Skulled Shot

Skulling a golf shot is not always a major mistake; sometimes, there are just a few slight adjustments you can make in your swing that will help you eliminate the skulled golf shot. Here are a few of the common causes of a skulled shot. 

Losing Spine Angle

One of the major causes of a skulled golf shot is losing your spine angle in the backswing. Sometimes players stand up and get more vertical or bend down during their backswing. When they make it back to the ball, the spine angle has to recover, and it often is too late to hit the ball on the center of the clubface. 

Too Much Hand Involvement 

Some players use their hands to pick the ball off the ground. Depending on what sports you have played and the games you are good at, using hands as opposed to hips and shoulders can feel more consistent and natural. 

However, it is not!

Too much involvement of the hands and the idea of hitting the ball instead of swinging through it can sometimes cause a skulled shot. 

Not Enough Turn 

Golfers that do not incorporate a lower body turn into their backswing often struggle with a skulled shot. The downswing is typically not as grounded, and the bottom of the swing arc will be a bit higher, causing a skulled shot. 

Golfers that start with a good posture, a strong hip turn, and a square clubface on takeaway have much more luck. 

Wrong Mental Picture

Do you know what it takes to get a golf ball in the air? Many players confuse getting a ball up in the air with lifting it up in the air. This is especially important with wedges, pitch shots, and chip shots. The ball is not lifted into the air. Instead, it is compressed and flies into the air after you make contact. 

Take a look at some of the best golfers in the game and try to learn what they look like at impact, the pictures may completely change the way you think about impact. 

5 Tips to Stop Skulling Your Golf Shots

After determining what causes your skulled golf shot, it’s time to implement a fix. There are ways that you can stop skulling the ball in your short game as well as your full swing. 

1. Stay more Centered 

A common mistake that golfers make in their swing is they slide laterally. Mistakes like this will make getting the club face back to a square and grounded position considerably harder. When you can stay more centered and pivot, the back foot loads up with your weight, and then it transfers to your front foot as you swing through the ball. 

Staying centered takes some core strength and good posture to start out the swing. Also, ensure the ball is correctly positioned in the middle of your stance and that you keep your head in the proper position. 

Amateur golfers often think they have to move more than they do in their swings. Staying centered can help you increase power and capability. 

2. Use The Legs

Using your legs to turn as opposed to the upper body, wrists and hands will make it much easier to return the club to the ground and hit the clubface square. Some players will lift the club up on the backswing, and the clubface’s bottom edge never returns back to the bottom of the ball. 

Using your legs will automatically keep you more grounded and allow for a more consistent golf swing. 

Wrists and hands get overly involved in the short game, and it can result in fat shots, skulls, and thin shots. Incorporate your legs into your swing more, and you will get more confident in the shots you are hitting. 

3. Practice Hitting The Grass 

It’s a good idea to practice hitting the grass. To properly strike a golf ball, you must hit the grass as well. Even a shot that is picked clean off the grass is still going to make contact with the ground and help increase the overall launch of the golf shots. 

Take some small chip and pitch shots and work on clipping the grass (you can even do this in your backyard). If you keep swinging and missing the grass, the same will happen when the ball is put into place. 

Make sure you have a proper posture, stance, and set up, and use a better pivot to pull your arms down and through the ball. 

4. A Little Weight On The Left 

If you have a tough time with skulling shots, sometimes putting a little extra weight on your left side at setup will do the trick. This is not to be exaggerated as it can cause issues with ball flight. Instead, just feel slightly lean and focus on returning to this position at impact. 

Sometimes that little weight on the left side can be enough of a reminder to keep yourself pulling the club down and through the grass. 

I like this trick when hitting pitch and chip shots around the green. Skulling a short chip across the back of the green is very frustrating and sets you up for a double bogey. Feel like your arms are just a little heavy at setup, and lean on the left side just before you take the club back. 

5. Maintain Spine Angle 

Maintaining your spine angle throughout your golf swing will also help improve the issue of skulling your golf shots. To maintain a proper spine angle, think about letting your spine remain at the same position it is in at the start of your swing. 

Try to take a video of your golf swing and see if you are rotating around a fixed point or if your spine angle is increasing and decreasing as you take a swing. 

Most of the time, the spin angle changes as players try to get the ball up in the air. Remember that getting a golf ball to fly up in the air is not necessarily something that a golfer does intentionally; it happens due to a great golf swing. 

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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Some golf shots are incredibly frustrating, like the slice, the shank, and even the skulled shot. However, another one that can creep up on you is the duck hook.

The duck hook is a shot that will leave you with recovery and could end up costing one or even two shots on a hole. I’ve had a few instances of this happen to me, as my swing is shallow, and that is one of the common causes of hitting a duck hook.

If you want to get rid of the duck hook and hit straighter shots, here are the best ways to ensure that happens.

What is a Duck Hook in Golf?

A duck hook is when a golf ball makes a very sharp left-hand turn and heads for the ground. Duck hooks don’t stay in the air for long, and they have a ton of spin that takes the ball left.

Some golfers will call this a snap hook, as the ball makes a very quick turn to the left, much more severe than a traditional hooked golf shot.

Most of the time, a duck hook in golf is not going to go much more than about 50 or 100 yards. Some stronger players may hit a longer duck hook. However, the problem is not how far the total distance of this shot is but how far left it goes.

Often, the duck hook leaves you in a good amount of trouble somewhere down the left side of the golf course.

Common Causes of a Duck Hook

The most common causes of a duck hook are related to the path. However, there are problems with the player’s grip and club face angle that can also cause the ball to duck hook.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind and look out for when trying not to hit a duck hook.

Swing Path Too Far Inside

When hitting a driver, it can be beneficial to have an inside to out swing path. This will typically promote a draw and maybe even a few extra yards of distance.

However, if you happen to exaggerate this path a bit too much, as a right handed golfer, you could end up hitting a duck hook.

The takeaway on your golf swing should be one that leads to a more straight swing path, as opposed to one that goes directly inside. Keeping your arms just a bit more extended on the takeaway should easily fix this issue for you.

Closed Clubface

A closed clubface is a major reason behind hitting the duck hook. Sometimes your club face angle is closed at impact, and then you just never get it to square. Other golfers take their right hand and rotate it closed at impact, causing this problem.

Golf clubs should sit more neutral when on the tee box or even hitting an approach shot to the green, even if your typical ball flight is going to turn the ball to the right.

The closed clubface can become a problem with short irons, long irons, and even the driver.

Grip Too Strong

A neutral grip is the best position for all golfers. However, some golfers grip the club strongly to help eliminate a slice.

This is when the right hand is very far underneath the club, and it makes this hand more active in the swing. Although some players will time this right and hit straight shots, it’s hard to be consistent with it.

Backswing Too Short

Although this is a less common reason that golfers hit a duck hook, it can happen.

Sometimes you see this with better players that are trying to hit a punch shot or to control the ball flight in some way. Instead of completing their entire backswing and shoulder rotation, they take the club back halfway and then rush through to the finish.

The problem with this is that the club did not have enough time to even rotate from the open to square position, so it’s just shot at impact and results in a duck hook. This problem can also sometimes be a bit tempo related and typically doesn’t become a miss that a player hits often.

Wrong Equipment

All golfers must ensure they are playing with equipment that compliments their playing style and ability on the golf course.

Sometimes golfers that have clubs that are too short for them will have a tendency to duck hook the ball. If you see a strong taller man get up and try to hit a shot with a ladies’ graphite shafted golf iron, you may see a duck hook.

This is simply because the player is moving a little too quickly, and the golf club can’t keep up with the resistance and potential stored in the club head. Choose the right golf equipment to help you hit better shots, but a consistent duck hook is likely not caused by equipment.

3 Steps to Help You Stop Hitting Duck Hooks

Now that you have a better understanding of how the duck hook comes about, let’s look at how you can get rid of it.

Here are three steps to take each time you hit to ensure that your swing plane, posture, setup, and overall golf swing will allow for full swing shots that go straight toward your target.

Step 1: Check Your Grip

The grip on your golf club should be neutral.

Make sure your left hand is not holding too much of the grip in your hand and that the club is mostly in your fingers. The thumb should be pointing down the shaft, and the V made by the thumb and index finger on the left should be pointing to your left shoulder.

Once you have the left hand on the golf club, it is much easier to get the right hand into the proper position. The right hand should not be so far underneath the golf club as it is in a strong grip.

In addition, that V made up by your index finger and thumb on your right hand should point to your right shoulder.

A neutral golf grip

Step 2: Get The Setup Right

One of the most common misses in the game of golf is the slice.

When players hit a slice a few times in a row, they start to learn to fear it. I get that, as most of the trouble on the golf course seems to be down the right side. The problem is that if you end up over-correcting this shot for a slice, you could end up with a duck hook.

Keep your clubface square at setup, even if you are struggling with something in your golf game. A square clubface will help you see more distance, better ball flight, and more consistency in your game.

One of the tools I have used to help me ensure my setup and my clubface is not too closed are alignment sticks. Alignment sticks can help you learn how to swing down the proper path, as well as ensure that your setup is perfect before the takeaway.

Step 3: Check The Path

Now that you are set up to hit a straight golf shot, it makes sense to check the path of your club.

It’s good to have a target line, and when you swing out to the right of the target, you can get some really great right-to-left ball flight. However, if the backswing is a bit too shallow or inside the clubface may get to the impact position closed.

If you are going to swing inside out, be sure not to overdo it. Learn to swing more towards the target line as opposed to just swinging out and away from it. The path is an important part of any golf swing, and having a friend take a video can really help you see what you are doing wrong.

If you find that path is something you need to work on, you can use golf alignment sticks in the ground to check for the angle that you are bringing the club back and how you are swinging through.

Always give yourself enough room to ensure that you are not going to break your club or the alignment stick; use it instead as a visual reminder.

Brittany Olizarowicz

Britt O has been playing golf since the age of 7. Almost 30 years later, she still loves the game, has played competitively on every level, and spent a good portion of her life as a Class A PGA Professional. Britt currently resides in Savannah, GA, with her husband and two young children.

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