Hack Golf. PGA Course guides to golfing Puget Sound, Oregon, and Eastern Washington

FAT SHOTS

Fat shots come from one thing, hitting behind the ball. Why do we hit behind the ball?

Answer, our club has come back to the ball lower than it started. Obvious right! Well if we think about it that way we'll never fix the problem. Our head is the problem. It controls more than we think. If our head comes up as we go through the ball we top it. If our head goes down through the ball we hit it "fat".

We've been taught for years to keep our head still, so the only way it can move is up and down. It needs to move right to left (considering you're a right handed player) along "with our body" not fighting it.

A good way to practice this is in front of a mirror. Draw a horizontal line on the mirror so you can see if your head moves above or below it. Make practice swings looking at yourself move from right to left freely. Let your arms hang while you do this and feel the centrifugal force pull you into a natural weight shift. This will get you sweeping the ball more instead of trying to scoop it

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About the Author

Jeff Shaw was born in Pasadena California in 1960. He grew up in Arcadia California where he was introduced to golf at age four by his father. He played high school golf at Arcadia and later played college golf at The University of Southern California. Following college Jeff entered into the PGA program while working as an assistant golf professional.

Later, after obtaining PGA membership, Jeff decided to play full time. He participated in events on the Hogan, Nike, Canadain and South Pacific tours. While on the South Pacific Tour he won the pro-am on the Tahiti Open and captured the Nandi Open on the island of Fiji. After returning from the South Pacific, Jeff realized that his first love in golf was teaching and he returned to working full time as a Head Golf Professional.