Should you take a divot? It’s a good question I’m asked a lot, and my short answer is “yes.” The following article appears on GolfWRX.com and details 5 areas where the golfer can struggle with their swing. If you think any of these moves are causing you to struggle to create a nice little divot after the ball is struck book in for a lesson now! For most shots hit from the turf, most great strikers of the ball take a divot just in front of the golf ball. Not all, mind you, as it is an individual thing, but most do. The club descent at the bottom of the swing, known as the attack angle, is about 4 degrees down for a 6 iron for tour pros. If that’s the case, what creates it, what do you have to do to facilitate this? Many golfers struggle in this area. They either take a divot behind the ball or take no divot at all. Why? Here are a few reasons you can’t take a divot, or “find the bottom” as we say:
1 A Flat Swing If a player tends to swing the club around his body, he will struggle with taking turf. Flat swings can produce shallow attack angles, and create wide swing bottoms than don’t come into impact steeply enough. I say CAN, because remember, I’m referring to the downswing. Some flat backswings come over the top from there and create enough steepness to find turf, even too much turf, such as the the “in-and-over” move so common in many players. But when the downswing is really wide and around, it’s very difficult to get a divot. If this is your problem, try simply standing a bit closer and swinging more UP. “Reach for the sky,” I often tell my players. Hitting balls from a side-hill, below-your-feet lie is good for this problem. It may force you to reach up a bit and hit down more
2 Hang Back
When a player’s center of mass tends to stay on the back foot, with considerable rear side bend (I call it hang back), the bottom of the swing arc can be too far behind the ball and the club is ascending when it reaches impact. This shallow attack angle will not take much, if any, turf. Again, I say CAN because some players who have a lot of rear side bend counter it with a very late release — “lag” if you will. They come in sufficiently steep. But most golfers do not.
If you’re guilty of hanging back, try putting more weight on your front foot, and keeping it there, much like the “stack-and-tilt” method promotes. In any case, you’ll have to feel like you are hitting from a downhill lie to keep your rear side from diving too far under the ball. Hang back NEVER occurs in a vacuum; it is always the result of another move — sometimes a “reverse pivot,” sometimes an over-the-top move, sometimes trying to add loft… but rarely does one do it in and of itself.
3 Shortening the Swing Radius
The goal of impact is to create a position very similar to the one at address. Not identical, of course, because of swing dynamics, but similar. This includes a similar arm length into impact. At address, the lead arm is extended and the rear arm is slightly bent. This position is the one which we need to achieve coming into the golf ball, but if the rear arm (right for righties) gets extended, you can be sure that the left arm will be contracted.
The all too common “chicken wing” is usually the result of casting the club very early and shortening the radius of the left arm as a necessary deterrent to hitting behind the ball. Again, like everything else in the golf swing, nothing happens in and of itself. A poor swing position is the result of another poor move that preceded it. Try simulating your address position with the lead arm EXTENDED and the trail arm slightly flexed in by your rig cage.
4 Raising the Swing Center
I call this “bailing out,” meaning as the player comes into impact, he raises up, or stands taller, coming out of his original address bend. Here we go again: it’s usually the result of a swing plane that is far too steep in transition (starting the downswing). If the club is headed for a crash, as a very steep shaft will be, the only recourse is to bail out to avoid the dreaded fat shot. The correction here is learning to transition a bit flatter, with the shaft of the club more similar to its original incline, in order to “stay in the shot.” You cannot simply
“stop standing up.” It is usually the result of too steep a downswing starting down. Sound familiar? See above! Try hitting some balls from a tee with the golf club not grounded, that is, off the ground about as high as the golf ball. Feel more “baseball-like” with your approach into the ball and this will help you “stay in the shot.”
5 The Release
Lastly, there is always release point to consider. Any player’s hands should be a little ahead of the club head (called forward shaft lean) to hit down sufficiently to take a divot. That does NOT mean those who tend to release early cannot take a divot. If your center of mass is sufficiently forward, and the ball is positioned correctly for YOUR release, you can hit it early enough in your arc to take a divot.
