Sei Young Kim DEEP DIVOTS Correcting this common error can go a long way toward getting your divots to point at the target. These adjustments aren't meant as a permanent fix – they are simply a temporary solution. For example, if your divot is pointing to the right of the target this means you’ve approached the ball from the inside (if you’re a left hander and your divots pointing to the right it means that you’ve cut across the ball). Can Senior Hybrid Golf Clubs Be Played Out Of Divots? Flop shots. Remember, these tips are not meant as permanent solutions. To execute this shot, you will want to use your most-lofted club. Working on a good weight transfer will help if your divots are pointing left of the target. Hi guys my divot wit S, P, 9, 8, is straight and aiming like 10 degrees right. It isn't a good idea to try changing major parts of your swing mechanics while you are in the middle of a round. However, if your divot is significantly left of the target, you can be sure that there is a problem in your swing. No – you aimed to the left! A lot of people do get a little bit obsessed with divots and maybe get a little bit too much into what they actually mean without knowing the full reasons behind it. Be ready to alter your swing significantly if you would like to reach new levels of ball striking. After the round is finished, you can head to the driving range to figure out what may have been going wrong. The sooner you can straighten out the pattern of your divots, the sooner you can begin to hit better golf shots. A slower overall swing tempo will give your lower body more time to move out of the way in the downswing – meaning the club will have more room to fall to the inside. Also imagine making the divot before the shot; the starting point, flight, and thickness of the divot that a good shot makes. Armed with plenty of evidence, you can then get to work on improving your swing technique. With the exception of the two short shots above, a divot pattern that points left of the target is generally a bad thing for your golf game. One of the key areas of self evaluation that you can undertake yourself is the analysis of what your divots are doing with your iron shots. While you might think of a divot as something that simply needs to be replaced before you move on to your next shot, it can actually be a helpful teaching tool. The divots you produce should be level and not overly deep – maybe half an inch or so. Equipment Spotlight: Premium brand Thomas Golf - Custom golf clubs with Shot Accuracy Technology, Drivers | Woods | Hybrids | Irons + Wedges | Putters | Chippers | Accessories | Clearance, #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,PW,GW,SW,LWRight Handed / Left Handed, Only $119 eachIncludes Free Pro-Fitting Service, My Account | Sitemap | Support This Site | Suggest A Tip, Golf Info Guide copyright 1998-2021, Privacy Policy, When this is the case the ball can be topped and the, Golf Rules Golf Rule 11 Teeing Ground Video - by Pete Styles, Choosing The Right Golf Club For A Tee Shot Video - by Pete Styles, Golf Bunker Rules, Am I Allowed To Touch The Sand Before My Shots Video - by Pete Styles, Click Here for a Free Professional Fitting for Custom Clubs. There is a good chance that your divot problems are based in one of the three swing mistakes above. To avoid the water, you decide to aim left of the hole toward the big part of the green. This is not necessarily the same thing as a line between your ball and the hole. Sometimes I can even feel the club cutting across the ball, which produces a high right ball flight. If I set myself up and I swing the club out-to-in, the club will travel first of all initially away from my body and then come back into my body. Fixing the reverse pivot starts with staying balanced during the backswing. You have executed your game plan perfectly. Hitting with your arms causes the upper body to lean to the left on the way down. If the divot comes across we can also get what we call a pull slash for the ball starts left in its journey and then curls on to the right-hand side. Because your divots indicate the path in which the clubhead is coming into the ball. The first thing the ball is going to travel in the direction where these tee pegs are and go to the left hand side, and we call that a pull when it goes straight to the left. You have reached the maximum number of submissions for today. Your game isn't going to get better just by noticing that your divots are pointing left – you have to take that information with you to the practice range and make changes to your swing in order to improve. Well the most obvious factor is that the club head has actually travelled in a direction where it has come around your body, here is a direction that we wish to hit. In this case, that is exactly what you want to see. If you use your hands too actively early in the swing, the club will be moved to the inside of the proper path. Leaning this way at impact changes your swing path to the left instead of in a circle, resulting in a divot that points left. Just like with the flop shot, you want you have your divot pointing left of the target when hitting a bunker shot (of course, the 'divot' in this case is just sand). It is important that the body control the club throughout the swing in order to take more control out of the smaller muscles of the arms and hands. Did you come over the top and swipe across the ball at impact? It is only helpful to identify this problem with your divot pattern if you are able to do something to fix it. If you are forced to hit practice balls off of mats, you won't be able to do your divot work on the range. By the end of the round, you will have taken plenty of divots and you should have a very clear picture of what kind of pattern is prevalent in your swing. Swinging across the ball from right to left is a major mistake, and minor swing changes likely won't be enough to get you back on track. What Does Getting Stuck On The Golf Downswing Mean? You stand to gain both power and accuracy by correcting your swing path, so you should expect your game to take a big step forward once your divots are successfully pointed down the target line. This is a classic move for someone who struggles with a slice. In a good golf swing, the club is delivered from the inside so that a full release can send the club head traveling perfectly down the target line. When the golf ball is in the front of the stance, playing off of the front foot, it is hard to hit the golf ball square and straight. Keeping the ball in play should be your main goal while you are fighting your swing, and moving the ball back to hit punch shots is a great way to accomplish that mission. By swinging across the ball aggressively, you can throw the shot up into the sky and bring it down soft. Unfortunately, most amateur golfers make a mess of the takeaway portion of the swing. Divots Pointing Left of the Target Line – What Does It Mean? When you find that your divots are pointing left on the course, try using one or more of the temporary solutions below to get through the round as successfully as possible. Yet again, the result of this mistake is a divot that points well to the left of the target. This is highly valuable information, and ignoring your divots is a missed opportunity to improve your game. Of course, you can't exactly do that in the middle of a round of golf. Divots Pointing Left Of The Target Line Golf Tip (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles. Again, you will sacrifice distance with this method, but it is worth it if you can start to hit the ball straight once again. When this occurs and the head follows, you have moved your center of gravity too far to the left, which moves the low point too far left of the golf ball (as is shown in the far left divot above). This piece of turf must be cut in order to make a proper golf stroke. Realistically, your swing is going to require some major changes in order to straighten out your divots. Try making divots that point to the left of your target for a temporary fix. This is … #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,PW,GW,SW,LWRight Handed / Left Handed, Only $119 eachIncludes Free Pro-Fitting Service, My Account | Sitemap | Support This Site | Suggest A Tip, Golf Info Guide copyright 1998-2021, Privacy Policy. You can learn a lot from your divots. A network error caused the media download to fail part-way. Divot Direction. The head speed of the club will be slowed down substantially. If you are able to practice on a natural grass driving range, you can use that opportunity to observe your divots in a controlled environment. Working on a good weight transfer will help if your divots are pointing left of the target. It is vital that you pay close attention to how you are reading your divots so that you can get the right information each and every time. If you’re like most golfers, your piece of grass usually points leftward of the target. What Does It Mean If My Divots Point to the Left? When the divot is hit before the ball, the contact of the club has already used its full potential on the ground and not the ball. Divots can only go in one of three directions -- straight, left or right. Over the period of just one or two practice sessions, you can gather as much data on your swing as you would get from five or six rounds of golf. Once you determine that your divots are, in fact, pointing to the left of the target line, the next step is to figure out what is going wrong in your swing. One reason could be the alignment to the golf ball. You have reached the maximum number of submissions for today. Another reason for having your divot point left of the target line is having too much tension in the right grip. When this is the case the ball can be topped and the divot flying out to the left. Sometimes they’re very deep and other times the club never touches the ground. If you take your stance too close to the ball at address, you will almost always end up with a swing that slices across the ball from right to left. Divots Left Tee Drill Published: February 18, 2014 A critical concept in the one plane swing that many golfers have failed to fully understand while learning the swing is the concept of swinging left. You make a great swing, strike the ball cleanly, and the ball lands softly on the putting surface. While you will sacrifice distance with this plan, you should gain a good deal of accuracy at the same time. Divot Pointing To The Left. I hit the ball low so play the ball forward in my stance to gain a bit more height. That is not always the case, however. Simply move the ball back in your stance and hit ¾ punch shots into all of your targets. Basic Wide Takeaway Left Arm Inline With Shaft, Senior Consistency Golf Tip, Best Way to Time your Backswing Left Arm And Shoulder Stay Together - Senior Golf Tip, Should Senior Golfers let their Left Heel Lift during their Golf Swing, How to Create a Solid Putting Stroke Keep the Left Wrist Firm Senior Golf Tip. Set ourselves up bring the club back from the outside gate that we had and then from here hit out and we call this an in-to-out swing. DON’T EVER TRY TO SWING THE CLUB DOWN THE LINE!!!!!!! Specifically, there are two instances on the golf course when you actually want to see your divots pointing left. Squeezing the club too hard with the right hand causes a chain reaction throughout the body in the back swing. A common divot flight is left; there are a few reasons for this. Another common amateur mistake is known as a reverse pivot. It’s when the club starts to go a long way left and when you start to see a lot of ball flight movement, that's when the problems start to occur. However, if you are still stumped even after watching the video, consider taking a golf lesson with a local pro who can help you break down the mechanics of your swing to isolate the issue that is leading to a poor swing path. What Does Doubling Crossing Mean In A Golf Swing? This is the opposite of what you want to do with your 'regular' full swings, but it is essential for success on these short shots. You don't want to have to play the rest of your golf career while choking up on the club (for example). A quick drill to fix this problem is by putting a tee in the ground about two inches in front of the ball. Use these tips to simplify your swing and wait to make the real changes until you can spend some time at the driving range. Remember if you were to go out-to-in we will catch the balls going back and catch the balls coming in. PS The right elbow is often the culprit in getting "trapped". Hitting a good divot is the first sight of a good golf stroke. When practicing on the range, you will still need to pick a very specific target line so you can compare your results after the shot. The tension in the right hand makes the right arm more dominate than the left on the down swing causing the right side of the body to meet first with the ball. What Does The Term Clearing The Hips Mean In My Golf Swing? After you move back, work on making a wide backswing that gives you plenty of room to drop the club to the inside during the downswing. The perfect shape is that of a dollar bill pointing directly down the target line. Page 1 of 2 - draw flight but divots pointing right - posted in Golf Instruction: Hi Guru, Im left handed, play off 8. hit the ball normally with a slight draw. Before hitting your next shot during the round, take a couple of slow practice swings to get comfortable with the idea of a relaxed tempo. Of late I've noticed that my divot path is slightly to the right of target. Golf Swing Tips for Taking a Proper Divot. If your club-face is aligned open to the direction of your divot at impact you’ll produce a shot starting to the left and then fading/slicing. Hitting with your arms causes the upper body to lean to the left on the way down. The two shots below are far easier to execute successfully when your divot is pointed well to the left of the target line that you have selected. When this happens the divot will fly out left and soon the ball as well, causing a hook or a topspin pull. What Should My Left Wrist Look Like At The Top Of My Golf Back Swing? Take your time between each shot and try your best to make quality swings just as you would on the course. To straighten out your divot pattern quickly, try using a slower swing to allow your body to get into better positions. The main reason is because an overwhelming majority of golfers make an over the top steep move on the downswing (click here to read about how to attack from the inside). What Do People Mean When They Say Golf Course Management? Simply swing down making sure to take up a divot about the size of a dollar bill. Slower tempo. That’s what an Out-to-In swing is and it causes what we just mentioned this divot coming across from the two shots that we have mentioned from it. For right-handed players, if it’s pointing to the left, it means your swing path is coming from outside to inside (a path that produces a slice). Not by a great deal mind you. Ball is a push that will either hit the right side of the green or be off the green to the right (no slice, just push). This player may have a stronger grip, a flatter swing plane and struggle with a good rotation. A deep, leftward crater indicates a pulled shot straight left or a slice to the right. When the golf ball is in the front of the stance, playing off of the front foot, it is hard to hit the golf ball square and straight. So now you know what happens when you come across what it calls has been more importantly as a simple drill that actually change the path from out-to-in to in-to-out. In both cases, hitting a flop shot and hitting a greenside bunker shot, the key is an outside-in swing path. In this case, since your intended target was the left side of the green, you should be happy to see that your divot is pointing in that direction. Causes Of Why My Golf Divots May Point Left, Strong Golf Grip, What Does A Strong Left Hand Grip Mean, Top Of The Golf Swing, What Does It Mean Set The Club At The Top, Compress Golf Ball, What Does Trapping The Ball Mean, Golf Release, What Does Releasing The Golf Club Mean, Golf Down Swing, What Does Stuck Behind Mean? The question is what does it s mean if my divots are actually pointing to the left hand side as a right-handed golfer. It should only take a few minutes of watching your swing on tape for you to determine what is going wrong in your swing. 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