Fat Shots
Many so called experts will tell you that if you hit thin or fat shots you are looking up or lifting your head. This is only half the story and it gets a lot of golfers into trouble.
Lifting your head is a side effect of a much bigger problem, and simply keeping your head down won’t fix it.
The Real Cause of Fat Shots:
The real problem is that you are stopping or stalling your pivot. This happens when you try to use your arms too soon in the golf swing.
I picked up this tip from Golf Pro Bobby Schaeffer who pointed this out to me one day while we were practicing on the range (while I was probably embarrassing him with my larger than average divots).
He told me to focus on initiating my golf swing with my core, so that the club head would be in the right spot at the bottom of my swing. This is the only real way to eliminate fat shots for good.
If you don’t believe me just try to visualize this in your mind or go grab a club and try this yourself:
Swing the club back to the top of your swing. Now swing down with just your arms, don’t turn your hips or move your feet at all. With your arms extended let the golf club come to the ground where it naturally wants to. Yep it comes to the ground about a foot behind where the ball is supposed to be. How’s that for a fat shot.
This example exaggerates the problem because you rarely stop your pivot completely, but even stalling your pivot for a split second will cause the club to hit the ground behind the ball (resulting in fat shots).
Your pivot allows your hips and shoulders to rotate causing the club head to strike the ball first. It is your pivot that is responsible for clean golf shots not your arms.