How To Stop Striking Your Irons Heavy

If you struggle with hitting fat golf shots don't despair, as it's something most golfers will have experienced at one time or another. That's why we've enlisted the help of PGA pro Dan Grieve, who runs through the causes and cures of this demoralising shot in the video and article below.

The fat shot is one of the most frustrating in golf. There are three main causes behind it, so let's look at them and three drills to rid this from your game once and for all.

Swaying

The first and most common fault is swaying off the ball. That's when you move away from the target on the backswing, with your lower half not turning properly. The problem when you do this is that it makes it very hard to return to the golf ball with any sort of consistency.

There are some drills you can do to start to fix this issue. The first involves moving your right foot forward, as I demonstrate in the video above. Then, when you swing back, feel like you keep the pressure on the inside of your right foot rather than letting it move to the outside. Make a turn and you should feel a more stable swing. You can hit some shots doing this if you think it'll help but you don't have to - the main thing is honing the feel.

This is another great drill for swaying as it will help you get through the ball better. Put your ball on a tee and move it forward in your stance by four or five inches - so that it's roughly in line with the inside of your left heel. Having the ball further forward is going to encourage you to transfer your weight better onto the left side through impact.

Lack of wrist hinge

Another common cause of the fat strike is a lack of wrist hinge. In the backswing you want to see about 90 degrees of wrist hinge, creating an 'L' shape between the arms and club. That will allow you to maintain this angle in the downswing and make better contact more often.

Here's a simple drill to encourage this feeling. Take your normal stance and lift the club up so it's level with your hands and parallel to the ground and then manipulate it into the takeaway position. Check out the video at the top of this article to see how it's done.

You've now got a 90-degree wrist hinge and you can just rotate to the top of your backswing. Do it without a ball at first and then add a ball in and you should start to strike it better.