By Cody Smith, PGA
Many of the students I work with struggle with compressing the golf ball and making consistent contact because the club doesn’t bottom out just past contact with the ball. I recommend finding the low point of your swing by spending time practicing in a bunker with an iron. Draw a line in the sand and pick a target (ideally a green) about 100 yards away. Before you even put a golf ball down, take a few practice swings and use the line in the sand as if that was your ball.
The objective is to make sure you’re hitting the ball first and the ground second, so you want to make sure that you’re hitting the sand in front of the ball and not hitting the sand first. This will help compress the golf ball, refine your angle of attack, and make you a better striker of the golf ball, especially with your irons. Bunker practice gives great feedback because the ball doesn’t go very far if you catch even a little bit of sand first.
If you’re struggling with getting that divot to start at the line and be in front of it, you’re likely looking at an issue with swing direction. Maybe you have a little bit of an over-the-top move, causing your club to enter the sand too far to the right of the line (for a right-handed golfer). I want the bottom of the swing and the divot to start right at the line in the sand or even slightly ahead of it.
If you’re hitting the sand and making the divot behind the line, add another line in the sand in the direction that you’re swinging. Now you have a reference point of what is straight to the target, with the line just about an inch or two on the outside of my iron head and the ball position right in the middle of your stance. You want to feel like your club is traveling with the target line in the direction that you’re swinging. Now you’ll make that divot right ahead of that first line.
Cody Smith is an assistant professional at Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase, N.Y.