Do you hit it fat?

Fat is NOT Where It’s At

Why doesn’t Tiger hit it fat when he drops down toward the ball at impact as is his habit – or perhaps of more importance – why do you hit it fat? The answer is most golfers hit it fat when their lead shoulder fails to do its job.

At address you establish the radius of your golf swing, the distance from the tip of your lead shoulder to the bottom of the clubface – let’s say its 60 inches. The rule is that at impact, no matter what else is different, you must return the radius to 60 inches. If you operate your shoulders correctly so they rotate at an angle to the ground, the back shoulder will be down at impact but the lead shoulder will be up. Since the lead shoulder controls the radius it must be high in order for your club to arrive with its radius restored to 60. Because you lower your back shoulder during the downswing you must raise your front shoulder by impact to prevent the club from becoming “too long’ and digging into the ground behind the ball, AKA a fat shot.

    

Cap: During the backswing Tigers left shoulder turns down under his chin while his right shoulder travels up to finish behind his ear. During the downswing the shoulders will reverse themselves i.e. the right goes down while the left raises up.

 

Cap: With Annika looking on Tiger demonstrates ‘lead shoulder high.” His spine may have dropped down but his radius stays the same because his left shoulder rotates not only up but behind him.