Best Way to Take a Divot in Golf

The running shot with a 7 iron is more forgiving and easier than a pitch. If you slightly mis-hit the ball it still travels the correct distance. If you mis-hit a longer pitch with a wedge the ball travels too low, lands in the pond or bunker you are trying to negotiate or simply runs too far. The key to playing good pitch shots is to be able to take the ball and then a divot. This means that the ball is hit slightly on the downswing, squeezing the ball up and away into the air.

The key movement to being able to take a divot is to allow the top half of the body to move towards the target through and beyond impact. It isn’t head still, hips forward. Correctly the top half of the body and head move toward the target. Learn to take a small divot when playing a running shot with a 7 iron. If you don’t, the shot is still a success but it trains the correct movement.

With a wedge, learn the feeling of making a ball-divot contact. Think of your head starting opposite the ball hut your head finishing opposite your left foot. The top half of the body moves forward and this should correspond with taking the divot. Keep your eyes looking down and count to three before looking up.

Many women dislike the feeling of taking a divot. Partly there is a fear of hurting yourself. But part of the fear is that taking a divot is untidy. Men usually find taking a divot very easy. Women find it difficult. If you don’t like damaging the ground, practice hitting weeds. Seriously, grass is good and weeds are bad. Punch them away, moving your head to the left.

To take a divot, remember that you hit down and not under. The right shoulder must stay high and not low. The right shoulder stays high and it correctly moves through and round, not down and under. Learn to play the shots with the ball positioned just ahead of centre, transferring the weight with the top half of your body. Don’t just bury the club in the ground but allow the club to go into the ground and through and out the other side.

Remember that these shots are not like hitting a tennis ball. You cannot get beneath the ball. The instinct for many tennis players is to let the right hand wrongly slip underneath the club and try to scoop the ball up. Do just the reverse. Keep the right hand well over and think of hitting down and through the ball and ground.