Golf Misconceptions: I didn't get under it!

How often have you been playing when a player hits a thin shot and says, "Damn, I didn't get under that one!" This is one of my favorites and I find myself having to bite my tongue each time I hear it. Players using this 'expanation' for their bad shots, hate playing from tight lies, and will more often than not admit that they like playing from the rough instead of the fairway.



The misconception here is that we need to hit the ball into the air by striking the ball with an upward stroke that contacts the ball as close to the bottom of the ball as possible. Or in otherwords that for the ball to go up, we need to strike the ball with an upward strike. This misconception is going to lead to a very inconsistant ball strike, resulting in many fat and thin shots as the timing and position of the club at impact are both difficult to pull off, and even then will result in lost distance as the transfer of energy from club head to ball is lost or never exists due to the means to get the club head on the ball this way.


We must keep in mind that the golf club is designed to compress the golf ball and spin it. This happens with a proper delivery of the club face on the golf ball. When we use the club head as it is designed, we must deliver a downward blow, striking the the golf ball before the club contacts the ground. This is a general rule and won't always apply. For example, a ball hit with a driver off a tee or a ball hit from a sand bunker. But these are rarely the shots we hear the 'I didn't get under it' excuse applied.


Part of this initial deception in golf lies in the fact that the ball is round, and our clubface is lofted (angled back). On first look it might appear that our goal is to slide the lofted clubhead under the ball, striking its lower half on the upswing, and thus driving - or lifting - the ball into the air. However, it is critical to note that the golf club has not been designed to get under the ball to lift it. It has been designed to strike the ball as the clubhead is descending - on the downswing.

The face of the club will then contact the surface of the golf ball just prior to reaching the bottom of the swing arc. As a result, the ball becomes trapped between the descending clubface and the ground. The ball compresses. Because the face of the clubhead is lofted, the ball - rather than be driven into the ground as a downward hit might imply - will spin backwards up the clubface, decompress (adding energy to its escape) and climb into the air. The angle at which the ball climbs (trajectory) will be directly related to the loft of the club we have chosen for the shot.

Unfortunately, until the technicalities of hitting down are fully explained, hitting up seems, on the surface, more logical. If we want something to go up, we tend to hit up at it. If I gave you a tennis ball, and a racket, and asked you to hit the ball up into the air - what would you do? You would lower your racket and strike up at the tennis ball. And the tennis ball would go up. It's logical. So why wouldn't it be logical with golf too?

Certainly - on the surface anyway - hitting down at something you want to go up, is not logical. And until it becomes logical, your muscles may resist as a result. Gaining a firm understanding of the golf swing - and especially the mechanics of "hitting down" - is vital to programming muscle memory. And good muscle memory in golf is essential, so you can stop worrying about your swing, and concentrate on the game itself.