Fixing a low point that moves from shot to shot

What is actually happening

The bottom of the arc lands in a different place relative to the ball on each swing, so fat and thin alternate instead of one miss repeating. Treating it as two faults and correcting each in turn is what keeps the golfer oscillating between them.

The fix

Drills

Work through them in order. Each one says what it needs before you start.

1. 1

   The line drill

   On grass, scratch a straight line across the target line with a tee, about the length of a clubhead. Set up with a mid-iron so the line sits where the ball normally would. Make ten swings with no ball, each one trying to start the scrape on the line or just past it, and after each one note whether it started behind, on or past the line. Success is eight of the ten on the line or just past it. Then set a ball on the line for each swing and hit ten more to the same standard before moving to full shots from fresh turf.

   Needs A tee, or a little sand, to mark a line on the grass

2. 2

   Five brushes in a row

   Pick a spot on the grass, such as a dark blade or a small mark, and set up with a short iron so the spot sits where the ball would. Make three-quarter practice swings that brush the grass exactly at that spot, and count how many land on it in a row. If one lands behind it or misses the grass, the count goes back to zero. When you reach five, place a ball just behind the spot, on your side of it, so the brush happens after the ball, and hit it. Repeat the cycle for twenty balls, and move to full swings once you reach five without a reset twice running.

   Needs nothing but a club

3. 3

   Held finishes

   Hit ten three-quarter shots with a mid-iron and hold each finish for a count of three: chest facing the target, weight on the lead foot, trail foot up on its toe. Any shot whose finish you cannot hold does not count, whatever the ball did. A finish that changes from swing to swing means a pivot that changes, and the low point moves with it. Success is nine held finishes out of ten. Then go to full speed under the same rule.

   Needs nothing but a club

4. 4

   The divot map

   Use this as a scorecard at the start of each session, not as practice. Before each shot, push a tee into the ground a clubhead's length beyond the ball, on the far side from you and level with it, so the ball's position is still marked once it has gone. Hit ten mid-irons from grass without changing anything between them. After each one, note whether the club first marked the turf behind the tee's line, level with it, or past it. Success is all ten starting at the ball or just past it, within about a ball's width of one another. Write the result down and retest next session rather than chasing it in this one.

   Needs A tee

Browse every drill on the site

Checkpoints

What to look for to know whether the change has taken.

• Ten strikes in a row from grass start at the ball or just past it, within about a ball's width of one another.
• Filmed face-on at address, the ball sits in the same place in your stance on every setup, checked against the same mark each time.
• On face-on video of three swings in a row, the head sits in the same place at impact relative to address on all three.
• You can hold a balanced finish on the lead foot for a count of three after every swing, not only after the good ones.
• Practice swings brush the grass in the same spot five times running.

Feels

A feel is not a description of what the club does. It is whatever gets your body to do it, and a correct change usually feels exaggerated long before it looks correct.

• Every swing is aimed at the same small patch of grass, and the ball happens to be sitting just before it.
• Your chest turns in place going back, as if inside a barrel, rather than drifting away from the ball.
• The top of your head stays under a low ceiling from address until the ball has gone.

Symptoms that lead here

Each of these can resolve to this cause. If the page above does not match what you are seeing, start from the symptom instead and let the questions narrow it.

• One fat, the next one thinContact never settles: one shot is hit behind the ball, the next is caught thin, and only a few come out of the middle.The usual cause of this
• One chip fat, the next one thinAround the green one chip digs into the turf and dribbles a few feet, the next catches the ball thin and runs across the green, and almost nothing comes off the middle of the face.The usual cause of this
• I almost never get up and downAfter a missed green, the chip or pitch rarely finishes close enough to one-putt, so the hole costs a shot almost every time.The usual cause of this
• Great on the range, lost on the courseYou strike it well ball after ball on the range, then the same swing starts topping and chunking it, or sending it sideways, as soon as the round begins.
• One bad shot turns into a blow-up holeA single poor shot becomes a triple bogey or worse, and the damage often carries on into the next few holes.
• My swing feels rushed and too quickThe swing snatches from the top with no rhythm to it, and the smooth practice swing you made a moment earlier turns quick and jerky once there is a ball in front of you.

What this rests on

• 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
• The Physics of GolfTheodore P. Jorgensen, University of Nebraska, 1999, second edition; Springer reprint 2013

Discussion

Golfers who have worked on this fault, on what helped and what did not. Read it as experience rather than evidence.