Symptom
Divots that are far too deep
The club digs a deep gouge out of the turf instead of a shallow strip, so even a small error in where it bottoms out turns into a heavy, short shot.
Fat, thin and topped shots are one problem seen from different sides: the lowest point of the swing arc is not where the ball is. Where it sits instead, and why, is what separates the causes below.
Common ways golfers describe this
My divots are too deep
Digging with my irons
Taking a chunk out of the fairway
The club digs into the ground
Taking too much turf
- Swing arc
- Lowest point
Narrow it to one cause
Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- Stand behind one of the deep divots and look down your target line. Which way does it point?
- Where does the deep divot start, compared with where the ball sat?
- With a mid-iron, where does the ball sit between your feet?
- What does the ball do on the shots that dig deepest?
- At address with a mid-iron, look straight down. Where is the grip compared with the clubhead?
- Hold your finish and look at your lead leg. Where are your hips?
Where this can come from
These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.
Delivery too steep
The club descends sharply into the hitting area, so the margin between fat and thin narrows and any low point error produces a bigger miss. Divots are deep and narrow, and the same steepness usually travels with a path working left.
Read the fix
Out-to-in swing path
The club is travelling left of the target line through impact for a right-handed golfer. Curvature is produced by the difference between face and path, so a path moving left with a face that lags behind it opens the face relative to the path and bends the ball right. The same path with a face square to it produces a straight pull instead.
Read the fix
Handle pressed too far forward at impact
Driving the grip end well ahead of the clubhead strips loft off the club and pushes the low point forward, presenting the leading edge to the ball. It is the opposite error to flipping and it is what turns a delicate chip into a skulled one.
Read the fix
Ball too far back in the stance
The ball sits well before the low point, so the club is still descending steeply when it arrives and delivers less loft than the club actually carries. Flight is low and the ball meets the face while the path is still travelling right, which is why a back ball position so often adds a push or a hook.
Read the fix
Hips sliding instead of turning
The lower body moves laterally toward the target without rotating. The low point travels forward with it while the path stays right of target and the face is left behind, which is the combination that produces a block one swing and a hook the next.
Read the fix
Related symptoms
These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.
- Chips grabbed by grainy, sticky grassOn Bermuda or another grainy grass around the green the club drags in the turf and the chip comes out dead short, or it skids off down-grain grass and runs through the green.Shares delivery too steep
- Coming over the topSomeone has told you, or the camera has shown you, that the club swings out and across the ball from the top, and your shots pull left, slice right, or do both.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Taking too much sand in the bunkerThe club goes into the sand well behind the ball and throws up a big pile of it, and the ball pops up weakly and often stays in the bunker.Shares delivery too steep
- Chips come out too lowEvery chip leaves the face on a low, flat line and runs out, so you have no shot that stops quickly when you are short-sided or have something to carry.Shares handle pressed too far forward at impact
- Divots pointing left or right of the targetThe divot after the ball angles clearly left or right instead of running along the target line, which is the plainest record on the ground of which way the club was travelling.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Hitting it high on the faceThe marks sit above the centre of the face, up toward the top grooves rather than on the crown, and the shot climbs higher than it should and still comes up short.Shares delivery too steep
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
- Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968
If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.
Discussion
Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.
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