When teaching golf, you see many types of golfers at various levels. Every person has their own characteristic, which puts them apart from everyone else. A common theme that I see with many club golfers is that they do not take a divot. Usually a “thin”, “skinny” shot is the shot that is played. A thin shot can give borderline results with accuracy, but usually there is not much power in the shot.
When I ask a player to take a divot, they are usually hesitant because they are fearful of taking a very heavy divot which they feel could injure them. Heavy divots can occur and cause pain, only if the divot is made in the wrong manner. To hit a thin shot, usually a players body straightens at impact and the player usually tries to scoop the ball, which causes them to either catch very little grass under the ball or hit the top of the result giving them a poor shot.
To hit the shot that will give you power and accuracy, you need to feel that you are maintaining your posture throughout the shot. If you want to hit the ball with advanced power, you need to feel that you are lowering your right shoulder on the downswing. This along with rotating your hips, will help you take a divot, prevent your hands from scooping, giving you a square face at impact resulting in a longer, straighter shot.The only way you will hit the heavy shot with any club is if your body speed slows down at impact which stops your hands from continuing momentum through the ball. The club has no speed, therefore the club get stuck into the ground.
If you maintain speed and rotation, you will always hit a positive shot and compress the ball at the same time.
This applies to every iron in the bag, including rescue and fairway woods. Obviously the divot will be deeper with a wedge compared to a 3 iron. If you are asking, what is the first move down, once you have completed your backswing, the answer is simple, unwind your hips. Unwinding your hips will help your body rotate and allow for your arms to come down to the ball freely. If your hips do not rotate first, your arm will come down first, which will cause your body to get stuck because your hips cannot move faster than your arms.
Learn to take divots and to keep your hands passive at impact. I hear people talking about “rolling their hands over” to hit the ball straight, this couldn’t be further from how the shot should be played.