Ball Contact & Striking

Toe strikes happen when the arc of the swing is too far from the body at impact: the hands are too far out, or the golfer has extended upward through the downswing, which pushes the hands and club away from the intended path. The fix is to maintain your spine angle through impact and keep the hands close to the body through the strike. Checking your posture at address is also essential. Standing too far from the ball at setup guarantees toe contact regardless of swing path.

Centred contact requires a consistent low point: the same spot in the swing arc, relative to the ball, on every shot. This is primarily a function of stable posture throughout the swing. Drills that create feedback (impact tape on the face, foot spray on the sole to read where the club bottoms out) accelerate the learning because they give you accurate data rather than guesses. Most golfers who practise without feedback improve slowly because they are making adjustments based on ball flight rather than contact quality.

Thin and fat shots are two expressions of the same problem: an inconsistent low point. A fat shot means the club hits the ground before the ball. A thin shot means it has already risen past the ball's equator. The most common cause of both is early extension, where the hips thrust toward the ball during the downswing, raising the spine angle and shifting the low point backward. Maintaining your hip-to-ball distance from address through impact eliminates the majority of these misses.