At what point does the club head touch the ground?

[tommyg]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and new to golf i have been playing about 3 months and am making good progress, i've definately caught the golfing bug!

But one thing that i always think about is at what point should the clubhead touch the ball? I've heard some some people say have little contact with ground, others say clip the top of the grass immediatley under the ball and others say to hit great shots strike it like a pro which all seem to contact the ball- then- the ground taking divots in front of the ball, but surely this involves bottom half of the club face making the contact with the top of the ball then sliding down under the ball in the same fashion a tennis player would get backspin on the ball, this sounds like you are at risk of "thinning the ball", is this method of striking the ball what we sould be aiming to do?

From my experiences just brushing the grass from about half an inch behind the ball to about an inch in front of the ball gives that really smooth feeling you get wehn you hit the ball perfectly

Thanks for your advice in advance

 

[IrishGolfer]

I think you may be overanalysing the process. With the woods you are sweeping the ball, with the irons you are hitting down on the ball. Depending on how steep the swing is will usually depend on the divot size and the spin.

As long as you are not hitting the ground well in advance (fat) or coming up off the ball (thin) then I don't think there ar ehard and fast rules.

Daly takes divits to size of a decent trout. Watson never takes divots.

There is some good footage in this site of various swings from contributors. Check out Dave Ireland. His swing touches the ground twice. On the backswing and on the downswing. How does one analyse thta? But the dude still scores aces!!

 

[PingZing2]

Welcome to the Board Tommy

IG is right, at this point in your game getting good mechanics and solid hits are going to be the most important for you. As you build your swing, the POI is going to be grooved in. I would say get your basics right now and the rest will follow.