Taking a Proper Divot

[DNice26]

My brother in law is getting into golf and he lives in LA, so he sits in traffic all the time. On Friday evenings, he calls me and we have “Golf Chats with D”...he basically ask me questions about the game, equipment etc..

On last nights episode, he asked me about how to take a proper divot.

It made me realize that I never really over thought this. I figure this is because: 1. I peactice off range mats mostly. 2. I play public course golf and fairways are just not as tightly cut as nice country clubs. So taking a divot isn’t too much thought for me.

SO....what say yee? Do you guys work on your divot patterns and consistency of those divots?
Any advice I can give my BiL?

 

[Molten]

There is some truth in the dirt but I’d say the main thing is to have the divots in front of the ball.

 

[badolds]

I do not pay attention to my divots but irons are the strongest part of my game. I take a healthy divot with a descending blow and I believe that is why I do well with my irons. I think encouraging him as a beginner to take a divot is a good idea, I think analyzing a beginners divot is overthinking it.

 

[Grins]

I am more of a picker & don't take much of a divot - it's something I'm working on - I'd like to be better at getting a little more turf after ball contact.

But maybe you could suggest to your BIL to check out Adam Young's site:

Specifically this blog about hitting behind the ball vs ball-first contact:

The Number 1 Reason Why You're Bad At Golf - Adam Young Golf

Find out what the leading cause of poor golf is. Almost every golfer with a handicap is suffering with this issue.

www.adamyounggolf.com

In this test he did , he said the 40 well-struck balls that he hit - it didn't seem to matter how deep the divot was, results were about the same.

 

[Snickerdog]

I take a very small divot if any at all. I think as long as it is in front of the ball that is the important part.

 

[wubears71]

I’m very much a sweeper and don’t take big divots unless I’m chipping, pitching or hitting wedges. While I don’t take big divots I still hit down on the ball and really compress it.

Taking a divot is not required to be a Good ball striker. Look at Tom Watson. His divots are nearly non existent.

I would worry more about making good, consistent contact then focusing on taking “tour quality divots”

 

[Brassie]

So, this just came up on my 6th lesson from Roy Biancalana on Friday afternoon. He has been changing my swing plane to more upright, with as much rotation as I can muster on the backswing and then rotate through with hips, through ball impact and turn left after impact. I was first hitting PW shots to a pin at 125 yds and I was hitting ball first and then taking a 3" long shallow divot past where the ball was. He pronounced those as "perfect". Then I started hitting 7 iron shots to a different green and those were also 2-3" long and shallow and he was again very pleased with what I was doing. So based on my pro's reaction... those are correct.

 

[Gregman55]

As a beginner the most important thing for him is to learn what clean contact feels like and to compress the ball, as long as his irons are bottoming out past the ball it’s ok, I take more of a divot with my short irons and jut bruise the turf with my long irons but I compress the ball a get good distance. I think the most important thing he can learn is to hit the ball in the sweet spot of the club consistently and a lot of other things fall in place naturally.

 

[-CRW-]

It should vary based on the club. They should be more pronounced with wedges and short irons and get gradually smaller and shallower throughout the mid to long clubs.

They are the result of low point and angle of attack. The low point should be at or in front of the ball with every full swing club except for the driver. The AOA should start around 5* down (-5*) and gradually decrease to around 3* down in the 3 wood.

The driver AOA and low point depends on what you are trying to accomplish and is irrelevant to this discussion anyway.

ETA - I guess I should add that varying turf conditions can produce a different looking divot with the same swing numbers. Specifically, hard pan may not produce much of a divot if any while soft, plush turf may produce a dollar bill sized piece of sod.