Guide

How to stop hitting it thin

Thin shots sting the hands and fly low and hot, and they come from one mechanical problem: the club bottoms out in the wrong place. Learn what thin contact is, why the low point drifts back, and the drills that move it forward again.

What a thin shot actually is

A thin shot hits the ball on the lower grooves or the leading edge of the clubface instead of the middle. The result is a low screamer that runs far past the green, plus a sharp sting through the hands. Thin is not the same as topped: a topped shot hits the top half of the ball and dribbles along the ground, while a thin shot still flies, just low and without control. If your miss is low, hot, and stings, you are hitting it thin, and the problem is where your swing bottoms out.

The low point: the only thing that matters

Every swing has a low point, the spot where the clubhead reaches its lowest height. For irons, the low point should be just in front of the ball, which is why good players take a small divot after the ball. When you hit it thin, the low point is behind the ball or right at it, so the club is already rising when it meets the ball. Every cause of thin contact is just a different way of moving the low point backward. Fix the low point and the thin shots go away.

Cause one: hanging back

The most common cause is weight that never leaves the trail foot. If your weight is still on the back foot at impact, the whole swing tilts backward and the low point lands behind the ball. This often comes from trying to lift the ball into the air. The irony is that hanging back makes it harder to get the ball up, not easier. On video, face-on, check where your head and chest are at impact. If they are behind where they were at address, you are hanging back. Get the weight moving forward before the club arrives.

Cause two: early extension

Early extension pushes the hips toward the ball on the downswing, which lifts the handle and raises the whole arc. A higher arc bottoms out earlier, which means behind the ball, and the result is thin contact or a shank. If your thin shots come with the feeling that the club got steep and close to you, the hips are the problem. Keeping the hips back as you turn through keeps the arc low and the low point forward. This is a swing fault worth fixing on its own, because it also causes slices and blocks.

Cause three: ball too far back

Ball position changes where the low point needs to be. With the ball too far back in your stance, the club reaches it while still descending steeply, and any slight error catches it thin or pushes it right. With irons, the ball should sit just ahead of center, moving forward as the clubs get longer. Many golfers creep the ball back without noticing, especially with short irons they are trying to steer. Check your position honestly on video. The full chart is in Ball position in the golf swing: the full guide.

Drill: the tee behind the ball

Push a tee into the ground about two inches behind the ball, with the top just above the turf. Hit balls, trying to strike the ball without touching the tee. If your low point is behind the ball, you will clip the tee every time. This gives instant feedback and forces the swing to bottom out in front. Start with half swings and work up to full ones. When you can hit ten in a row without touching the tee, your low point has moved forward.

Drill: half swings with weight forward

Set up with 60 percent of your weight on your front foot and keep it there. Make half swings, back to 9 o'clock and through to 3 o'clock, hitting the ball with a descending strike. The short swing removes the time your body has to hang back or extend. Focus on the feeling of the front hip clearing and the chest staying over the ball. Once the half swing produces crisp contact, lengthen the swing gradually while keeping the same forward weight feeling.

Drill: the coin in front of the ball

Place a coin or a tee about four inches in front of the ball. Your goal is to brush the turf at the coin after hitting the ball. This trains the exact feeling of a low point in front of the ball. You will know it is working when you start taking small, shallow divots that start after the ball. Do not dig. A good divot with an iron is thin, long, and starts past the ball. If your divots start at or behind the ball, the low point is still back.

Thin and fat: the same disease

Thin shots and fat shots are the same low-point problem in different degrees. When the low point is a little behind the ball, you catch it thin. When it is a lot behind, you hit the ground first and the shot is fat. Both come from hanging back, early extension, or both. So the drills above fix both misses, and How to stop hitting behind the ball (fat shots) covers the fat side in detail. And if your miss is a top instead of a thin, the causes overlap too, see How to stop topping the golf ball. One low point, fixed once, cures the whole family.