How To Break 100 Lesson 8: Common Misses & Easy Fixes

Five of the most common misses in golf are fat shots, thin shots, topped shots, slices, and hooks. Here’s what each of these misses looks like. Take note of your tendencies on bad shots, and identify which of these misses exist in your game. We’ll teach you how to fix each of these.

As Hank Haney explains, one of the worst shots in golf is the fat shot. Before we can help you rid your game of fat shots, you must first identify what is causing your fat shots. You could have what Haney refers to as either a steep fat, or a shallow fat.

Players who tend to chop the club into the ground behind the ball suffer from a steep fat. Players who get the club too close to the ground too early suffer from a shallow fat. Pay attention to Haney’s demonstration of each to determine which best describes your miss.

If you tend to struggle with a slice in addition to hitting too many shots fat, it’s likely your swing is too steep. Here’s what to do:

• You are likely tilting your shoulders instead of turning them;
• Make your turn more level by focusing on keeping your lead shoulder up while you make your turn;
• Swinging the club around your body more will eliminate the steep fat miss.

If you have a tendency to hook the ball, it’s likely your fat shots are caused by too shallow of a swing. Here’s how to fix it:

• Focus on swinging the club in front of you during your backswing;
• On the downswing, focus on turning your body through the ball;
• Turning your body through the shot, you will move the bottom of your swing forward, eliminating the shallow fat miss.

Ty Anderson points out one of golf’s truisms: if you hit a shot thin or top it, your playing partners are all but guaranteed to insist that you lifted your head too soon. We can confidently say that has happened to just about every golfer.

However, your well-meaning playing partners are probably not qualified to give golf lessons. As Anderson illustrates, the cause of thin and topped shots is more likely to be tension that it is lifting your head. That’s because tense muscles are shorter than relaxed muscles. If your muscles are relaxed at address, but tense at impact, the club head will be up to an inch farther from the ground at impact than at address, causing the club to strike the equator or the top of the ball, instead of the lower half of the ball. If an inch doesn’t seem like much, consider the fact that a golf ball is just 1.68 inches in diameter. Missing the sweet spot by an inch is enough to ruin any shot. 

To eliminate thin and topped shots from your game, focus on staying relaxed throughout the entire swing, from setup to finish. This will allow the clubhead to come through impact where you intend, and lead to more solid shots.

To help with your slice, we go back to one of the most famous golf instructions in the world, Hank Haney. 

Haney proclaims the one and only cause of a slice is a club face that’s open at impact. Leaving the face open is most often cause by too steep of a swing, combined with arms that reverse-rotate through impact.

To fix your slice, try this drill:

• Take a few practice swings with the club a yard or more off the ground;
• Through these swings, feel the natural rotation of your arms through the hitting zone;
• Feel the rotation of the club face as it naturally squares through impact.

One more adjustment to make is to turn your hands into a stronger grip position by rotating them to the right (for a right-handed player). This grip position will assist you in rotating your hands and arms through impact, rather than leaving the club face open.

If you hook the ball, you’re probably closer than you realize to playing great golf. A hook could simply be a timing issue, or could be fixed with a minor grip adjustment. Hank Haney demonstrates a few ways you can fix your hook.

When you hit a hook, it’s likely you’re coming into impact too shallow, and your hands flip over before impact. Here’s how to correct a hook:

• In your backswing, feel as though you are resisting with your hips;
• Keep the club more in front of you during your backswing and downswing;
• Let your body come through the ball into a nice, full finish.

You can also address your hook with a simple grip adjustment. Move your grip into a slightly weaker position by turning them to the left (for a right-handed player). This will counteract your tendency to rotate the club face too much before impact. You can also grip the club a little tighter to help reduce a hook. Like using a weaker grip, this will help keep the club face square through impact.

The lessons, drills, and benchmarks that some of the best instructors in golf have provided you in this course are more than enough to have you breaking 100 on the golf course. It’s up to you to take full advantage of this information by making a commitment to practice, and evaluating yourself honestly. 

Now that you’ve completed each of the eight lessons, check back in on each of your benchmarks to see if you need to revisit any lessons or dedicate some extra practice time to a particular area of your game.

Once you’re breaking 100 consistently, your journey doesn’t stop. The beauty of golf is that there are always more milestones to chase. Keep working hard and stay motivated. There’s a lot of great golf in your future.