A double hit is that phantom of the fairway - the shot Rube Goldberg would have designed, where your club hits the ball twice in a single swing. So, how exactly do you score this exceedingly rare and often confusing event? In this guide, we'll walk through exactly what a double hit means under the modern Rules of Golf, how to correctly account for it on your scorecard, and most importantly, how to fix the swing flaws that cause it so you never have to worry about it again.
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So, What Exactly Is a Double Hit?
In simple terms, a double hit occurs when your golf club strikes the ball more than once during a single stroke. It’s a mishit in the purest sense of the word. Picture this: you’re trying to play a delicate little chip shot. You swing, the clubhead makes contact, but as it continues its path forward, the ball pops up slightly and makes contact with the clubface again before flying off. That's a double hit.
It's not an intentional act - it’s an accident born from specific swing mechanics, almost always on short, soft shots around the green where hand action can get a bit unruly. The clubhead is moving slowly enough that it can literally "catch up" to the ball it just struck.
For years, this mistake carried a heavy penalty, but thanks to a welcome modernization of the rules in 2019, things have changed for the better. This is where the mystery of "scoring" a double hit is solved.
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How to "Score" a Double Hit: The New Rule Explained
If you ask a seasoned golfer about the dreaded double hit, they might tell you it’s a two-shot penalty - one for the stroke itself and one for the infraction. For decades, they'd have been right. But not anymore.
Under the current Rule 10.1a (Fairly Striking the Ball), the penalty for an accidental double hit has been eliminated. The official wording states: "If your club accidentally hits the ball more than once, there has been only one stroke and there is no penalty."
This is a huge change, and it simplifies things tremendously. Let's break it down with an example:
You're just off the green, lying 2.
You step up to play a short chip for your third shot.
You make your swing, but your club hits the ball twice in the motion. Oops. The ball trundles a few feet onto the green.
So, how do you score it?
Count the Stroke: You only count the single stroke you were trying to make. That double-hit chip shot counts as just one stroke.
No Penalty: You do not add an extra penalty stroke.
Play On: You play your next shot from wherever the ball came to rest after the mishit.
Following our example, after that unfortunate chip shot, you are now lying 3 on the green. You played one stroke (your third shot), and that's all that counts. Think of the double contact as an unfortunate detail of that single stroke, not a separate event that needs penalizing. The rulemakers realized that the poor result of the shot was often penalty enough.
The Root Cause: Why Do Double Hits Actually Happen?
Understanding the "how" of scoring is one thing, but as a coach, I'm more interested in the "why." A double hit is a symptom of a deeper mechanical issue in your swing, particularly in your short game. It’s almost always caused by the hands and wrists taking over and the clubhead losing its proper relationship with the body’s rotation.
Here are the three most common culprits:
1. The "Scoop" or "Flip"
This is the number one offender. Golfers trying to "help" the ball into the air often stop rotating their body and instead flick their wrists at the ball. In this "scooping" motion, your right hand (for a right-handed player) flips over your left hand through impact. This causes the clubhead to pass your hands very early. When you do this on a delicate shot, the club continues moving forward and upward after initial impact, while the ball pops gently into the air directly in its path. Clack-clack. Double hit.
The core instinct here is a fear of hitting the ball thin or skulling it. In an attempt to lift it, you create the exact chaotic motion that makes a double hit possible.
2. Deceleration Through Impact
Another major cause is a lack of commitment, which leads to deceleration. This happens when you’re nervous or undecided about a shot - usually a tricky little chip from a tight lie or thick rough. You take a reasonably long backswing for such a short shot but then get fearful and hit the brakes on the downswing, trying to just "nudge" the ball.
When you slam on the brakes like this, your body stops turning, but your hands and the heavy clubhead have momentum and continue onward. This again results in a "flip" where the clubhead races past your hands. The lack of controlled speed means the club is moving just slow enough to have a second collision with the slowly-moving ball.
3. A Poor Lie Combined with Poor Technique
Sometimes the course throws you a real challenge. Imagine your ball is sitting down in thick, greenside rough. The grass can grab your hosel as you swing through, jarring the club and altering its path or abruptly slowing it down. If you’re already prone to using too much wrist action, this kind of lie dramatically increases the chance of a double hit.
The grass grabs the club, your hands instinctively try to save the shot with a flick, the clubhead catches up to the ball which just popped out of the heavy grass, and you get the double tap. This is where solid fundamentals are your best defense.
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Fear not! The double hit is entirely preventable. It’s all about building a more reliable, stable short-game motion that relies on your bigger muscles (shoulders and torso) instead of your small, twitchy hand muscles. Here are three simple concepts and drills to practice.
Drill 1: The One-Piece Takeaway and Follow-Through
Take your normal chipping setup.
Place an alignment stick under your armpits, holding it pressed against your chest with both arms. Your hands should be holding the club as normal below the stick.
Now, practice hitting short chip shots. The alignment stick forces your arms and torso to rotate together. If you flip your wrists, the stick falls off or pokes you in the side.
Focus on the feeling of your chest turning back away from the target, and then turning through towards the target. Let your body rotation carry the club, not your hands.
Do this without a ball at first, then progress to short ten and fifteen foot chips. You'll immediately feel a much more stable and connected motion.
Drill 2: The Right-Hand-Only Chip
This drill helps you learn to control the clubface with body rotation instead of a right-hand "scoop." It teaches you to lead with the handle and maintain a flat left wrist (even if it’s not on the club).
Grip a mid-iron with just your right hand (for right-handed players).
Place your left hand on your chest to keep it out of the way.
Practice making chip swings where you feel the clubhead staying behind your hand through the impact zone.
The goal is to use the gentle turning of your body to move the club. You can't generate a "flip" this way without it feeling incredibly awkward. The clubface will stay stable and square to your swing path naturally.
Drill 3: The "Finish What You Started" Drill for Acceleration
This is more of a mental adjustment than a physical drill, and it directly combats deceleration. You must convince yourself to accelerate through even the smallest shots.
Set up for a 15-yard chip shot.
Here's the key: before you swing, consciously decide that your follow-through must be at least as long as your backswing. Don't worry about power, focus on commitment and smooth speed.
So, if you take the club back to your knee, make sure to finish with your hands also reaching knee-high on the other side. If you take it back to your hip, finish at your hip.
This simple commitment ensures that you are constantly applying gentle speed through the ball, which keeps the clubhead from getting out of sync with an unstable, flicking motion. It keeps everything moving together and completely eliminates the conditions for a double hit.
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To sum it all up, a double hit is no longer the score-wrecker it once was. You simply count the single stroke and play on - no extra penalty. The real work is in understanding why it happened and reinforcing a more connected short-game technique that uses body rotation over flippy wrists.
Sometimes the most unnerving shots are those from tricky lies where a mishit feels like a real possibility. When you find yourself in those spots, having a clear and confident game plan can make all the difference. With our app, Caddie AI, you can take a quick picture of your ball's lie, and I'll give you instant, straightforward advice on the best way to play the shot. This eliminates a lot of the guesswork and anxiety, allowing you to commit fully to your swing and avoid those costly mistakes.
Spencer has been playing golf since he was a kid and has spent a lifetime chasing improvement. With over a decade of experience building successful tech products, he combined his love for golf and startups to create Caddie AI - the world's best AI golf app. Giving everyone an expert level coach in your pocket, available 24/7. Caddie's mission is simple: make world-class golf advice accessible to everyone, anytime.
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