Hitting a great iron shot that flies high and lands softly on the green is one of the best feelings in golf, but digging up a huge piece of turf behind the ball - a chunk - is one of the worst. That dreaded sound and the sight of your ball dribbling a few feet in front of you can destroy confidence and wreck your scorecard. This guide will walk you through exactly why you chunk the golf ball and provide simple, effective drills to help you stopchunking for good, so you can start making crisp, clean contact with every iron in your bag.
Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand it. In golf, the goal with your irons and wedges is to strike the ball first, and then take a small divot from the ground after the ball. This is often called "ball-first contact." The lowest point of your swing's arc should happen just in front of where the ball is resting.
A chunked shot, also known as a "fat" shot, is the exact opposite. It occurs when the lowest point of your swing happens behind the golf ball. Instead of the clubface meeting the ball first, it digs deep into the ground. All of the energy and speed you generated in your swing gets absorbed by the turf, and the club's momentum dies. The club then bounces up from the ground and makes weak contact with the ball, or in some cases, the gigantic divot itself is what sends the ball forward a short distance.
Think of it like this: your golf swing creates a big circle around your body. For a perfect shot, the very bottom of that circle is positioned just ahead of the ball. When you chunk it, you've moved the bottom of that circle a few inches backward. Almost every chunking fault boils down to this simple error in geometry. Our job is to fix the move in your swing that is causing the low point to shift behind the ball.
While a lot of different movements can lead to a chunk, they almost always fall into one of three major categories. Let’s look at each one, identify the feeling, and give you a powerful drill to correct it.
This is, without a doubt, the most common reason amateur golfers chunk their irons. It's often driven by an instinct to try and "help" or "lift" the ball into the air. As you swing down, instead of shifting your weight onto your front foot, you hang back on your rear foot. This tilt away from the target causes the entire circle of your swing to shift backward with you. As a result, the bottom of your swing arc moves behind the ball, and you hit the ground first - a guaranteed chunk.
The Fix: The Step-Through Drill
This classic drill is one of the fastest ways to feel a proper weight shift and eliminate the tendency to hang back. It physically forces you to move your center of mass through the ball.
A powerful and consistent golf swing is driven by the rotation of your bigger muscles - your core and your hips. When these muscles stop turning through the shot, we say the body has "stalled." This often happens because the golfer is consciously or subconsciously trying to steer the clubface to the ball with their hands and arms.
When your body rotation stops, something has to keep the club moving. Your arms and hands take over, but they can't create the same wide arc your body can. They usually resort to a "flipping" or "scooping" motion at the ball. As your wrists flip, the clubhead prematurely releases and zooms past your hands, dropping the bottom of the swing arc behind the ball. This last-second scoop is a very common cause of chunks, especially on delicate chips and pitches.
The Fix: The Towel Drill
This drill is all about keeping your arms and body connected so they turn together as one unit. It prevents your arms from becoming independent and outracing your body's rotation.
Many golfers associate an "over the top" swing path - where the club approaches the ball from outside the target line and cuts across it - with a slice. While it does cause slices, it is also a major contributor to chunked shots. An over-the-top move creates a very steep angle of attack, meaning the club is traveling downward into the ball very aggressively.
Think of it like digging with a shovel. If you stab the shovel straight down, it digs a deep hole. If you slide it in at a shallow angle, it just skims the surface. A steep, over-the-top swing is like stabbing the shovel into the ground. It makes your margin for error incredibly small. If your timing is just a fraction off and your low point creeps behind the ball, that steep angle will cause the club to dig a huge trench, resulting in a severe chunk. A shallower swing path gives you more room for error and promotes a "skimming" action through the turf rather than a "digging" one.
The Fix: The Headcover Drill
This drill provides immediate feedback, forcing you to adjust your swing path to be shallower and more from the inside, which is the perfect antidote to a steep chunk.
Fixing your chunked shots comes down to controlling the low point of your golf swing. By mastering your weight shift, keeping your body rotating, and shallowing out your angle of attack, you move that low point to its correct position - just after the ball. Practice these drills patiently, and you'll soon replace the feeling of digging in the dirt with the pure, flushing sensation of perfect ball-first contact.
Sometimes, the trickiest part is knowing which specific fault is causing your issue. Is it your weight shift, your body rotation, or your swing path? To figure it out without the guesswork, our Caddie AI acts as your personal swing diagnostician. You can ask it questions about your shots, describe your misses, and get instant, clear advice tailored to what you’re experiencing. Caddie makes it simpler to identify the root cause of the problem so you can work on the right fix and start playing better, more confidently, and enjoying the game more.
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