Nothing sours a great looking swing faster than the high-pitched click of a thinned golf shot. You know the one - the ball screams across the turf like a line-drive screamer, rarely gets more than a few feet off the ground, and airmails the green if it had any speed on it. This article will cut through the frustration and give you a clear understanding of why you thin the ball, combined with simple, actionable drills to eliminate it from your game for good.
Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand what’s actually happening. A thinned shot, sometimes called a "topped" or "skulled" shot, occurs when the leading edge of the golf club makes contact with the golf ball at or above its equator. Instead of compressing the ball against the clubface, the club smacks the top half of the ball, sending it low and hot with very little spin.
The ideal iron shot involves a slightly descending angle of attack, where the club head strikes the ball first, then takes a small turf divot after the ball. This creates that wonderfully compressed feeling and a soaring ball flight. A thin shot is the opposite, your club has already reached the bottom of its swing arc and is on the way up by the time it reaches the ball.
Your entire goal is to move the lowest point of your swing so that it happens just in front of the golf ball, not behind it or right at it.
The single most common culprit behind thinned shots is a simple, yet destructive, instinct: trying to help the golf ball into the air. Many amateurs believe they need to "scoop" or "lift" the ball to get it airborne. This instinct causes a chain reaction of swing flaws.
When you try to lift the ball, your weight hangs back on your trail foot (your right foot for a right-handed golfer). Your spine tilts away from the target, and your wrists flip or scoop at the ball in a last-second effort to get under it. This sequence moves the lowest point of your swing several inches behind the ball. Your club head bottoms out early and is already ascending when it makes contact, clipping the top part of the ball.
It sounds counterintuitive, but to get your irons flying high, you need to hit down on the ball. Trust the loft of your club - it’s engineered to get the ball airborne. Your job is to deliver that loft to the back of the ball with a downward blow. The key to this is managing your weight and chest position.
This is less of a drill and more of a powerful swing thought. When you are standing over the ball at address, notice where the center of your chest (your sternum) is. It should be directly over the golf ball for a mid-iron shot. The goal is to return your sternum to that same position at impact, or even slightly ahead of it.
Have you ever felt like you "stood up" during your downswing? That’s called early extension, and it’s a premier cause of thinned shots. It happens when your hips and pelvis move towards the golf ball during the downswing instead of rotating around.
As your hips thrust forward, your spine angle, which you set at address, straightens up. Your body is now taller than it was at address. To avoid smashing the club into the ground, your brain instinctually pulls your arms in towards your body. This lifting and pulling action dramatically raises the club, leading to a perfect strike on the top of the ball.
Your priority is to keep the spine angle you created at address all the way through impact. A great golf swing is a rotational action. We want our body to turn, not to rise and fall. Think of your hips unwinding on the same plane they were on at address, not thrusting forward and upward.
This provides instant feedback on whether you are maintaining your posture or extending early.
A good weight shift is the foundation of a powerful, consistent golf swing. The ideal sequence involves feeling your weight load into your trail leg on the backswing, and then decisively shifting to your lead leg to initiate the downswing. A bad weight shift, known as a "reverse pivot," does the exact opposite.
In a reverse pivot, a golfer’s weight shifts to the front foot on the backswing and then falls back onto the rear foot during the downswing - often as part of that dreaded attempt to "lift" the ball. When your weight is stuck on your back foot at impact, the low point of your swing will always be behind the golf ball, leading to either a fat shot or, more often, a thin one.
The downswing should start from the ground up. Before your arms and shoulders have even finished the backswing, your lead hip should begin to shift toward the target. This creates the proper sequence and pulls the club down and through, ensuring that your weight is on your front foot at impact, which is essential for ball-then-turf contact.
No drill teaches the feeling of a proper weight transfer better than this classic.
The thin shot may feel random, but it's a symptom of a few very specific and fixable swing issues. To stop thinning shots, focus on hitting down on the ball with your chest over it at impact, maintain your spine angle by rotating instead of standing up, and ensure your weight shifts towards the target on the downswing. Master these concepts, and you will replace that dreaded "click" with the pure, compressed "thud" of a perfectly struck iron shot.
Understanding these concepts is one thing, but applying them can be another story. If you're ever on the range or the course and feel stuck trying to fix a slice or a thinned shot, getting real-time, specific advice is a game-changer. That's why we created Caddie AI. You can instantly ask for a personalized drill to fix your exact problem, or even snap a picture of a difficult lie and get immediate strategic advice. We’re here to give you that expert second opinion, right when you need it, so you can stop guessing and start playing with confidence.
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