What Causes Heel Shots in Golf?

There's no feeling in golf quite like the dead, clunky, vibration-of-your-bones sensation of a stone-cold heel shot. That shot robs you of power, sends your ball slicing weakly into the trees, and can totally shatter your confidence. It’s a frustrating miss, but here’s the good news: heel shots are almost always caused by a handful of commonswing issues. This article will show you exactly what causes those frustrating heel strikes and give you some simple, effective drills to get you finding the sweet spot again.

So, What Exactly Is a Heel Shot?

Before we fix it, let's be clear on what we're dealing with. A heel shot happens when the golf ball makes contact with the part of your clubface closest to the hosel (the L-shaped connector piece joining the clubhead to the shaft). You know it the second it happens. Instead of that crisp "click" of a well-struck ball, you get a dull "thud" or a metallic "clank." The ball usually shoots out low and to the right for a right-handed golfer, often with a severe slice. If you get really unlucky and catch the rounded part of the hosel itself, you've hit the dreaded shank - the most terrifying shot in golf.

Think of your clubface like a tennis racket. You want to hit the ball squarely in the middle of the strings for maximum power and control. A heel shot is like catching the ball on the frame of the racket. The result is never good. Finding the cause is the first step to eliminating it for good.

The Four Biggest Causes of Heel Shots (and How to Fix Them)

Most of the time, that dreaded heel contact isn't random. It’s a direct result of something happening in your setup or swing that is pushing the clubhead farther away from your body at impact than where it started. Let's break down the four most common culprits.

1. Standing Too Close to the Ball

This might seem counterintuitive. Wouldn't standing too close make you hit the toe? Not usually. When you set up with the ball jammed too close to your body, you leave yourself no room to swing. Your brain subconsciously knows this, so during the downswing, it tells your body to make space. Your hands and arms instinctively move away from your body to create room, pushing the clubhead outward and presenting the heel directly to the ball.

The Fix: The "Arms Hang" Checkpoint

This is one of the simplest and most effective setup checks you can do. It will get you the right distance from the ball nearly every time.

• Take your normal golf posture, bending from your hips and keeping your back relatively straight.
• Now, without a club, just let both of your arms hang straight down from your shoulders. Let gravity do the work. They shouldn't be tense or reaching.
• The place where your hands hang naturally is exactly where your hands should grip the club.

If you have to reach forward for the ball, you're standing too far away. If your hands feel tucked in and cramped against your thighs, you're standing too close. Getting this distance right at address gives your arms the proper space to swing freely without needing to make mid-swing adjustments that lead to heel shots.

2. Losing Your Posture (Early Extension)

Of all the swing faults, this is the heavyweight champion of causing heel shots. "Early extension" is a term coaches use to describe standing up during the downswing. What does that mean? At setup, you create a certain angle with your spine by bending at the hips. Early extension happens when your hips and lower body thrust forward towards the golf ball on the way down, causing you to lose that spine angle and stand up tall before impact.

When your hips lunge toward the ball, your hands and club have nowhere to go but out and away from your body. You've closed the space you created at address. That small forward movement is all it takes to shift the impact point from the center of the face directly to the heel.

The Fix: The "Backside Against the Wall" Drill

This drill is a fantastic way to train your body to rotate properly and maintain your posture instead of thrusting forward. It creates a physical cue you just can't ignore.

1. Find a wall or use your golf bag standing up on its end behind you.
2. Set up in your golf posture so that your backside is just barely touching the wall or bag.
3. Now, make some slow, smooth practice swings.
4. Your goal is to keep your glutes in contact with that object throughout the backswing and downswing.

If you're an early extender, you’ll immediately feel your hips come off the wall as you start the downswing. To keep your backside on the wall, you are forced to turn and rotate your hips instead of pushing them forward. This maintains your spine angle, keeps the club on the right path, and allows your arms to swing down into the space you originally created. Kiss those heel shots goodbye.

3. An "Over the Top" Swing Path

An "over the top" swing path is another major cause of heel shots. This describes a motion where, at the start of your downswing, your shoulders and arms lead the charge, throwing the club up and “over” the proper swing plane. This forces the club to attack the ball from an out-to-in direction.

Imagine a line running from the ball straight to your target. An over-the-top swing starts down outside of that line and then cuts across it through impact. When your club approaches the ball from this steep, outside angle, the part of the club that gets there first is frequently the heel.

The Fix: The " Obstacle" Drill

This drill gives you instant visual feedback and forces you to re-route your club onto a better, from-the-inside path.

1. Place your golf ball on a tee (even with an iron, as this makes the drill easier to start).
2. Take another object - a second ball, an empty sleeve of balls, or a headcover - and place it about six inches outside your ball and another six inches in front of it (further from you and closer to the target).

With this setup, an over-the-top swing will cause you to hit the obstacle before you hit the golf ball. To avoid the obstacle, you have no choice but to drop the club down on a path from the inside. This motion shallows out your swing and allows you to approach the ball from an angle where the sweet spot - not the heel - is leading the way. Start with slow, half swings until you can consistently miss the obstacle, then gradually build up your speed.

4. Poor Balance & Weight Shift

Your balance is the foundation of your golf swing. If your weight gets stuck on your heels at any point, your body is going to fight to stay upright. Often, this results in a corrective move where you lunge forward onto your toes through impact to try and save your balance.

This subtle forward fall moves your entire body - and therefore the club - a few inches closer to the ball than it was at address. That lunge is all it takes to move the point of impact from the sweet spot over to the heel.

The Fix: Feel the "Ball of Your Feet"

Good balance starts at address. At setup, you should feel athletic. Your weight should be centered, resting on the balls of your feet, not back on your heels or forward on your toes.

Here’s a quick on-course check:

• At address, try lifting your toes up and down inside your shoes. Then, try lifting your heels slightly.
• You want to find the sweet spot in between where you feel grounded and powerful. Imagine you were about to guard someone in basketball - that's the athletic balance you want.
• During your swing, feel your weight move from the ball of your back foot on the backswing to the ball of your lead foot as you swing through to a balanced finish.

Staying centered throughout the swing prevents you from making those desperate last-second lunges just to stay on your feet - lunges that invariably lead to poor contact.

Final Thoughts

Hitting a shot on the heel can be incredibly demoralizing, but it's a common issue that is completely fixable. By checking your distance at setup, working to maintain your posture, improving your swing path, and starting from a balanced position, you can eliminate the root causes of that shot and start puring it out of the middle again.

If you're ever struggling on the course and aren't sure which one of these issues is causing an unexpected streak of heel shots, our tool, Caddie AI, is designed to give you that expert-level clarity in seconds. You can ask a question about your swing tendency anytime, or even snap a picture of a difficult lie to get straight, simple advice on how to play the shot. My job is to take the guesswork out of golf so you can commit to every swing with more confidence.