What Is Shallowing in Golf?

Ever watch a professional golfer's swing and feel like there’s a secret ingredient you’re missing? You see how their club seems to magically glide down from the inside, catch the ball cleanly, and send it soaring with effortless power. That smooth, effective move you’re noticing isn’t magic - it’s called shallowing, and it’s one of the biggest differentiators between amateur and professional swings. This guide will walk you through what shallowing is, why it's so important for your game, and simple ways you can start to feel it in your own swing.

What Does Shallowing the Golf Club Actually Mean?

Shallowing the golf club is a move that happens during the transition, right at that moment when you finish your backswing and begin your downswing. Simply put, it's the action of the club shaft dropping down and behind your body, making it "shallower" or more horizontal relative to the ground.

Most amateur golfers struggle with the exact opposite move: coming "over the top." This is when the a player's first move from the top of the backswing is with their hands, arms, and shoulders rotating aggressively toward the ball. This pushes the club an extremely steep, outside-to-in path that often leads to a slice or a sharp pull to the left. It's an action focused on "hitting" the ball with the arms.

Shallowing, on the other hand, sets the club on a much better path. Instead of lunging at the ball from outside the target line, a shallow club approaches the ball from the inside. This is a critical piece of the puzzle, because as the provided philosophy explains, the golf swing is a rotational action. A steep move is more of a chop, a shallow move works with your body’s rotation to create a powerful, rounded arc just like the pros.

The Payoff: Why You Want to Shallow the Club

Working on this change might feel awkward at first, but the benefits are massive and can completely transform your ball striking. This isn't just a stylistic preference, it directly impacts the three things every golfer wants: power, accuracy, and consistency.

• Effortless Power: When you come over the top, you apply force too early and mostly with your arms. shallowing allows you to store energy and use your body as the engine. As you rotate your hips and torso in the downswing, a shallow club gets "slingshotted" into the ball, unleashing power at the perfect moment - impact. You end up hitting the ball farther without feeling like you’re swinging any harder.
• Improved Accuracy: An over-the-top swing path is a slice-producing machine. It forces you to cut across the ball, putting left-to-right sidespin on it (for a right-handed golfer). By shallowing the club, you naturally promote an inside-to-out swing path. This path makes it much easier to hit a powerful draw or a straight shot, giving you greater control over where your ball ends up.
• Clean, Solid Contact: That crisp "thump" of a perfectly struck iron shot is the result of hitting the ball first, then taking a shallow divot in front of where the ball was. A steep, over-the-top swing leads to "digging," causing heavy shots (hitting the ground first) or topping the ball. Shallowing encourages a sweeping motion through impact, cleaning the ball off the turf and creating that satisfying compression you're looking for.

A Quick Check: Are You Coming Over the Top?

Many golfers who are steep don't even realize it because, unfortunately, feel isn't always real in golf. Here are a few common signs that you might be coming over the top and could benefit from shallowing:

• You consistently slice your driver and fairway woods.
• Your divots with your irons are deep and point left of your target (for a righty).
• You feel like you’re pulling the club handle hard from the top, leading with your right shoulder.
• You take a slow-motion video of your swing (from a "down-the-line" view) and see the club head and your hands move outward and toward the ball at the start of the downswing. A shallow move would show the club head dropping down and behind you first.

If any of these sound familiar, don’t stress. This is one of the most common challenges in golf, and there are straightforward ways to start fixing it.

How to Start Shallowing Your Swing: Simple Drills &, Feels

As our swing philosophy points out, new moves in golf often feel "bizarre," and shallowing is no exception. At first, it might feel like the club is getting stuck behind you, but that’s a good sign! It means you're breaking your old habit of throwing it over the top. The key is to start with slow, deliberate practice swings to build the new motor pattern. Here are a few simple drills to help you get the feeling.

Feel the Drop in Transition

This drill is all about isolating the feeling of the club dropping without a ball. It helps break the transition down into two separate movements.

1. Take your normal setup and make a full backswing, pausing for a second at the very top.
2. Instead of immediately turning toward the target, keep your back to the target and simply let your arms and the club "fall" a few inches straight down. Feel the weight of the club head drop behind you. This is the shallowing move. It should feel passive, almost like gravity is doing the work.
3. Only after you've felt that drop should you begin to rotate your hips and body through to a finish.

Do this 5-10 times without a ball. The goal is to separate the "drop" (shallowing) from the "turn" (unwinding). Your instinct is to do both at once. By separating them, you’re teaching your body a new sequence that starts the downswing correctly.

The "Waiter'sTray" Sensation

This is a great feel for what your right hand and wrist (for a righty) should be doing at the top of the swing. The hand that’s “too active” is often the one that causes the steep over the top move.

1. Take a backswing to the top and pause.
2. Glance at your right hand. In a steep posture, your right palm is facing more behind you.
3. To shallow the club, allow your right wrist to bend back (extend) so that your right palm faces more towards the sky. The feeling is similar to how a waiter would carry a tray of drinks.
4. This “waiter’s tray” position automatically flattens, or shallows, the club shaft. From there, your main thought is just to rotate your body through the shot. The club is already in a perfect spot to attack the ball from the inside.

The Headcover Drill for an Inside Path

Once you start to get the feeling of shallowing, this drill gives you immediate visual feedback on whether you’re succeeding. It provides a simple consequence in a way that truly helps you learn the perfect path.

1. Place a tee in the ground and set an empty golf ball sleeve or a headcover about 8 inches outside of and slightly behind your tee.
2. The objective is simple: swing and hit the tee without hitting the object next to it.
3. If you come over the top, you will inevitably hit the headcover or box on your downswing. To miss it, you are forced to drop the club to the inside - to shallow it - and attack the ball from the correct angle.

Start with slow swings and gradually build up speed. This drill is fantastic because it removes the abstract thought and makes the correct path a physical necessity.

Bringing It to the Course

Changing your swing doesn’t happen overnight. Start with these drills at the range and with partial, half-speed swings. Focus on the feeling, not on the result of the ball flight at first. Once the new sequence begins to feel less alien, you can gradually move to full swings.

The main takeaway is to stop "hitting" the golf ball with your arms from the top. Instead, learn to sequence your downswing: let the club drop behind you as you begin to unwind your body. This rotational sequence is the source of effortless power and is what will help you finally develop the consistent swing you’ve been searching for.

Final Thoughts

Shallowing the golf club is essentially about letting the club flatten in the transition from backswing to downswing, setting you up to attack the ball from the inside. This key move unlocks more power through better body rotation, improves your accuracy by promoting a better swing path, and leads to that pure, compressed contact every golfer craves.

Ingraining a new feel like this can be a difficult process, which is why we've made it easier to get clear, personalized feedback right when you need it. You can actually see what’s happening in your swing when you use an A.I. like Caddie AI to get clear, judgment-free advice and expert swing analysis to remove any confusion. Taking a slow-motion video and sending it to Caddie for immediate feedback can show you whether your club is dropping behind you or coming over the top, so you know exactly what to work on.