Why Am I Not Getting Under the Golf Ball?

Hearing that thin, clattering clack as your club smacks the top half of the golf ball is one of the most disheartening sounds in golf. Your instinct might tell you that to get the ball up in the air, you need to somehow slide the clubface *under* it. This article will show you that the exact opposite is true and give you a clear path to generating the crisp, solid contact you've been looking for. We will break down why trying to get under the ball is causing the problem and then outline the common physical mistakes that lead to this frustrating shot.

The Big Misunderstanding: Stop Trying to Get Under the Ball

Let's get this out of the way first: Your goal should not be to get the club under the ball. It’s a complete myth that golfers need to "help" the ball into the air by scooping or lifting it. In fact, every time you try to do this, you increase the chances of hitting a topped or thin shot.

Modern golf clubs are engineering marvels, specifically designed with loft to launch the ball upwards for you. Your job isn't to lift it, your job is to deliver the club to the back of the ball with a slightly descending strike. Think about pro golfers on TV - they take divots *after* the ball. This is because the lowest point of their swing happens an inch or two in front of where the ball was.

When you strike slightly down on the ball, two things happen:

• You compress the ball against the clubface.
• The club's loft naturally launches the ball up into the air on a powerful trajectory.

When you actively try to lift or scoop, you do the opposite. You raise the low point of your swing to be behind the ball, causing the leading edge of the club to rise up and strike the equator or top of the ball. The real goal is to hit down and through the ball, letting the club do the work. Once you accept this, the battle is halfway won.

What's Actually Happening: The Three Culprits of Thin and Topped Shots

So, we know "scooping" is the problem, but what physical movements cause this faulty motion? It almost always boils down to one or more of these three common swing faults. Let's look at each one, what it feels like, and how to start fixing it.

Fault #1: Lifting Your Body and Losing Posture

This is probably the number one reason amateur golfers top the ball. It happens when you don't maintain the spine angle you established at address. Instead of rotating around your spine, you straighten your legs and lift your chest up through the impact zone. It’s a natural, but incorrect, instinct to try and "help" the ball into the air.

Why It Happens:

Your body is trying to create loft that isn't needed. As your chest and head rise up, the entire radius of your swing lifts up with them. If the bottom of your swing was supposed to be at grass level, lifting your body might raise it by two or three inches - the perfect height to clip the top of the golf ball.

How To Fix It:

The feeling you want is that your chest stays pointed down towards the ball for as long as possible through impact. A great drill to feel this is the "Head Against an Object" drill:

1. Set up a few feet from a wall, or use your golf bag as a reference.
2. Get into your golf posture so the side of your head is just touching the object.
3. Make some slow, half-swings, focusing on keeping your head in the same spot from the top of your backswing all the way through to a "hands at hip height" follow-through.

This will force you to rotate your body and keep your posture instead of standing up. It will feel like you're staying "down in the shot" for much longer.

Fault #2: The Early Release (AKA "Casting")

Casting is when you uncock your wrists right from the top of your backswing. Instead of storing that power and releasing it at the bottom of the swing, you "throw" the clubhead away early. By the time the club reaches the ball, your wrists are already straight, and the clubhead has often already passed your hands.

Why It Happens:

Like lifting your body, this is another a-bit-too-common attempt to scoop the ball. Your hands are actively trying to flick the clubhead underneath the ball. This kills your speed and, more importantly for this problem, raises the low point of your swing to happen well behind the ball, leading to a thin or topped shot.

How To Fix It:

You need to feel what "lag" is - that sensation of the clubhead trailing your hands into the downswing. The "Pump Drill" is excellent for this:

1. Take your normal backswing.
2. On the way down, stop when your left arm (for righties) is parallel to the ground. Your hands should be well ahead of the clubhead.
3. From here, pump the club back up and then back down to this position a couple of times. Feel that angle in your wrists? That’s lag. Hold it!
4. After two pumps, swing all the way through to a full finish.

The goal is to feel the handle leading the clubhead into the ball, delivering the flat part of the face - not the bottom edge - squarely into the back of it.

Fault #3: Ball Position is Too Far Forward

This is a simpler, but no less damaging, setup issue. If the ball is positioned too far forward in your stance for the club you're hitting, you might be making a good swing, but the club will reach the low point of its arc *before* it gets to the ball. By the time it finally reaches the ball, the clubhead is already traveling upwards.

Why It Happens:

Often, it comes from a misunderstanding of how ball position changes from club to club. A golfer might learn that the driver goes off the front heel and then apply that same rule to their irons, which is incorrect.

How To Fix It:

Here’s a simple rule of thumb for ball position:

• Wedges and Short Irons (PW, 9-Iron, 8-Iron): Ball goes in the absolute center of your stance. Imagine a line running up from your sternum straight down to the ball.
• Mid Irons (7-Iron, 6-Iron, 5-Iron): The ball should be one or two ball-widths forward of center.
• Long Irons / Hybrids / Fairway a little less so a Woods that would need to use a Driver and hybrids, : Move it progressively more forward, with the driver being the only club played off the inside of your lead heel. (and even then most players, like Justin Thomas play it slightly inside of that position to create more downward AoA than a player could get away with with his driver to create a good amount of speed while still controlling spin).

Fixing ball position is one of the quickest ways to improve contact. Put an alignment rod down to represent the center of your stance when you practice. This gives you immediate visual feedback on where the ball is, helping you build a consistent and correct setup.

Changing Your Practice: Two Drills for Crisp Contact

Knowing what's wrong is one thing, grooving the right feeling is another. Add these two drills to your practice sessions to finally put an end to thin and topped golf shots.

1. The Line Drill

This is the ultimate drill for learning to hit the ball first and the turf second. You can do this on a grass range or on a mat.

• On grass: Use a can of spray paint or a tee to draw a line perpendicular to your target line.
• On a mat: Lay down a strip of athletic tape or simply use a line that's already on the mat.

The drill: Place the ball directly on the line. Now, your only thought is to make a swing where you hit the ball and your club’s divot starts *on the target side* of the line. If you are casting or lifting up, your divot (or club thump on the mat) will be on or before the line. This gives you instant feedback on every single swing and helps train that "ball first" downward strike.

2. The Towel-Behind-the-Ball Drill

This one almost exaggerates the feeling of hitting down and through the ball, which can be very effective if you have a persistent scooping habit.

• Place a rolled-up towel on the ground about one foot behind your golf ball.
• Address the ball and hit shots.

The goal is simple: hit the ball without hitting the towel. If you have any sort of early release or scooping motion, your swing arc will be too wide a long way from the position you should be, and very early at its depth too,, you'll hit the towel easily. To miss it, you are forced to maintain your-swing lag and create swing planes a steeper angle where the down-movement or the steepest AoA would occur as one must make the right down and compressing the-motion of the swing by not allowing the upperbody to lose a proper posture and rotate well. to the of Attack that ensures hitting the- ball at its bottom point before compressing further down towards the direction one wishes to attack to by keeping your a forward-leaning-shaft position throughout- the impact of making your hit. that gives the ultimate ball-first perfect strike.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, to stop topping the ball, you have to let go of the idea that you need to help it airborne. Trust the club's loft. Focus instead on maintaining your posture and rotating your body to deliver a descending blow to the back of the ball, with the low point of your contact and feeling of taking your divot occurring just in front of it is what matters. . If these were happening one has hit the ball in the most perfect and impactful a ball-and turf downward contact way which will produce a nice powerful and penetrating ball flight after making the perfect shot of the day! you’re going for

Finding out which of these faults is holding you back can be a bit of a process itself. If you're on the course struggling with contact or at home trying to diagnose a swing issue, we built Caddie AI to provide instant coaching. You can ask exactly what to do in a tricky situation, even snap a photo of a funky lie, and get expert advice immediately. This removes the guesswork, letting you play with clarity and confidence both on and off the course.