You just striped a 7-iron from 155 yards, catching it pure off the center of the face. The ball launches on a perfect trajectory, lands softly and checks up three feet from the pin. That sensation, that crisp compressed contact, is what we’re all chasing.
Two swings later, same lie, same club, same target. Except this time, you chunk it, the club thudding into the turf well behind the ball. The shot limps forward maybe 110 yards. How did the exact same swing produce two completely different results?
The answer isn’t your swing. It’s where that swing bottoms out.
The problem with “just hit down on it”
Every golfer has heard this instruction. Hit down on the ball. Take a divot. Trap it against the turf. All true, but utterly useless without understanding what actually creates that descending strike.
So what do most players do? They try to force the club downward. They lunge their upper body toward the target, thinking forward movement equals a downward strike. Or they keep their weight back and try to scoop under the ball to help it up, terrified of chunking another one into oblivion.
Moving your body forward often makes your low point move backward. It’s counterintuitive, but your body is smarter than you think. When you throw your chest and head at the target, your subconscious knows the club would crash into the ground too steeply so it pulls your arms up to protect you. Result? Club bottoms out behind the ball. Fat City.
The pros make it look effortless. They understand that low point control isn’t about driving down or helping up. It’s about rotating around a stable center while managing where your pressure goes. Get those two things right and the low point takes care of itself.
What actually controls where the club bottoms out
Think of your golf swing as having an anchor point and a moving point. The anchor is your head and upper center. The moving point is your pressure and lower body. When these work correctly, the club’s arc bottoms out in front of the ball without any manipulation.
Most golfers never consider this relationship: your low point roughly corresponds to your head position at impact. Not where your head started at address but where it is when the club meets the ball. Drift your head forward three inches during the downswing? You just moved your low point back three inches. Physics is undefeated.
Now, this doesn’t mean your head needs to be locked in a vise. Some lateral movement happens naturally; maybe an inch or two is fine, even normal. What kills your low point control is significant forward drift where your head moves several inches toward the target during the downswing. That’s what pushes your swing’s bottom arc back behind the ball and creates inconsistent contact.
This is why the best ball-strikers in the world maintain remarkably stable head positions even as their hips drive forward aggressively. Their pressure moves forward, sometimes 85 percent or more onto the lead side, but their head stays back. That combination creates a low point that’s forward of the ball.
There’s a second piece that matters just as much: the path your trail shoulder takes. When it drops downward and rotates under your lead shoulder through impact, you maintain the spine tilt that allows a descending strike. When it shoves forward and out toward the ball, your spine straightens, everything lifts, and you either thin it or adjust by flipping your hands and hitting it fat.
Your arms? They’re mostly passengers. Stop trying to steer the club into the ground. Let your body rotation and pressure movement put the club where it needs to be.
How to diagnose your low point issues
The divot test: Get a can of spray paint or foot powder spray. Mark a line on the ground, put a ball on that line and hit some shots. Where does your divot start? If it starts behind the line, your low point is too far back. You need to either keep your head from drifting forward or shift your pressure more aggressively into your lead side. No divot at all? You’re probably hanging back or helping the ball up.
The video check: Set up your phone face-on about 15 feet away. Hit five balls and watch where your head is at address versus impact. If it’s moved toward the target, you’ve found your problem. Even one inch of forward head movement can push your low point back several inches behind the ball.
The shoulder plane drill: This one requires some awareness but it’s valuable. At impact, freeze and feel where your shoulders are. Is your trail shoulder lower than your lead shoulder? Good, that’s the tilt you need. Are they level, or worse, is your trail shoulder higher? You’ve stood up through impact and your low point is going to wander all over the place.
A practice plan that actually works
Hit 25 balls with a pitching wedge, placing a tee in the ground instead of a ball for the first 10 swings. Don’t try to hit the tee, just make normal swings. Where’s the divot in relation to the tee? Adjust until the divot consistently starts at the tee and moves forward.
Once you’ve got that dialed, add a ball. Same focus: pressure shifts forward into your lead foot while your head stays centered or even drifts slightly back. Let your trail shoulder drop and rotate under. Stop trying to help it. Stop trying to force it down. Just rotate and let the club fall into the correct spot.
You’ll know you’ve got it when the strike sounds different. Crisper, cleaner, more authoritative. That’s compression. That’s a controlled low point. And that’s the difference between hoping for good contact and knowing exactly how to create it every single time.
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