golf swing relative to ground

Question
QUESTION: I am 70 years and have played golf since I was about 10 years old. I have never played well (currently between 90 and 100). While watching golf on TV I noticed slow motion views of a golf club impacting the ball relative to the ground and realized it was much different than when my club impacts the ball. I'm not speaking of tee shots, but rather rather iron shots off grass. This is hard to explain but I will try. Imagine a plumb line hung down directly over the ball. I would think that a golf shot would be such that the botton of the arc of the club swing would occurr at the ball. Often in these TV views that is not the case. The bottom of that arc seems to be out in front of the ball. In other words the club head is coming down on its arc and strikes the ball and then continues down its arc into the earth and reaches the bottom of its arc at some point in the ground a few inches ahead of the ball. In the process a divot is taken and goes flying as well as the ball. With the exception of sand shots I have always made my golf swing arc bottom out at the ball so that I just pick it up off the grass. I may make a mistake and hit the ball "fat" taking a divot, but this is not planned and is an error on my part. Of course on tee shots I also make sure the bottom of the golf swing arc is at the ball, as I assume does everyone else. Now have I been playing golf wrong all these years? On iron shots off the grass is there any rule about where the bottom of the golf swing arc should be? Why do golfers swing this way? Obviously if your swinging off concrete or hard pan dirt you want to "pick" up the ball as I do, but is that the only time?

ANSWER: Hello David:  
Great question and logical.  But in golf, logic doesn't work.  The bottoming out point of the golf swing is always past the ball.  Pickers of the ball (like you), tend to swing "at" the ball.  Tour players and good amateurs swing "through" the ball.  You are very observant in noticing that the divot is taken after the strike, as the back of the ball is struck with a slightly (at impact) decending blow, and then the clubhead continues to move low through the impact area before swinging up into the follow through.  Here's the biggest thing that you lack:  In order to COMPRESS a golf ball, the clubface must strike the back of the ball perfectly solid and the clubface must be delofted to a degree to do it.  So in other words, picture the clubface mashing the back of the ball so the face of the club would be flat against the ball.  Now that is physically impossible because of the loft of the face, however, just picture that.  That would be a solid strike.  So if you just hit at the ball and not drive through it, you basically are catching the ball on the bottom one or two grooves of the face as you are hoping to time the exact moment of impact.  Thus, you probably hit a lot of shots "thin" and if your not careful, you'll catch the ground before the ball and hit it "fat".  Each of those are not solid (my guess is that is about 80% of your shots), resulting in a loss of distance and a loss of spin or trajectory control.  High handicap golfers tend to do this because they believe they should try to "get under" it to lift it up.  But that is why the manufacturers put loft on the clubface.  Your job is drive through it and hit it solid and let the loft do the lifting.  So here is a great drill for you to now go practice.  Using your short irons to start with, put a tee in the ground about 3 inches in front of your ball on the line of your target.  Then make sure you hit both the ball AND the tee out in front of the ball.  If you cannot hit the tee out in front, then you are trying to lift or scoop.  Instead, get the feel of how the leading edge of the clubface (at the bottom) takes some turf and get the feel of how much lower your club stays moving through impact.  Allow the momentum of your swing to bring you up to a finish.  So start hitting "through" the ball and not "at" it.  You'll also discover a hidden benefit in doing this David:  DISTANCE!!

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Well this is hard for me to to understand. For my age I do not seem to have a problem with distance e.g. a recent outing had me driving the green on three of the courses par 4's and putting for eagle. My typical good iron shots are about: 4 iron 200 yds, 5 iron 180 yds, 6 iron 165 yds, 7 iron 150 yds, 8 iron 140 yds, 9 iron 130 yds, etc. I don't think I need more distance and if hitting shots the way you described is to get more distance I think I will play as I have always played. What I need is to be able to hit good shots CONSISTENTLY. If the method you're suggesting will do that then I can improve my game.
Now I'm thinking about how I am to do as you suggested i.e. putting a golf tee out front of the ball and hitting both the ball and the tee. When I stand at address it is natural for me to "aim" at the ball (which will be the bottom of my swing arc). To do as you suggest I'm going to have to "aim" a little ahead of the ball as if that is what I am hitting and in the process I will hit the ball on the downswing as you suggested. I don't know if I can do that after so many years of doing it the "wrong" way. I am going to my driving range today and I will practice the routine you suggested. Thanks.

Answer
David:

Distance does not seem to be a problem, congrats.  Distance is a byproduct of hitting it solid.  What I have suggested is simply to learn what it feels like to hit it consistently solid.  At the practice range, try my drill.  It won't take you long to feel what that is like.  The impact will get more consistent.  The leading edge must brush the grass or take some turf in order for the ball to be struck on the "sweet spot" of the club.  With a little practice and a good attitude, you will notice a difference.  By the way, in this game, there is no right way or wrong way.  The bottom line is are you having fun doing it, and if you want to get better, are you willing to learn the fundamentals of how to and are you shooting lower scores?  There are no secrets to golf, only basic understanding and practice.  So go have fun.  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member