You must be doing something right to get down to an 11 or 12 HC. Golfers who don't make solid contact with the ball are usually trying to pick it off the ground. Byron Nelson was a picker in his prime but as he got older he lost some of his hand eye coordination and was forced to start hitting the ground after he struck the ball. A picker makes the golf swing a circle and therefore they only have a very small window at the bottom of the arch in which to hit the ball perfectly. See if this doesn't sound like you. When your timing is on you can't believe how solidly and how good you are hitting the ball, but then there are days when your timing is off and you struggle to break 90. My point being a picker doesn't have any room for error. Either he hits it solidly or he hits it poorly, mainly because his swing is bottoming out behind the ball and he is either catching it thin or he is hitting the ground behind the ball.
The golf clubs with the exception of the putter and the driver and sand wedge are designed to hit the ball and then the ground with a downward blow. This means the club head needs to be coming downward as it strikes the ball. This gives the golfer three chances to pull off the shot. He can catch it perfectly, he can catch it thin and the ball will still go in the air due to the downward movement of the club or he can hit the ground behind the ball, but unlike the picker who hits the ground and then swings skyward and only catches a small part of the ball, the downward blow will strike the ground and slid into the back of the ball. The ball might not go as far due to the ground taking away some of the power of the swing but at least it will become airborne and hopefully straight.
Take a few seconds and watch the following videos.
Please watch the following very short youtube videos:  Copy the address into your toolbar and hit enter and it should take you to the desired video.  If the address shows up blue on the DB then all you need to do is click it and it will take you to the desired video. Please focus on the end of video as they show in slow motion how the club head strikes the ball.
  
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MlhxXKTjMg 
When the ball is on the ground hit the ball and then the ground. Notice that the club strikes the ball and the ball goes into the air and then the club strikes the ground and the dirt flies.  Ball/ground, not ground/ball.
There is also another problem that causes golfers not to hit the ball solidly and that is your eyes lie to you. As objects get further away from the eyes, below the belt, the eyes work like a telescope and mentally make the object larger so the brain can see it better. When this happens it makes the object look closer than it actually is. This is why so many golfers top the ball. The way to avoid this is to aim at the ground directly under the ball or at a sport on the ground just to the target side of the ball. After all if the target is the ball and then the ground shouldn't you be looking at the last target rather than the first one?
Now that you know how to strike the ball watch the following video and it will show you how to make the ball go where you want it to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVXnamjubYo&NR=1
You want to think of the club face of a golf club as if it were a snowplow.  The snowplow goes down the expressway and scraps the pavement and the snow flies into the air. The snowplow doesn’t move skyward but forward.  It is the angle of the blade that throws the snow skyward.; So it is with the club face. It is the angle of the blade that causes the ball to go skyward. The club face like the snowplow should be moving downward and forward, not skyward. When I see students I have taught 12-13 years ago and I ask them what was the one thing the remember most from the course 3 out of 4 will say that the club head is a snowplow and not a shovel.
The last video is of Tiger hitting a driver. Notice the driver face is looking and traveling down the target line. The club head is parallel to the ground and isn’t moving skyward.; You swing the driver out towards the target, not up towards the sky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0o9kticdmI&feature=related
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions I will be happy to give you my views. However, remember these ideas are free and therefore may only be worth what you paid for them.
Edited 11/2/2009 10:26:00 PM by curran90
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