Hitting Fat is caused by incorrect posture effecting spine angle and creating poor swing mechanics. Some of the common problems are listed below are:

Your centre of gravity is on your front foot so you can't move through the shot with your hips and legs. This means your balance will be poor with your head too far forward. With the centre of gravity, weight will be too far forward in your stance, your legs will move before you complete your back swing, consequently power supplied by your arms and shoulders only.

If the centre of balance is wrong due to disturbed posture, as indicated in the diagram (above left) by the yellow line, your head will move too far down on the right away from the target during the downswing or the back-swing resulting in a distorted swing arc. You will drop your left shoulder causing you to chop down on the ball, thus causing you to hit fat.

Poor biomechanics will also cause you to sway your body back during your back swing and then not coming forward to your original position during your back swing, will result in your shot hit fat or you will top the ball through poor distribution of weight as you swing through the ball. With poor posture causing the wrong centre of gravity the body will sway causing lack of balance and this will lead to backward movement on the back-swing and forward movement on the follow through. The hips will not rotate but will slide creating an exaggerated flat swing.

The diagram (above left) shows the typical hitting fat posture at impact with the red lines indicating the shoulder and hip relationship and the green line indicates the centre of gravity. The purple arrow indicates the direction the hips are turning at the point of impact.

Note: The centre of gravity (COG) refers to the line in the midline from your forehead to the centre of your stance. Changes in the centre of gravity, as indicated by the green line, will alter your centre of balance (COB).

The diagram, (above right), shows the typical hitting fat posture with the centre of balance indicated by the yellow line. The swing arc is indicated by the blue line, which in this case travels along the flat swing plane. Point your mouse over the image to see the golfer dressed in blue which is the correct posture (red lines indicate the centre of balance) and a straight and correct swing arc travelling along the ideal swing plane indicated by the purple line. The correct posture should have a spine angle of 30 degrees, or as demonstrated in the diagram by the red lines (red lines also indicate the centre of balance), at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock depending if you are right or left handed. The correct swing plane is shown in purple.

Swing Summary: Changes in centre of gravity are due to; the body leaning too far forward (i.e. the wrong spine angle) and too much weight being supported on the target-side leg.

Note: The clock diagram indicates a general swing arc for hitting fat and both diagrams illustrate the posture at the point of impact.

To see the definitions of swing plane, swing arc and swing path please CLICK HERE