{"id":619349,"date":"2026-04-21T18:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:23:08","slug":"1-thing-most-recreational-golfers-dont-understand-about-ball-striking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/619349\/","title":{"rendered":"1 thing most recreational golfers don&#8217;t understand about ball striking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"first\">Earlier this year, I spent a week working inside the ropes at the AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside my friend, and fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/golf-magazine-top-100-teachers-america-26-27\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GOLF Top 100 Teacher<\/a>, Mike Dickson, giving corporate hospitality lessons to tournament guests. Over four days, we delivered hundreds of mini-lessons (quick 10- to 25-minute sessions) to players of all skill levels. Most were mid-handicappers, a few were low single digits and a couple could really play. But regardless of ability, the same issue kept showing up. <\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t a bad grip or poor alignment, but rather a misunderstanding of something much simpler: where the swing bottoms out.<\/p>\n<p>What every golfer gets wrong<\/p>\n<p>At the start of almost every lesson, I asked a simple question: \u201cWhere do you think the <a href=\"https:\/\/golf.com\/instruction\/approach-shots\/control-low-point-play-smart\/?srsltid=AfmBOoorqYSKZUFZRRnC10A9k_Esg6SB4utc8Jtjlx7Us1iowDmZ-HRI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">low point of your swing<\/a> is?\u201d Every single player gave the same answer: \u201cat the golf ball.\u201d It\u2019s a logical response, but it\u2019s also the root of the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The golf swing is circular in nature, and every circle has a lowest point, which is the very bottom of the arc. That low point isn\u2019t at the ball; it\u2019s slightly in front of it, roughly under the lead armpit. Understanding that detail changes everything. If the ball isn\u2019t at the low point, it means the club must strike the ball before reaching the bottom of the arc.<\/p>\n<p>When golfers try to force the ball to be the low point, their motion compensates in ways that create inconsistency. The club bottoms out too early, the hands stop leading, the lead wrist breaks down and the clubhead flips past the body. That\u2019s when you see the common misses and unreliable contact.<\/p>\n<p>    What good players do instead<\/p>\n<p>Better players don\u2019t try to \u201chelp\u201d the ball into the air or meet it at the bottom of the swing. They do the opposite. They keep their hands ahead of the clubhead, maintain structure in the lead wrist and allow the club to continue traveling downward through impact. The result is ball-first contact, a downward strike and a divot that begins in front of the ball. That\u2019s compression, and it comes from controlling the low point rather than manipulating the clubhead.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re unsure where your low point is, the ground provides immediate feedback. A divot that starts behind the ball means the low point is too far back, while a divot that begins in front of the ball indicates it\u2019s in the correct position. It\u2019s a simple, reliable diagnostic.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to work on your low point, try this the next time you\u2019re on the range. Take a 7-iron and choke down so the grip runs slightly up your lead forearm, letting it rest there as you make small, controlled swings. Focus on keeping the lead wrist flat, maintaining the connection between your arm and the shaft and feeling the club bottom out in front of the ball. It\u2019s a straightforward way to train proper alignments and get instant feedback.<\/p>\n<p>Most golfers don\u2019t have a swing problem, they have a problem understanding this concept. Once you understand that the ball is not the low point and begin organizing your swing around where the bottom of the arc actually occurs, you\u2019ll strike the ball more solidly, more consistently, and with more power. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, I spent a week working inside the ropes at the AT&amp;T Pebble Beach Pro-Am alongside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-619349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}