The divot drill is one of the absolute best drills for locating the bottom of your swing arc at impact
to insure a proper angle of attack into the ball.
It's a necessary drill if you are a bit timid about striking the ground with your club,
because for almost all of your swings (driver excluded because you usually hit that shot on
the ascending side of the swing) you need to hit ball first, ground second.
This drill can be done on any type of ground, but soft ground or earth preferrable because it's
easier on your wrists than hard
ground. A sand trap with firm sand works great also if you have access to one.
Simply scratch a line into the ground that would be perpendicular to your aimline. Take a stance with an eight iron
that positions the line where a ball would be. Position your body in an impact position:
ie: weight on your left side, left wrist straight, right wrist set in a flying wedge alignment, club handle
ahead of the clubhead.
Set your clubhead on the line, then take short to medium swings, making sure that
your divot ALWAYS occurs ahead of that line. If the ground you are practicing on is soft, you can
take more of a full swing. if the ground is firm, take smaller swings - as short
as a chipping motion if necessary.
Make short swings until you are perfect in execution, then longer swings as you get better and the
hardness of the ground permits.
You may experiment with different ball (line) positions by repositioning your body, but make sure that your
divots are occurring ahead of the line.
Divots from ball positions back in the stance will be deeper than divots occurring from swings
with ball positions more towards the center or forward of center.
For balls (line) positioned slightly forward of center, your club should just brush the ground
or take a very shallow divot.
Minimum of 100 reps each time you do this drill, then move down the line and take swings
until you can execute ten perfect swings in a row,
where each divot is ahead of the line.
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