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My swing seems to have a "sweep" feel to it. I do relatively well with my driver and fairway woods and have no trouble with the hybrids I use for long irons.

But with my short irons/wedges, I'm taking a crater/divot about two inches behind the ball. The practice swing seems great but when I hit the ball my swing falls apart.

So a couple of questions...

What kinds of swing faults could be causing this sort of problem?

Can someone explain, in detail, what is different about a "descending blow" swing and a "sweeping" swing? I know the differences as far as divot vs. no divot etc. but I don't get the difference in the swing itself. Is it a wrist thing? arms? everything?

Thanks in advance.

try placing the ball a little a little more back for the wedges and short irons maybe one ball back of center

Thanks, I'll experiment with that.

But I'm still not sure why I'm digging holes instead of taking divots.

What you are doing comes from crowding the ball with the short irons and getting too close to the ball. This happens a lot with the wedges especially on chips and pitches. You can even develope shanks. Set your arms on top of you chest, bend over and set the club head behind the ball, and then set yuor feet for even balance between your heels and toes. If you feel farther from the ball, then too close is your problem.

Could you explain "Set your arms on top of you chest, bend over and set the club head behind the ball"? Thanks and sorry for being dense.

The list of what can cause this issue, is longer than I want to sit and type. Trying to fix this without seeing your swing would be stupidity on my part.

May be you are loosing your spine angle and your body's centre of gravity is shifting. There was a time when I went through the same phase. I cured it by:
1. Taking a practice swing and note the bottom of my arc.
2. Focusing on a small spot in front of the ball.
3. Making sure that I complete my swing driving through the ball.

Could you explain the proper spine angle?

actually, you don't have to take a divot with short irons... many will disagree, but you don't. You can make clean contact without loosening any dirt whatsoever. come look @ my clubs,last year they were green from the range "grass" mats..no more.. and the ball flies farther,straighter...wedge-8 iron..no green on the soles.now that I learned to hit the ball RIGHT..which I'll add, is different than what you'll see/read/hear. now on the course, no divots to replace or fill, and results to boot.


Nice axe, btw.....

I too find myself sticking my irons in the ground behind the ball occassionally. The fix that works for me is to make sure that I get an adequate hip turn through the shot. If my swing thought is to hit the ball hard, I usually leave my hips closed and ground the club. If I think about just letting the club swing itsself, my hips rotate and I get a clean contact.
As for hitting down or not. I try to hit down when I want to pop the ball and get it to stop. My flatter swing is for bump and run type shots.
I'm certainly no pro so I'm sure other better golfers out there can clarify this.
Good luck. I have to head to the #1 tee now.

But what is different about the swing? I know I need to hit "down" on the ball but I have no idea how to actually do that.

The spine angle established at the address position should be maintained until impact. Your spine should remain the axis for rotating the body around during the backswing and the downswing.

One big help I got from the Golf Channel was about that "World's Worst Golf Swing" guy. He wasn't shifting his weight back to the front foot during his swing, so he was taking a big crater out behind the ball or skulling it - two things I was doing quite reguarly.

Now that I shift my weight through the swing, I'm hitting much more consistently.

work on these three keys, one: keep a bent, but very firm right knee, don't let it lock up, two: keep your head very steady through the shot, three: don't force the shot, think smooth.

Thanks again everyone. I'll make a list of these suggestions and try them out on the range.

One thing I'm still not sure about is what it means to swing "steeper" or to hit with a "descending blow". I would really appreciate an explanation of the mechanics involved in creating this swing. Is it just ball placement or a different type of swing?

Even if you don't necessarily think it would be part of the problem I'm having, I would appreciate the explanation.

Thanks!