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18 September 2026 · 10 min read

Avoiding fat shots: why fat, thin and topped start at the low point, what a shank is and which numbers show it

Fat, thin and topped are the same fault at three heights: the lowest point of the swing is in the wrong place. The shank is something else, a strike off the heel. The launch monitor shows both, if you know which number to read.

Avoiding fat shots: why fat, thin and topped start at the low point, what a shank is and which numbers show it — post image

The club hits the ground a hand's width behind the ball, and the turf flies further than the ball. On the next swing the opposite: the ball comes off the leading edge, low, far too long, and runs through the green. Whoever wants to avoid fat shots often gets thin ones too, and that is no coincidence. Both have the same cause. The shank has a different one. The launch monitor in the simulator shows all four misses, but not under their names. It shows numbers. Here is which ones.

The low point: one cause for three misses

The club head moves on an arc, and somewhere that arc has its lowest point. With an iron, the ball should be struck before that point: first the ball, then the ground. TrackMan calls this low point and shows it as before or after impact. It is another way of describing the attack angle: with a negative attack angle the club head is coming down at impact and the lowest point lies after the ball, towards the target. With a positive one it lies before the ball (TrackMan, Low Point).

Attack angle is the up or down movement of the club head at the ball's maximum compression. On the PGA Tour it averages minus 3.7 degrees with a 6 iron, on the LPGA Tour minus 2.3 degrees (TrackMan, Attack Angle). So good players hit down with an iron, a few degrees, no more. From here, fat, thin and topped are easy to understand. If the lowest point lies before the ball, the club hits the ground first: fat. If the club is already on its way up again, or the whole arc is too high, the leading edge meets the middle of the ball: thin. If the arc is higher still, the edge meets the top half: topped. Three misses that look different from the outside. On the screen it is one number in the wrong place.

Avoiding fat shots: the ground before the ball

The fat shot costs distance, because the ground takes speed out of the club head before the ball gets any of it. The ball flies short. In the simulator you see it in two places. Ball speed and carry drop compared with your clean shots with the same iron. And the low point sits before the ball, where it does not belong with an iron. A single shot says little. Ten with the same iron show whether the low point comes early as a rule.

Why the low point comes too early differs from player to player. Clive Tucker, a PGA professional and one of Golf Monthly's Top 50 coaches, names two common reasons. The player moves away from the ball in the backswing and does not come back in the downswing, so he hits the ground behind the ball. Or he releases the club too early: arms and elbow straighten too quickly, and the arc bottoms out behind the ball (Golf Monthly).

Thin and topped: the ball on the edge

The thin shot feels hard and flies low. The leading edge meets the middle of the ball instead of getting underneath it, and with hardly any loft involved it often goes too far. The topped shot is the same movement a few millimetres higher: the edge meets the top half, the ball dives into the ground and rolls. On the screen you see a low launch angle and a ball that barely climbs.

Clive Tucker names two causes for the thin shot. The first is ball position: if the ball is too far forward, towards the left instep, the body cannot move far enough forward in the downswing and the club does not reach the ground below the ball. The second is standing up: the pelvis moves towards the ball in the downswing, the player gains height, and the radius of the swing no longer reaches the ball (Golf Monthly).

The topped shot often has a third reason: the attempt to lift the ball into the air. Whoever tries to get underneath the ball leans back, and according to Tucker that is what produces topped and thin shots. TrackMan's numbers say why the lifting is not needed. Dynamic loft is the loft of the club face at impact. The coach Christoph Bausek, on TrackMan's page, calls it the main factor for launching the ball into the air. On the PGA Tour it is 20.2 degrees with a 6 iron, and that with an attack angle of minus 3.7 degrees: the players hit down, and the ball climbs anyway, because the face has the loft (TrackMan, Dynamic Loft).

The shank: the heel, not the face

The shank is a different miss. In German it is called a Socket. The ball is not struck with the face but with the hosel, the neck where the shaft enters the club head. For a right-hander it shoots off low and hard to the right. It has nothing to do with the low point, nor with where the face points. That is why the tips against a slice do not help. The club head arrives too far outside the ball. The heel lies only a few centimetres from the centre of the face. When chipping it is the same miss from a shorter distance. On the screen the shank is hard to recognise if the unit measures only the ball and the movement of the club head. Low ball speed, a start well right, little height: that could also be an open face. It becomes unmistakable only with the impact point on the face, and for that you need a camera.

What radar shows and what only a camera shows

A radar tracks the ball and the club head: speed, attack angle, club path, dynamic loft. Where on the face the ball was, it does not see on its own. That needs a picture. Foresight Sports lists impact location among the club data of the GCQuad, which works with four cameras (Foresight Sports, GCQuad). TrackMan 4 has a camera built in beside its two radar units and, by its own account, captures the impact location on the club face without markers on the club (TrackMan, Two Radars, One Camera). How the systems measure in general is in radar or camera.

For booking, that means: whoever wants to see the shank asks the venue whether the unit in the bay shows the impact point. In Switzerland, 83 venues name TrackMan as their system, 7 Foresight Sports and 4 Uneekor, whose overhead units film ball and club with cameras from above (the directory, as of 18 September 2026). The venues are on the pages for TrackMan, Foresight and Uneekor.

Drills against fat and thin, from the coaching

Drills are opinion, not measurement. The following come from Clive Tucker's article in Golf Monthly, and they match the causes above. Whether one works for you, the screen tells you after ten balls.

  • Fat, the shadow drill. Stand so that your shadow lies in front of you. Place one ball on the shadow's head and one on its pelvis. The ball at the head should stay in the shadow through the whole swing, the one at the pelvis may move a few inches towards the target in the downswing. If the head leaves the ball, you are moving off the ball.
  • Fat, the early release. The chest stays over the ball, but more open. The right elbow then straightens later, and the club strikes the ground only after the ball. Tucker's picture of impact: hips and shoulders 30 to 40 degrees open.
  • Thin, the umbrella drill. Stick an umbrella in the ground about three inches, around eight centimetres, from your left buttock at address. In the downswing, move the buttock onto the umbrella.
  • Thin, ball position. A couple of balls inside the left heel, the same for every iron. If the ball sits on the left heel with the driver, it belongs one ball back with an iron.
  • Topped. Do not try to get underneath the ball. Whoever leans back to lift it tops it. The loft of the face gets it into the air, the strike goes down.

For the shank there are many drills, and the right one depends on why the heel arrives first. It is the miss that is worth an hour with a pro in front of the impact picture. 95 of the 126 venues in the directory offer coaching.

More on this: The golf address position and Golf swing for beginners, Uneven lies in golf.

The order: contact first, then direction

Face angle and club path can only be read once the ball comes off the centre. A shank starts right even when the face was at the target, and a fat shot curves however the turf decides. That is why contact comes before direction. Only when low point and impact point are right for ten balls in a row is it worth looking at the slice. How that works is in fixing a slice with numbers, and what the other numbers mean is in understanding launch monitor numbers.

The next step is an hour in a bay with club data. Hit twenty balls with a 7 iron and look at only two columns: attack angle and low point. If the low point sits before the ball on the bad shots, you know what you are working on, and the drills above have a target. The venues with coaching are on the training page. 80 of the 110 indoor venues publish an hourly rate, a median of CHF 50 per bay (venue list).

Frequently asked questions

Why do I hit the ball fat?

Because the lowest point of your swing arc lies before the ball and the club hits the ground first. On the PGA Tour a 6 iron arrives with an attack angle of minus 3.7 degrees according to TrackMan, so the low point lies after the ball. Common reasons according to Clive Tucker in Golf Monthly: the body moves away from the ball in the backswing and does not come back, or the club is released too early.

What is a shank in golf?

A strike with the hosel, the neck of the club, instead of the face. In German it is called a Socket. For a right-hander the ball shoots off low to the right, and the miss has nothing to do with the low point or with where the face points.

Does every golf simulator show where I strike the ball on the face?

No: a radar on its own measures ball and club head, and the impact point comes from a camera. Foresight Sports lists it among the GCQuad's club data, and TrackMan 4 captures it with its built-in camera. In Switzerland 83 venues name TrackMan as their system and 7 Foresight Sports, and the venue can tell you whether the model in the bay shows the impact point.

What is the low point and why does it matter?

The lowest point of the swing arc. With an iron it should sit after the ball, towards the target: ball first, then ground. If it sits before the ball, the shot is fat. TrackMan shows it as a figure of its own; it is another way of reading attack angle.

Why do slice tips not help against a shank?

Because a shank is not a face-direction problem. The ball hits the hosel, the neck of the club, and shoots low right even when the face was at the target. The cause is a head arriving too far outside. Contact comes first, direction second.

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