Some of you may know that the single most problematic area for me is coming down too early on the ball, leaving a divot behind the tee and duffing the ball in all sorts of directions. I admit, funny to see but not so fun to hold up the remainder of the group with a shot that went 20 yards instead of 200.
I have seen many methods to help with this and to alert me to when do this in practice. For those of us that practice on mats, I find that they don’t give me a real good indication of where a divot was made. This is obviously a result of your club’s sole simply “bouncing” on the surface and decent, “false” contact can still be made. I read a couple of tips that involved newspaper, magazine, additional balls, headcover etc all being laid about 6″ behind the ball. By doing this you can get a great indicator of a premature, divot / bottoming out as the club will simply hit the item thereby letting you know the shot was not clean. I then came across an article that described a partially rolled up towel being used. I thought this was a great idea and 
am working with it now. You see, you roll the towel and place it with the roll far away or close to you depending on what you want to work on. It is also placed 6″ behind the ball to let you know if you came down too early AND you can also use it to see if you are coming down straight on the plane as well. It’s a two in one solution! Some use fiberglass rods, I have a wood dowel that let me compare my swing path but the rolled towel tells no lie. If you hit the roll you came down at an angle.
I also find that it is actually much easier to see the plane as you are swinging because I am using a white towel and there is a much higher degree of contrast. Give it a try, hopefully it will help you as well. Feel free to leave me comments on any other drills that have helped you.
This is a great tip for evidence that the club head is reaching it’s lowest point behind the ball. There’s no denying that you’ve hit the ground before the ball.
However, it won’t help in solving the bigger problem of not transferring ones weight from the back foot to the front foot. Which is the primary reason why the club is bottoming out behind the ball. David Leadbetter notes this in his Faults and Fixes book, when players bottom out their swing too early, it’s because they’re trying to help the ball into the air by tilting back and not transferring their weight, much like a baseball swing.
I’ve seen tips where a golf ball is place below the heal of the back foot and during practice swings, it gives you the feeling of transferring to your weight to your front foot. I’ve also seen a tip where you take practice swings on a downhill lie to get the feeling of transferring your weight to your front foot.
I have had this problem for some time. Being a low handicapper and good ball striker my problem is not that I am trying to lift the ball into the air but rather a tilt of the upper body on the downswing. The fix for me is in the setup which hangs the club above the ball. I find I am able to drop the club in behind the ball. Charles Barkley drops his right side a full foot or more. My position is that if he held the club a foot above the ball he would not have to stop since the club will not be headed for the ground.
It would seem to make more sense not to tilt but if your a tilter it isn’t that easy.
PS It works on chipping and putting.
Interesting. I think the best way to see some of my upper body issues could be to video my downswing to see if maybe I am excessively tilting. Thanks for the comment!
[...] Here’s a great drill using a towel to help you “hit down on the [...]