silver77

I'm new to golf for the past 3 months, when taking a shot from the fairway or even a pitch shot should I be taking a divot ?

Lead Tape

When you watch a PGA tournament on TV and they have an overhead shot of the extended landing area of the fairway from the blimp and it looks like a mine field down below with all of the discoloration, that should give the answer to you. What do you think made that happen?

300Yards

It depends on what clubs your speaking of..for irons, I'd say yes, you should take a divot, although it is not always required. Woods, in general, you shouldn't take a divot..although sometimes it is necessary to do so. Seeing as your just beginning, leave all this divot stuff for later..for now, just focus on making clean contact, then start working on specialty shots.

white_tiger_137

Just make sure you're not starting your divot before you get to the ball.

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Golfbum

65nlovenit

Your just WAY to humble GolfBum, but I have to agree with you, I decided this year that I would start taking a divot, well now I've got to back and learn to use my 5/6/7 irons all over again. Since I started taking divots I've also developed the most horrendous Kamakazi Hook you've ever seen. I know I'm closing the face of the club, but I have this feeling the clubs going to dig and twist, throwing my shot off line. So now I'm cursing the day I decided to take a divot. Have yet to get to a single digit handicap, but I think I'm going to go back to picking it clean.

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The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.

Doby45

I once had a cat named Divot..

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Golfbum

65nlovenit

Was out Saturday, went out to see if the course was open yet, and sure enough there was a couple nuts like me out there slogging along. Our course has a tendency to hold water so the fairways were small ponds. Lost two balls in the middle of the fairway, just could not find them. Found another one and was tempted to use a backhoe to play it. Needless to say the score was less then bragable, but despite the water it was great to get back out there. Had one of the best drives I've ever had and followed it up with a super 3 wood, to bad I blew the approach shot, landed on but rolled off. And your absolutely right about the divots, I would have had to open up an excavation company if I'd tried that.Oh well it will dry up (some day).

Del

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The shortest distance between any two points on a golf course is a straight line that passes directly through the center of a very large tree.

cbwheeler

It depends on the situation. If you want more spin on your shot, you're going to want to take a hard swing with a steep angle of approach and a good sized divot after you hit the ball, creating a high ball flight and lots of spin. If you have some room to play with on the green, the easier shot is a 3/4 swing that will roll a little and check up quickly. This won't require too much of a divot, but you will get a little dirt on the club.

Why take a divot? The ball slides up the clubface at the split second of impact, catching on the grooves of the club imparting a lot of spin.

If you don't take as big of a divot, ceteris peribus, you're going to get less spin.

The simple answer is, with your wedges and short irons, you should at least disturb the grass if you're a "pick it clean" type of player. If not, you're not making very good use of the grooves on your clubs. They are there for a reason! You'll learn to hit all types of shots, some with big divots, some divotless. That's what makes golf such a great game.

Play with it on the course and watch how the ball reacts. Ball spin dynamics is a huge area of golf that most players never even consider. You can really affect your scores bigtime if you learn to control spin.

Good Luck with it.

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