Stop Hitting Fat Shots with Proper Bounce Technique

This drill teaches you how to use the bounce of your wedge so the club can glide along the turf instead of digging into it. If you tend to hit fat shots, stick the club in the ground, or alternate between chunks and thin strikes, this is one of the best short-game drills you can do. The goal is simple: train the sole of the club to brush the ground for several inches through impact. When you learn to create that shallow, sliding contact, you build a much bigger margin for error and your wedge play becomes far more reliable.

How the Drill Works

The idea behind this drill is to train the back edge of the wedge—the bounce—to interact with the turf. Instead of driving the leading edge steeply into the ground, you want the club to coast along the surface through impact.

A useful benchmark is to have the club slide along the ground for roughly 4 to 6 inches. At a minimum, you want a couple of inches of brush. That means the club is not crashing down into the turf at one precise spot. It is entering shallow, staying low, and continuing through.

This matters because good wedge contact is not about being perfect to the millimeter. It is about creating a margin of air—a little buffer that allows the club to skim the turf and still produce solid contact. When the bounce is working, the club is much less likely to dig. Even if your low point is not perfect, the shot can still come off reasonably well.

There are a few ways to learn this sensation:

• Start behind the ball and brush through to learn the turf interaction first.
• Use a continuous rhythm motion by brushing the club back and forth along the ground.
• Hit multiple balls in sequence so your body keeps moving and the club keeps gliding.

In every version, the key is the same: your chest rotation carries the club through, and the sole of the wedge stays in contact with the ground long enough to feel like it is sliding rather than stabbing.

Step-by-Step

1. Set up for a basic wedge shot. Use your normal finesse wedge setup. You do not need anything exaggerated. The goal is not to manipulate the clubface or force a special motion. Just prepare as if you are going to hit a simple short shot.

2. Place the club a couple of inches behind the ball. Before you hit a shot, rehearse the turf interaction by starting the club slightly behind the ball and letting it brush along the ground through where the ball sits.

3. Use your chest to move the club through. As you make the rehearsal, feel your body rotation transporting the club rather than your hands chopping downward. The motion should feel smooth and shallow, with the clubhead staying low to the ground.

4. Notice how long the club stays on the turf. Try to feel the sole slide for several inches. A good target is 4 to 6 inches of brushing. If you only clip the ground at one sharp point, you are probably still too steep.

5. Repeat the brush with the ball in place. Once you can rehearse the glide, set up normally and try to recreate the exact same sensation with the ball there. Your intention is not to “hit down” on the ball. Your intention is to brush through it.

6. Try the back-and-forth rhythm version. Without a ball at first, let the club brush back and brush through in a gentle continuous motion. This gives you a stronger sense of the clubhead riding the turf on both sides of the swing.

7. Walk into the shot while the club is brushing. Once you have that rhythm going, move yourself into position so the ball is in the middle of that brushing pattern. This helps you feel that the ball is simply getting in the way of a club that is already gliding properly.

8. Line up several balls and keep the motion going. Place a few balls in a row and hit them one after another while maintaining the same brushing action. This is especially helpful because it becomes difficult to rely on your hands alone. The drill encourages a more natural, body-driven motion.

9. Watch for similar contact and trajectory. You are not looking for perfect shots every time, but you should start to see more consistent launch and strike quality. Similar ball flights usually mean your turf interaction is becoming more repeatable.

10. Blend the rehearsal into a normal shot. As a final progression, make a couple of brushing rehearsals beside the ball. Then step in, imagine that same brush happening through impact, and simply let the swing go. Think of yourself riding the bounce through, not jamming the club into the ground.

What You Should Feel

When you do this drill correctly, the sensations are very different from a steep, digging wedge action. Here are the main checkpoints to look for:

The club feels like it is sliding, not sticking

The biggest sign you are using the bounce correctly is that the sole of the wedge seems to skim along the turf. There should be a soft brushing sensation rather than a sharp thud.

The chest keeps moving through

You should feel that your torso rotation carries the club through the strike. If the motion is driven mostly by your hands, the club tends to stab into the ground or flip upward unpredictably.

The club stays low through impact

Good wedge contact often feels like the clubhead remains close to the ground for longer. It does not dive down steeply and then bounce up immediately. It enters shallow and continues shallow.

The bounce contacts the turf

You are trying to let the trailing portion of the sole interact with the ground. If you were exposing too much leading edge, the club would dig or rebound abruptly. Proper bounce use feels more stable and forgiving.

Back and through have similar rhythm

In the rhythm version of the drill, the club should brush the ground both going back and coming through. That can help you sense a more even, flowing motion instead of a sudden downward hit.

The strike feels less precise—but works better

This is important. Many golfers who hit fat shots are trying to be too exact with the bottom of the swing. The bounce drill teaches you to accept a wider, safer contact window. The club glides through a zone rather than crashing into a single spot.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Driving the leading edge into the turf. If the front edge of the club is what meets the ground first, the wedge will tend to dig, especially on softer turf.
• Trying to help the ball into the air with your hands. Flipping or scooping can lead to thin shots and inconsistent contact. Let the loft and bounce do the work.
• Stopping your chest rotation. When the body stalls, the hands take over and the club often bottoms out too abruptly.
• Making the motion too vertical. A steep chopping action works against the purpose of this drill. You want a shallow brush, not a downward stab.
• Only brushing after the ball. The club should feel like it is gliding into and through the strike area, not just scraping the turf late.
• Trying to force a huge divot. This is a finesse wedge drill, not a full-swing iron shot. You are training turf interaction, not power.
• Using only your hands in the multiple-ball version. Hitting several balls in a row should encourage motion from your body. If your hands are doing all the work, the drill loses much of its value.
• Expecting every shot to be perfect immediately. Early on, focus more on the quality of the brush than the result of the shot. Better contact patterns come from better turf interaction.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is about much more than one short-game technique. It teaches you a foundational impact skill: how the club should interact with the ground. In wedge play, that skill is everything.

If you struggle with fat shots, you are often missing the fact that contact is not just about where the club bottoms out. It is also about how the sole meets the turf. A golfer who uses the bounce well can be slightly off and still hit a functional shot. A golfer who presents too much leading edge has almost no room for error.

That is why this drill is so effective. It gives you a practical way to train a better strike without getting overly mechanical. Instead of thinking about a dozen positions, you are teaching your body one simple task: brush the ground with the bounce and keep it moving.

This also connects nicely to larger swing concepts. In the full swing, you often want a club that stays stable through the strike rather than one that crashes into the turf. In the short game, that same idea shows up as a flat, shallow interaction with the ground. The difference is just scale and speed.

As you improve with this drill, you should notice several benefits:

• More consistent contact on short wedge shots
• Fewer heavy shots that come up short
• Fewer thin shots caused by fear of digging
• Better distance control because strike quality improves
• More confidence on tight lies and delicate shots

Ultimately, your standard for a good wedge strike should not be “Did I hit the exact perfect spot on the ground?” It should be “Did the club slide through the turf properly?” If the bounce is brushing the ground for a few inches before and after the ball, you have given yourself a much better chance to produce a solid, predictable shot.

That is the bigger lesson of this drill: when the wedge glides instead of digs, your short game becomes far more dependable.