Golf Nut, I have a tendency to hit the ground with my fairway woods taking a pretty big divot. Of all my golf clubs, my 3 wood used to be my favorite, but now I have a problem with this one too. My husband thinks that I am dipping my shoulder, what do you think?

Dipping your shoulder could be causing this or might just be a symptom. I think the real culprit may be a reverse pivot. This may also be aggravating the shoulder dip.

A reverse pivot is when you don’t shift your weight correctly and you end up tilted forward with your weight forward at the top of your backswing. This makes it very difficult to “sweep” the golf club, which is what you want to do with your fairway woods.

Usually your setup can help to remove this problem. Make sure that you start out with your head slightly to the right of center at setup. This means that you left eye (if you are right handed) should be looking straight down at the back of the golf ball.

Look at the angle of your spine. You should be slightly tilted towards your right side while maintaining your balance. A mental image is to imagine the left edge of your belt slightly higher than the right edge. Then you want to maintain this spine angle throughout the golf swing.

If you then focus on sweeping the ball almost like you had a broom instead of a golf club this should help! For help with other areas of your game, here are some additional golf tips for you.

Thanks for the question and keep on golfing!