What Your Misses Say About Your Swing

Most amateur golfers experience the same miss over and over, yet they chalk it up to “just a bad swing.”

In reality, that miss is a symptom — a clue your swing is sending you. The direction, height, and contact quality of your shots can tell you exactly what’s going wrong in your mechanics, from clubface angle to body movement and timing.

Instead of ignoring your miss, it’s time to start reading it like a feedback report.

In this article, we’ll go through the most common miss types — pulls, pushes, slices, fats, thins, toe hits, and more — and explain what each one says about your swing. Once you understand the cause, you can start making the right corrections instead of guessing.

Pulls and Pull Hooks: Face Control or Path Problem?

If you’re hitting shots that start left of your target and stay left (a pull), or start left and curve even farther left (a pull hook), you’re likely dealing with issues related to your swing path and clubface timing.

These misses are common among golfers who come over the top or have poor face control at impact.

A pull happens when the swing path is moving left of the target (outside-in) and the clubface is square to that path.

A pull hook, on the other hand, occurs when the clubface is closed to the path — not just closed to the target line, but severely turned over relative to the swing direction.

Common causes of pulls and pull hooks include:

• Over-the-top move in the downswing causing the path to go left.
• Early release or hand flip, closing the face too quickly.
• Tight grip pressure leading to tension and loss of face awareness.
• Lack of lower body rotation, forcing the hands to take over the swing.

If this is your miss, start by checking your takeaway and downswing sequence. A smoother transition with better hip rotation can help shallow the path.

Also work on holding the clubface square longer through impact, resisting the urge to “save” the shot with your hands.

Pushes and Push Slices: Open Clubface and Inside Path

If your shots are consistently starting right of the target and staying there (a push), or starting right and then curving even farther right (a push slice), your clubface is almost always to blame — and your swing path isn’t helping either.

These misses indicate an open clubface at impact, typically paired with an inside-out swing path that sends the ball right with little chance of recovery.

A basic push occurs when your clubface is square to your swing path but both are right of the target. A push slice is when that face is open to the path, causing a glancing strike and sidespin that sends the ball curving way off line.

Why does this happen? Some typical causes include:

• A weak grip, where the hands are turned too far toward the target at address, making it hard to square the face.
• Underactive arms or hands during the downswing, often causing the club to lag behind and remain open.
• Getting stuck inside — a swing path that’s too far from the inside can leave the club trailing behind your rotation.
• Sliding the hips instead of rotating, which causes your upper body to hang back and leave the clubface open.

To fix this miss, start by strengthening your grip slightly — you should see two to three knuckles on your lead hand at address. Then focus on your rotation: feel your chest and hips working together through the ball, not just your arms.

If you’re getting too far inside, try placing an object just outside the target line to help guide your club back on plane.

Fat Shots (Hitting Behind the Ball)

Few misses are more frustrating than making solid contact—just with the ground an inch behind the ball.

A fat shot usually feels like you took a divot the size of a dinner plate and barely moved the ball forward.

This type of miss tells you that the bottom of your swing arc is happening too early, behind the ball, rather than in front of it where solid ball-first contact occurs.

The root of fat shots is often found in weight distribution and low-point control.

If your body hangs back on your trail foot during the downswing, or if you release the club too early with your wrists, the clubhead bottoms out too soon. You might also be coming in too steep and chopping down instead of shallowing the club into impact.

Some of the most common causes include:

• Hanging back on your trail side instead of shifting weight forward through impact.
• Casting or early release of the wrists, losing lag and forward shaft lean.
• Poor ball position, often too far forward in the stance for short irons or wedges.
• Lack of rotation, where the upper body stalls and the arms take over.

To fix fat shots, work on drills that help promote forward weight shift and shaft lean. A great one is the “line drill”: draw a line on the ground and practice hitting in front of it.

You can also place an object (like a towel or headcover) just behind the ball to train yourself to avoid hitting behind it. Feeling the pressure shift into your lead side earlier in the downswing is key to crisp ball-first contact.

Thin Shots (Topped or Blade Contact)

When your shot shoots low across the ground or skips off the turf with no height or spin, you’ve likely hit it thin.

While it may feel like the club just missed the ball by a fraction, thin shots usually point to a swing arc that’s too shallow or a low point that’s behind the ball — much like fat shots, but with the clubhead rising rather than digging.

Thin shots often happen when a player subconsciously tries to lift the ball into the air instead of trusting the loft of the club.

This lifting motion leads to early extension, where the hips move closer to the ball and cause you to stand up during the downswing. As a result, your arms straighten early, and the club bottoms out too early, catching the ball near the equator or even slightly above it.

Some common causes of thin contact include:

• Scooping or trying to help the ball up in the air instead of compressing it.
• Standing up out of posture, causing the club to come in too high.
• Loss of spine angle during the swing, especially through impact.
• Poor weight transfer, often staying back instead of rotating through the ball.

To correct this miss, one of the best drills is the towel drill — place a small towel a few inches behind the ball and try to strike the ball cleanly without touching the towel. This trains a downward strike and keeps your body from rising early.

Also focus on staying in your setup posture and letting your chest rotate through impact, which keeps the club moving on the right arc to make clean contact.

Pull Slice: The Classic Amateur Miss

If there’s one miss that plagues mid- to high-handicap golfers the most, it’s the pull slice.

This shot starts left of the target (for a right-handed golfer) and then aggressively curves right, often ending up in trouble. It’s frustrating because it feels like you’re doing two things wrong at once — and you are.

The pull slice is caused by a swing path that goes left (outside-in) combined with an open clubface at impact.

Many golfers who struggle with this shot are swinging across the ball with their shoulders, typically from an over-the-top move during the transition. To make matters worse, the clubface is left open relative to that path, producing the classic left-to-right curvature that sails the ball offline.

Common causes of a pull slice include:

• Over-the-top downswing, often from a steep or rushed transition.
• Open clubface, sometimes due to a weak grip or lack of forearm rotation.
• Tension in the arms and shoulders, leading to poor sequencing and face control.
• Reverse pivot, where the weight shifts backward instead of forward in the downswing.

To correct this pattern, start by fixing the path. Try the “pump drill” to shallow your downswing and promote an inside-out motion.

Next, check your grip — it should be neutral to slightly strong, allowing the clubface to square naturally. Finally, focus on your body rotation. Proper hip and torso movement can help sync the club with your body and eliminate the casting motion that leads to a slice.

The pull slice may seem like a double whammy, but it’s highly fixable once you separate the two faults and attack them one at a time.

Toe Hits and Heel Strikes: What Strike Location Reveals

You might be making solid contact in terms of ball flight, but if you’re consistently hitting shots off the toe or the heel of the club, there’s still something your swing is trying to tell you.

Strike location on the clubface directly relates to your body positioning, balance, swing path, and even tempo. And over time, repeated toe or heel contact leads to directional misses, distance loss, and poor consistency.

A toe hit means the ball is striking the outer portion of the clubface. This usually happens when the clubhead is farther from your body at impact than it was at setup.

A heel strike (sometimes even a shank) occurs when the club is moving too close to the body or the arms are pulling in during the downswing.

Some likely causes include:

• Early extension, where the hips move closer to the ball and push the club out toward the toe.
• Swing path issues, especially with too much in-to-out or out-to-in movement pulling or pushing the clubhead off center.
• Posture breakdown, where the spine angle changes mid-swing and alters the distance to the ball.
• Poor weight balance, such as leaning too far toward the toes or heels at setup.

To find out where you’re striking the clubface, use foot spray powder or impact tape. Then work backward. If it’s a toe strike, check for early extension and overreaching with the arms.

If it’s a heel strike, focus on staying in your posture and not crowding the ball. A great drill is the gate drill, where you place two tees slightly wider than the ball and train yourself to hit through the center of the gate.

Impact location is one of the fastest ways to improve consistency and tighten your dispersion. Don’t overlook it.

Chunked or Skulled Chips: Short Game Miss Patterns

When it comes to chipping, nothing kills confidence faster than a chunked shot that barely moves or a skulled one that rockets across the green.

These misses may feel like complete opposites — one too fat, one too thin — but they often share the same root causes: poor setup, inconsistent weight distribution, and too much wrist action.

A chunked chip usually happens when the club bottoms out too early, hitting the ground before the ball.

A skulled chip happens when the clubhead rises too soon and catches the ball on the equator or higher, sending it flying low and fast. Both misses suggest you’re not maintaining a consistent bottom to your swing arc.

Here’s what these misses often indicate:

• Too much weight on the back foot, causing the low point to shift behind the ball.
• Trying to help the ball into the air, leading to scooping and flipping the wrists.
• Improper shaft lean, where the handle isn’t leading through impact.
• Too much tension or deceleration, especially when trying to be “soft” around the greens.

To clean up your chipping, start by simplifying your setup:

• Put more weight on your lead foot (around 60–70%).
• Keep the shaft leaning slightly forward.
• Use a shorter backswing and commit through the ball — no deceleration.
• Focus on rotating your chest instead of flipping your wrists.

One helpful drill is the one-handed lead arm chip, which trains proper feel and shaft lean. You can also place a tee just behind the ball and avoid hitting it to build better strike consistency.

Cleaning up your strike around the green pays off immediately on the scorecard — this is one of the fastest ways to drop strokes for any handicap.

Conclusion: Start Tracking Your Misses Today

Every golf shot tells a story — especially the ones that go wrong. Whether you’re pulling everything left, hitting it thin off the toe, or chunking your chips, these misses aren’t random. They’re signals from your swing, pointing you toward specific flaws in mechanics, setup, or sequencing.

By learning to interpret your miss patterns, you can stop guessing and start practicing with purpose. It’s not about fixing everything at once — it’s about noticing what’s consistent and making one focused change at a time.

Track your misses during practice and rounds, note where you’re striking the clubface, and correlate that with your ball flight and contact.

Need help putting these fixes into action? I created a free guide with 15 proven drills that target key fundamentals like swing path, contact, and weight shift. It’s the perfect companion to this article if you want to start making progress today.

👉 Download it here: https://foygolfacademy.com/15drills/

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Thanks for reading today’s article!

Nick Foy – Golf Instructor