What Does It Mean to Cover the Golf Ball?

Covering the golf ball is a key part of hitting the ball with consistency and power. But what does it mean to cover the golf ball? In simple terms, it’s all about staying on top of the ball during the downswing, leading to better ball striking and compression. When you cover the ball correctly, you’ll experience cleaner, more controlled iron shots and improved distance.

Pros hit the ball with precise compression by keeping their chest over the ball and maintaining forward shaft lean. In contrast, many amateur golfers struggle to achieve this, resulting in weaker shots that either balloon into the air or lack distance. If you’re looking to improve your ball striking, understanding how to cover the ball is essential.

Why Is Covering the Golf Ball Important?

If you’re serious about improving your iron shots, covering the ball is a must. Here’s why:

• Better Compression: Compressing the golf ball is crucial for maximizing distance and control. By covering the ball, you keep your club face stable, allowing you to compress the ball effectively.
• More Consistency: Maintaining your spine angle and chest over the ball throughout the swing leads to consistent ball striking and solid contact.
• Improved Position at Impact: Covering the ball helps you achieve the ideal position at impact, with forward shaft lean and your body perfectly aligned for a powerful strike.

Now, let’s break down the steps to start hitting better shots by mastering how to cover the golf ball.

Step 1: Maintain Forward Shaft Lean

Forward shaft lean is one of the most important elements in covering the golf ball. It ensures your hands are ahead of the club face at impact, which is critical for compressing the golf ball.

How to Nail It:

1. Set up with your hands slightly ahead of the ball. This initiates the forward shaft lean necessary for solid ball striking.
2. As you swing, keep your upper body rotating over the ball while leading with your hands through impact. This ensures the club face stays square, leading to better compression.
3. Use an impact bag to practice this position at impact. It helps develop the feel of the forward shaft lean and shows you the correct angle for hitting the ball.

By mastering shaft lean, you’re setting yourself up for more consistent and powerful shots, just like you see on the PGA Tour.

Step 2: Keep Your Chest Over the Ball

To truly cover the golf ball, your upper body needs to stay engaged. One of the most important parts of this is keeping your chest over the ball as you swing. This ensures you maintain your spine angle, allowing for solid contact and consistent ball striking.

Actionable Tips:

• On the downswing, focus on keeping your chest moving toward the ball. This doesn’t mean actually getting closer but feeling as though your upper body is staying over the top of the golf ball.
• Try the hover drill. Grip down on your club about 2-3 inches and hover the club head over the ball. As you swing, focus on maintaining the feeling of your chest over the ball. This will help you stay in posture through impact.

Keeping your chest over the ball prevents early extension, which causes many amateur golfers to lose power and control.

Step 3: Engage Your Lower Body to Hit the Ball Cleanly

Your legs play a big role in covering the golf ball. As you transition from your backswing to your downswing, you should feel a squat in your lower body. This allows your hips to rotate and open up, creating space for your arms to swing freely and hit the ball cleanly.

How to Do It:

• As you start your downswing, squat down slightly, engaging your legs for added stability and power.
• Let your hips rotate away from the ball, which helps keep your spine angle intact. This movement will give you more room to swing through and compress the golf ball.

Watch any PGA Tour pro, and you’ll see how much they rely on their lower body to generate power. They use their legs to create a stable base, allowing them to cover the ball through impact.

Step 4: Keep Your Trail Hand Facing Down

For right-handed golfers, the trail hand (your right hand) plays a crucial role in covering the ball. To maintain proper shaft lean and avoid flipping the club, your trail hand should stay facing the ground through impact.

How to Work on It:

1. As you come down to hit the ball, feel like your right hand is pushing down toward the ground. This keeps the club face from flipping, maintaining proper control through impact.
2. Practice with an Anti-Flip Wrist Band to reinforce this feeling. It helps prevent the wrist from rolling over, which can cause you to lose control and consistency.

By focusing on keeping your trail hand down, you’ll ensure proper compression of the ball, leading to cleaner shots and better ball flight.

Step 5: Explode Through Impact for Powerful Iron Shots

The final key to covering the golf ball is making sure you explode through impact. As you strike the ball, your legs should push up and your hips should fully rotate. This explosive movement adds power to your swing and ensures you hit the ball with force.

How to Do It:

• As your club makes contact with the ball, feel your legs extending upward while your hips continue to open up. This creates the powerful motion needed to compress the golf ball properly.
• Rotate your hips fully through the shot. By the time you finish, your belt buckle should be facing the target.

This explosion through impact gives you the power needed to start hitting the ball like a pro. When combined with the other steps, it leads to better control, more distance, and cleaner strikes.

Common Mistakes When You Don’t Cover the Golf Ball

When golfers fail to cover the ball, they often face the following issues:

• Early Extension: This happens when the hips move toward the ball, causing the spine angle to break down. It leads to inconsistent strikes and loss of power.
• Flipping the Club: Without proper forward shaft lean, many amateur golfers end up flipping the club, losing the control and compression needed for good ball striking.
• Weak Contact: Failing to cover the ball results in poor contact, causing weak shots that balloon into the air or lack distance.

Learning how to cover the ball eliminates these faults and leads to more solid and consistent golf swings.

Drills to Help You Cover the Golf Ball

Let’s go over two drills that will help you improve your ability to cover the ball and improve your ball striking.

Butt-Back Alignment Stick Drill

This drill helps you maintain spine angle and prevent early extension.

How to Do It:

1. Set up an alignment stick so that your butt is lightly touching it at address.
2. As you swing, make sure your butt stays in contact with the stick throughout your swing.
3. This ensures you stay in posture and prevent early extension, which is crucial for covering the ball.

Hover Drill

This drill helps you stay over the ball by maintaining your chest position.

How to Do It:

1. Grip down on your club about 2-3 inches, and hover the club over the ball.
2. As you swing, focus on keeping your chest down toward the ball.
3. This will help you stay over the top of the ball through impact, leading to better compression and ball striking.

FAQs: What Does It Mean to Cover the Golf Ball?