From "Thin" to Win: How to Get Rid of Bladed Iron Shots

The result is a low, screaming line drive that doesn't get any proper elevation and often travels much further than you intended, running through the green and into trouble. It feels terrible and looks even worse.

So, what causes this unsatisfying, skull-rattling miss?

Essentially, a thin shot happens when the low point of your swing is too high as it reaches the ball. The bottom of your swing arc is happening above the ground, so the leading edge of the club smacks into the middle of the ball. This is almost always caused by a change in your body's position from address to impact. You're not staying in the posture you started in.

What are the prime suspects behind a thin strike?

• Early Extension: This is the number one cause, without a doubt. Early extension is when your hips and pelvis move towards the ball in the downswing. This action forces your spine to straighten up, lifting your entire upper body and, with it, the entire arc of your swing. You essentially stand up out of the shot. From this new, higher position, the only way to make contact is to catch the top half of the ball.
• Tension and "Lifting": A huge amount of tension, especially in the arms and shoulders, can cause you to pull the club in towards your body through impact. It's an involuntary, protective move. This tension often comes from an instinct to try and "help" or "scoop" the ball into the air. Remember, the loft of the club is designed to get the ball airborne. Your job is to hit down on the ball to make it go up. Trying to lift it will almost always result in a thin shot.
• A Reverse Pivot: This is a weight-shift flaw. A reverse pivot is when your weight moves onto your front foot during the backswing, and then falls onto your back foot during the downswing. As your weight falls backwards and away from the target, your upper body lifts up, raising the low point of the swing and causing you to blade the ball.
• Ball Position Too Far Back: If the ball is positioned too far back in your stance, you will make contact with it too early in the swing arc. The club is still travelling on a steep downward path at that point, and it's very easy to catch the top part of the ball, especially if you have any forward shaft lean.

How do you actually get down to the ball for a pure strike?

To stop hitting thin shots, you need to learn to maintain your posture and trust that hitting down on the ball is what creates a high, soft-landing shot.

• Feel Like You "Stay in the Shot": This is a simple but powerful thought. From the top of the swing, focus on keeping the same spine angle you had at address. Feel like your chest stays pointing down at the ball all the way through impact. A great visual is to imagine your hat staying at the same level throughout the entire swing.
• Pressure in Your Lead Heel: To fight early extension, you need to rotate, not thrust. As you start the downswing, feel the pressure in your feet shift into the heel of your lead foot. This anchors your lower body and helps your lead hip to clear back and out of the way, allowing you to maintain your posture instead of standing up.
• Let the Arms "Hang": At address, let your arms hang freely and softly from your shoulders. Try to maintain this feeling of relaxation throughout the swing. Tense muscles pull and shorten. Relaxed muscles can swing freely and extend through the ball, allowing the club to reach the bottom of its proper arc.
• The "Hit Down" Feeling: The concept of hitting down to make the ball go up can be tough to grasp, but it's vital. A good swing thought is to feel like you are trying to drive the ball into the ground under the turf, letting the club's loft do the work of launching it into the air. This promotes the correct downward angle of attack that all great iron players have.

Brush-the-grass drill to eliminate thin strikes

Brian Fitzgerald focuses on brushing the turf, not the top of the ball, so you learn to deliver the club on a downward arc.

Start with small, easy swings focusing on one of these feelings. The goal is to re-train your body to stay down and through the shot, delivering the club on a path that allows it to compress the ball against the turf. Once you master that, those thin, jarring shots will be replaced by the pure, effortless feeling of a perfectly struck iron.

Need to stop skulling irons and chips? How to Stop Hitting It Fat and Start Compressing Your Irons covers the opposite miss so you can bounce between feels, and The Chunked Chip: How to Stop Duffing It Around the Greens takes the same strike ideas into the short game.

How do you fix thin, bladed iron shots?

Thinning an iron hurts twice - your pride and your fingers. The ball rockets low, skips over the back, and you're left wondering how a swing that felt decent produced a stinger you never intended. The root cause is simple: you struck the ball with the leading edge or too high on the face because your low point was behind the ball.

What's actually happening?

With irons, the club's lowest point should occur after the ball so you compress it first and take turf second. That's why modern setup places a mid‑iron ball position slightly forward of true centre - effectively back of the ball about one clubhead inside the lead heel【13†L3-L8】. If your low point sits under your trail armpit or you stand up out of posture, the club rises too early and you blade it.

Setup factors that create thins

• Ball too far back: You get too steep, then save it by early‑extending. Result: blade.
• Stance too narrow: Balance wobbles, low point floats.
• Upper body tilting back at address: encourages bottoming out early.
• Handle too high / standing too close: You run out of space and raise the strike.

The PDF‑aligned baseline

Start neutral: ankles-knees-hips stacked, weight centred. For 7‑iron, use your standard stance width (not an arbitrary “hip width (rather than shoulder width)”), and set the ball just forward of centre so the arc reaches low in line with your inside lead heel. As clubs get longer, stance widens and the ball position appears to move forward because the trail foot moves, while the reference to the lead heel stays consistent. That keeps the angle of attack from getting too steep and protects strike quality.

Big picture cause‑and‑effect

Thins and fats are siblings - both come from a misplaced low point. Move the ball too far forward and you chase it; too far back and you carve a trench, then panic‑flip to miss the ground entirely. Keep the ball where it belongs for each club, and keep the stance width consistent day‑to‑day. A centimet at address really can be metres at the pin.

Feel cues that help (without turning this into a drill)

• Picture the clubhead brushing the turf after the ball, roughly under your lead heel mark.
• Stand far enough to let your arms hang naturally; don't crowd the ball.
• Keep your chest over the ball through impact instead of popping up early.

Do those, and your “accidental stingers” become proper, flighted iron shots with spin you can trust.

What are the quick questions golfers keep asking?

Q: Why do thin shots hang around longer than fat ones?
A: Because you get scared of the turf. The chest lifts, the arms retract, and you catch the ball on the upswing.

Q: What's the go-to drill to flush it again?
A: Place a towel four inches behind the ball and avoid it. It forces you to stay down and strike ball-then-turf.