WHERE SHOULD YOU MAKE A DIVOT IN YOUR GOLF SHOT? 

For all shots off the ground (excluding sand shots), you want to try and hit the golf ball, then make turf contact, where your club is striking the ground on the target side of where your golf ball is sitting. Renowned golf Instructor Jeff Ritter shares a drill to make sure that your club strikes the ground at the proper spot every time. The "walk the line" drill is about elevating your performance by developing consistent solid ball striking.

Walk the Line Drill

One of the most important components of great ball striking is simply being able to make sure your golf clubs strike the ground in the proper spot. That means the next time you go out to practice, instead of just banging range balls you should challenge yourself to demonstrate that you can consistently make golf ball, then turf contact on the target side of the ball.

Set up the drill by laying down an alignment stick on the ground perpendicular to your target line. Take your golf ball and set it right on top of the line, directly next to the tip of the alignment stick. Now imagine that this line is like the goal line on football field. All the grass on the target side of the golf ball is the end zone with the name of their favorite team painted across it. Next,

1. Take your address position.
2. Get the golf ball in the middle of your feet with your feet straddling that line.
3. Put your weight on your front foot
4.  Get your hands a little bit forward 

This will really help get that divot down and in front of the golf ball. Now make some practice swings. Get down and forward trying to strike in the end zone on the target side of that golf ball. Proceed by walking the line towards the golf ball trying to make five consecutive strikes that are all on the target side in the end zone just like you're scoring a touchdown. Walk up to your golf ball with confidence, swing away, then look down and see how you did. You should hit five consecutive shots all with the same club, demonstrating the nice clean ball then turf contact.  You want to finish by trying to hit three consecutive shots with the short-iron, mid-iron in a long-iron or hybrid - again striking down and forward into the end zone.

By the time you are done, you should be getting perfect ball then turf contact. Understand that if this is a problem area of your golf game, this exercise can actually take quite a bit of time, because you should be hitting a bunch of quality golf shots. Demonstrate the ability to control the low point your golf swing and you're well on your way to mastering your iron play.