How to Fix Thin Shots (Hitting the Top of the Ball)
A thin shot means the club struck the ball's upper half before reaching the bottom of its arc. Here's why, and how to correct it.
A thin shot — the club striking the upper half of the ball, often producing a low, sometimes far-traveling but poorly controlled shot — has a few distinct causes, some of which overlap with fat shots in surprising ways.
Cause 1: standing up through impact ("early extension")
If your posture straightens up (hips moving toward the ball, spine angle lifting) during the downswing, your swing arc effectively raises, and the club can catch the ball's upper half even with otherwise reasonable mechanics. This is one of the most common causes of thin contact, especially under pressure or when trying to swing harder.
Fix: A simple checkpoint is maintaining your spine tilt and hip hinge (established at address, see our setup and posture guide) through impact — a mirror or recorded video from face-on is far more reliable for catching this than feel, since early extension often feels like "staying down" to the golfer doing it.
Cause 2: overcorrecting a fat-shot fear
Golfers who have recently struggled with fat shots sometimes overcorrect by pulling up out of the shot to avoid hitting the ground — trading one miss for the other. If you're alternating between fat and thin misses on similar swings, this overcorrection pattern is a common explanation.
Fix: Trust the ground. A well-struck iron shot does contact the turf, just after the ball, not instead of before it. Fear of hitting the ground often causes more thin shots than the fat shots that fear was trying to avoid.
Cause 3: ball position too far forward
Ball position too far forward in your stance for the club in hand can present the ball at a point in your arc that's already past the low point and rising — catching the ball on the upward part of the swing, which produces thin, low contact.
Early extension is genuinely difficult to feel — many golfers who are told they're "standing up" insist they aren't. A simple phone video from face-on (not the more common down-the-line angle) at address versus impact usually settles the question immediately.
The impact bag connection
An impact bag (see our training aids guide) is particularly useful for thin-shot issues because it lets you feel a correct impact position — spine angle maintained, hands ahead — at a controlled, low speed before applying it to full swings.
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