When golfers use their irons they hit a divot behind the ball wouldn’t it be a more efficient transfer of energy if they did not hit a divot?
In: Physics
If you’ll look at a super slow-mo of a golfer hitting an iron shot, the divot happens after contact with the ball. They try to go for a downward angle at the ball to get backspin for a straight flight and soft landing.
Source: Was a golf nerd for several years.
You want to avoid hitting a divot, but you also want to hit the ball as low as possible to get the face of the club to hit the ball at the right angle.
Intentionally making a divot is part of giving the ball backspin.
By hitting the ball before the bottom of your swing, the club will spin the ball backwards, so it gets more hang time through the magnus effect, and will also travel less far or even back up after hitting the ground.
The club would have struck the ball before the ground. It can interfere with your follow through, but not the energy transfer.
The divot is on the front side of the ball, after the ball has left already. You comprsss the ball into the turf when you hit it, then you bottom out the club and make a divot
When I played regularly and got my handicap down to 12 I tried to never take a divot because I hated replacing them. However when I actually hit a really good long iron shot the divot happened after the ball strike.
Others have explained the divot itself, but I think it’s worth adding that “efficient transfer of energy” doesn’t really matter when they’re not going for maximum distance anyway.
Divot comes after the ball. If you hit the ground before the ball, it kills all the momentum and the ball won’t go very far. Known as “chunking” or “hitting it fat.”
There has been multiple answers already explaining the concept but I’ll add on that there’s a video of another golfer being shocked when Tiger Woods didn’t make divots while on the range with him. Tiger said when he is on fire he usually doesn’t make a divot because he hits it pure
Hockey players actually do this!!
Others have explained the answer well, but something you might find interesting is that this IS how hockey players hit a slapshot.
They hit the ice before the puck in order to bend and flex their stick. All that energy gets stored in the stick and as they follow through the stick snaps back to straight launching the puck.
It’s more effective because the stick “snaps” much faster than the human swing.
When you hit an iron, it’s not like hitting any other ball with a stick. You use the loft of the club to generate height, and the speed of your swing to generate distance. It’s because of that that the club creates a divot after contact and why it happens.
Bad golfers take divots behind the ball
Good golfers take divots in front of the ball
[Tiger Woods doesn’t take divots at all](https://youtube.com/shorts/oWZM5P08mvs?si=f9k2rdKBpwvSdtE2)
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