Every once in a while, a golfer will hit the ground first with their driver...and they'll still manage to hit the ball pretty far and reasonably straight. Usually, that golfer looks a little shocked that contact that bad can have a result that good. But that's what happens when a golfer dropkicks their tee shot.
A dropkick -- as opposed to the pro wrestling move -- happens when a golfer hits the ground first with their driver, with the sole grazing the ground ahead of impact, and then the driver head rebounds from the ground well enough to still make good contact with the ball and launch it like a decent mishit.
It seems dropkicked drives tend to go high. They often to straight or right, but almost never left (for a right-handed golfer). They don't fly very far.
Dropkicks are typically caused by one of two things:
- A golfer keeping their weight on their right/back side on the downswing, inviting hitting the ground before hitting the ball
- A golfer coming in too steep with their arms, typically because they're trying desperately to square the face at impact
The dropkick fix is pretty simple, making sure your weight is positioned more on the back foot at the start of the backswing with the driver. That should position a player to not come in too steep and force them to move the weight forward with the downswing to prevent hitting the ground.
