A fat and a thin shot are identical twins. What’s happening is the bottom of the swing is too far behind or to the right of the golf ball. If you hit the ground, you have shallow divot fat; if you miss the ground, you’re swinging up.
The causes can oftentimes be a result of an in-to-out swing path or a correct swing path with the body leaning backward at impact. In either case, we have to move the bottom of the swing path closer to the ball.
The corrections in the downswing to neutralize these very minus — or shallow — shots are to get well left of the target and to get the arms and club around well left of the target.
In the backswing, we want you to feel like there is no movement behind the ball, which will keep you more on top of the ball. You can also feel the arms and club come straighter back, which will allow you to steepen that downswing.
Finally, at address, you can put the handle ahead of the golf ball, which moves the bottom of the swing path forward.