Fat Shot
A fat shot in golf is a mishit where the club strikes the ground before the ball, slowing the clubhead and dropping the shot well short of the target.
What is a fat shot?
A fat shot happens when the bottom of the swing reaches its lowest point behind the ball instead of just past it. The club digs into the turf first, the ball gets struck second, and grass or dirt ends up between the clubface and the ball. The result is almost always the same: a much shorter shot than the golfer planned, often with a deep divot starting behind where the ball sat.
Most fat shots happen with irons and wedges, since those clubs are designed to make ball-first contact off the turf. Drivers are rarely hit fat because the ball sits on a tee, well above the ground. The mishit can also feel jarring through the hands and wrists when the clubhead drives into the ground hard, especially on firmer fairways.
Golfers also call this shot a chunk, or sometimes a chili dip or heavy shot. In the worst version, the ball barely moves at all, and a chunk of turf lands on top of it. That outcome has its own name: laying the sod over it.
How a fat shot happens
The golf swing travels along an arc, and the lowest point of that arc determines where the club meets the ground. For solid iron contact, that low point should sit slightly ahead of the ball, toward the target. When it sits behind the ball, the club hits turf first.
Several common patterns push the low point backward. Hanging weight on the back foot through impact is the most frequent one. Swaying back and forward instead of rotating around a stable spine has the same effect. Trying to scoop or lift the ball into the air, rather than trusting the club’s loft to do the work, also moves the low point in the wrong direction.
Jack Nicklaus made an important point in Golf Digest about fat and thin shots: they share the same root cause, which is the club bottoming out before the ball. The difference is whether the club then dips into the ground (fat) or stays just above it (thin). One swing flaw, two outcomes.
Fat shot vs. thin shot
Most golfers searching for one of these terms have hit both, often in the same round. They are closely related mishits driven by the same problem of low-point control, but they look and feel different on the course.
| Fat shot | Thin shot | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the club hits | Ground first, then ball | Top half of the ball, often no ground contact |
| Typical result | Heavy divot, ball flies well short | Low flight, ball often flies long |
| Common cause | Low point is behind the ball | Low point is past the ball, or golfer rises up at impact |
| Feel | Heavy, jarring through the hands | Hard, hot off the face, often a sting |
Better players sometimes prefer a marginal thin to a fat. There is even a saying for it: “Thin to win,” meaning a slightly thinned shot still has a chance of working out, while a fat shot rarely does.
Other names for a fat shot
Golf has more than one word for the same mishit, and the alternatives show up just as often as “fat” in casual conversation and on broadcasts.
- Chunk or chunked it: the most common alternative. Chunk and fat shot describe the exact same mishit, with “chunk” emphasising the piece of turf taken on the swing.
- Chili dip: typically used around the green, on chip and pitch shots that travel only a few feet.
- Heavy shot: a more descriptive label, as in “I caught that one heavy.”
- Sclaff: an older Scottish-origin term for the same shot, rarely heard on courses today but still listed in older glossaries.
- Laying the sod over it: reserved for the worst kind of fat shot, where a chunk of turf ends up resting on top of a barely-moved ball.
When fat contact is intentional
There is one place on the course where hitting “fat” is actually the correct technique: a greenside bunker. On a standard sand shot, the player aims to strike the sand a couple of inches behind the ball, letting the displaced sand carry the ball up and out. The wedge’s bounce is designed to glide through sand without digging too deep.
So while a fat shot is a mishit on grass, the same kind of contact in sand is the standard play. Beginners sometimes think they have hit a poor bunker shot when they have actually executed the technique correctly.
Related Golf Terms
- Divot — The chunk of turf displaced during an iron or wedge swing.
- Fairway wood — A wood club designed for shots from the fairway (3-wood, 5-wood, 7-wood).
- Fairway — The closely mown area between the tee and the green.
- Fade — A controlled shot that curves slightly from left to right for a right-handed golfer.
- Fairways hit — The percentage of tee shots that land on the fairway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a chunk shot the same as a fat shot?
Yes. Both terms describe the same mishit, where the club strikes the ground before the ball. “Chunk” tends to emphasise the turf taken on the swing, while “fat” is the more universal label heard across club golf and on broadcasts.
Why is it called a “fat” shot?
The likely origin is the divot. A fat shot tends to produce a much larger and deeper divot than a normal iron strike, since the club digs into the turf before reaching the ball. The big “fat” divot probably gave the shot its name.
Can you hit a fat shot with a driver?
Almost never. A driver is hit off a tee, with the ball sitting well above the ground, so there is no turf for the clubhead to catch behind it. Fat shots happen with irons and wedges, especially on short-game shots where the ball rests on or just above the surface.
Is a fat shot worse than a thin shot?
Usually, yes. A thin shot still travels toward the target, and the ball often runs out close to its intended distance. A fat shot loses far more energy to the ground, so the ball comes up well short, sometimes by dozens of yards on a full iron.
What does “chili dip” mean in golf?
Chili dip is slang for a fat shot, almost always used around the green on a chip or pitch. The club hits the ground well before the ball, and the ball moves only a few yards forward, often staying well short of the green.
Sources
- Golf Digest. “Jack Nicklaus: How To Stop Hitting it Fat.” Accessed May 2026.
- Golf Compendium. “What Is a Chunk Shot in Golf?” Accessed May 2026.
- LiveAbout. “Explaining the Fat Shot In Golf, and Getting Rid of It.” Accessed May 2026.
- LiveAbout. “What Is a Thin Shot in Golf and What Causes It?” Accessed May 2026.
- Wikipedia. “Glossary of golf.” Accessed May 2026.
- Golf Distillery. “Fat Shots: How to Fix and Stop Hitting Golf Balls Fat.” Accessed May 2026.
- MyGolfSpy. “The No. 1 Cause of Fat Shots (And What To Do Instead).” Brendon Elliott, PGA of America. Accessed May 2026.
