Hitting fat golf shots will erode one's confidence, depending upon the age of the golfer. That's correct; think about what we can learn from the youngest of golfers, especially when it comes to being present with unwavering confidence.
Children just don't get upset or lose confidence in their early years of golf. Missing the ball, topping the ball, sculling the ball, and hitting fat shots are all experience in the moment, immediately accepted, and then without a frown, complaint, or blink of an eye, they're ready to hit the next shot. This is the ultimate in mental games! Children have a knack for being in the moment and staying there. How can we get back to that place of presence and unlimited confidence, especially when we continue to hit fat shots? It will require a combination of mechanical understanding and thinking confidently.

The sort of thinking confidently that the children possess is brilliant and can be emulated; it is a confidence that happens before the skill is developed. By this, I'm saying that although it's understandable that one's confidence may be impacted when good results show up, there's the flip side of confidence that we can choose before each shot, regardless of the prior result (positive or negative). This we have written about and label it as "Conscious Confidence". The psychological term is known as "State Confidence". Choosing a self-empowering thought (any skill with which you are proficient such as skipping, cooking, reading, riding a bike) such as, "I am good at math", will actually impact the body on a neurological level. This means that the body actually experiences more strength several moments after such a thought. This is a mind-body power that several people are aware of but most are unaware of such an amazing, simplistic fact. Hence, before learning the mechanics in any part of golf, it will only help to enter every single shot and attempt with a self-empowering frame of mind.

Mechanics and skill development undeniably can build confidence and also deteriorate it as well. Many golfers have been great putters but have developed the yips and have lost all confidence in their putting stroke that they've resorted to various ways of holding the putter and have also gone so far to completely change the style of putter from conventional to a belly or a long putter. For this reason, understanding the mechanics is quite valuable, and so too is the thought process valuable. So because there is no single solution for hitting fat shots and that it depends on each golfer's skill, experience, and technique, I'll give you some mechanical nuggets with which you can play around with and explore.

Nugget #1: Ball Positioning and Stance

If your ball positioning is to far from the center of your stance, either off the front foot or off of the back foot, then you're asking for trouble. Narrowing your stance will immediately help with your ball positioning and will decrease the possibility of hitting fat shots.

Nugget #2: Weight Transfer

When your stance is considerably more narrow, it is easier to transfer your weight to your foot closest to the target. This is a key ingredient to blend with the following nugget of grip pressure.

Nugget #3: Grip Pressure

This nugget is perhaps the least intuitive skill to learn for most golf strokes and swings in general. Most of the books and teachers talk about soft hands at address position....the most important place to have soft hands is through the impact zone. As your hands are softening on the downswing, the weight of the club head is then available to be affected by the turning body (centrifugal force) and the club will be in sequence and on time every time. Our wrists, hands, and fingers have quick-twitch muscles, that we want to eliminate from the equation. Hence, consciously softening your hands at impact will be instrumental in the natural flipping stroke that most people tend to apply instinctively, which increases the odds of hitting fat golf shots.