COMMUNITY

So while I'm taking a brief hiatus from the game--which may be more brief than I thought, the game is just too much in my blood--I was thinking about something related to the last round I played and the particularly good shots I hit towards the end.

The swing thought I had was "Get the hands LOW at impact, you're too tall." IMMEDIATELY the shots improved drastically. I hit them more like I'm used to hitting them (the past couple of months I've only played a handful of times, so I've forgotten some of the things I knew). So I thought about that for a minute. All the great ballstrikers throughout history...Hogan, Trevino, Norman, Knudson, Nelson, etc...had very low hands and a flat shaft angle at impact. I started to wonder what it was about that similarity that helped make them such accurate strikers.

So here's where it gets a little technical, but bear with me. A lot of golfers hit slices or big high pushes out to right field, even when they feel like they've squared the clubface as well as they could have. (Myself included.) But let's think about the golf club for a second. Doesn't matter if it's an iron, a wood, or even a putter. The face is slanted rearwards, giving it loft. Now, IF a ball were to be struck with the sole of the club absolutely level to the ground, and the face square, the ball would take off directly on the vertical plane that results from the face being slanted rearwards. In other words, straight. But now picture this. If the club were delivered to the ball with the toe down at all, that "vertical" plane would now be canted off to the right (for right-handers). So EVEN IF YOU "SQUARED" THE FACE, the ball is STILL going to start out to the right. And in a game of degrees such as golf, any amount of toe-down could mean a huge change in ball flight. So the ball would start to the right, and gravity would then cause it to fall straight down, well right of the target. Conversely, if the club were delivered with the HEEL down, the opposite would be true: the vertical plane would be adjusted to the left, and the ball would take off to the left and stay there even on a seemingly "square" impact.

Let that process for a minute.

So what does this mean, in a nutshell? Well, for me it makes more sense as to why a great deal of the great ballstrikers preferred clubs that had flat lie angles. Why? Because it afforded them the ability to get their hands (and in response to that intent, their bodies) very low at impact, which is desirable...as if they were almost TRYING to jam the heel in the ground, while the flat lie angle helped to ensure that even with that intent, the club would contact the ball with the sole flat to the ground so the ball would take off straight.

I play clubs with very flat lie angles by today's standards. Again, this affords me the ability to get into a good, lower-body-driven position at impact with the hands low, without the fear of the ball going left. But when I forgot about all that, I was getting too tall at impact and just throwing the club down to the ball...the toe was down and the shots were going out to the right no matter what I thought I did to correct it. When I got the hands low again, the shots went dead straight without any other changes in my swing.

If you play very upright clubs, however, this could be disastrous to you. Upright clubs are designed for people who are generally too tall at impact, so the sole will be relatively flat even when tossing the club down at the ball. With a club like that, though, any efforts to get the hands lower will immediately result in an extreme heel-down impact, and the shots are all going to go WAY left.

Some stuff to think about for sure. I may have to go test my theories..........

Let me know if you have questions.