Instruction
Straighten Your Ball Flight The clubface is king
by MATTHEW BRENNAN , PGA PGA Professional at The Country Club of Virginia
Right Handed - Square Face
One of the biggest faults I see with amateur golfers is they are always trying to make swing changes . Yet , most players do not know the main reason why their golf ball goes where it does , making it difficult to know what to improve .
I will let you in on a little secret : the direction the clubface is pointed at the moment of impact determines where the golf ball goes . As a coach , I have found the easiest approach to making fundamental swing changes among players is by improving facial awareness . You may be reading this and be confused about what clubface awareness means , but do not worry as it is not too hard to conceptualize .
The clubface angle determines the start line of the golf ball , and the difference between the face and the path determines the curvature . Without understanding this , players tend to make pre-swing compensations based on their face at impact . For example , a right-handed golfer that tends to fade the ball will move their bodyline more to the left at address to compensate for an open clubface . However , this adjustment will likely produce an even wider dispersion pattern . What a player actually needs to do in this example is to feel the clubface close more through the swing .
In lessons , I get players to understand this concept by intentionally curving the golf ball . I will ask a player how to properly curve a ball to the left and most simply do not know . After we explain how the face relative to the path causes the ball to curve , they instinctively figure out the clubface needs to point more left at impact to curve the ball to the left . For a short period of time , the player may miss the ball slightly left while finding the appropriate amount of face closure . However , as a player starts to reorganize their process , they will in fact start to aim more neutral as the ball starts to straighten . So as the face control improves , so does the setup .
JOSH APPLE
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