Michael breed, host of the golf fix, teaches why a closed club face will benefit you off the tee. These clubheads are often much smaller than the driver heads and do not need to be teed up as. Oct 01, 2015 hitting high on the face helps me launch the ball at 18 degrees red as opposed to most amateurs who can launch the ball half of that p. Its the worst time ive ever had in my life golfing. Most adjustable drivers allow you to open the clubface or position more of the. What determines the performance of any driver face angle is the golfers normal swing delivery of the clubhead to the ball. Jan 17, 2007 the big reason why most companies perfer to use a closed clubface is because it increases the effective loft of the driver face at impact.
But the fact is, most big hooks come from the body slowing down through the hitting area, which causes the momentum of the swing to flip the club over. I have a tendency to leave the club face open when i hit my. As with everything in golf, the best way to keep from hitting your ball too low and to the left is by repeatedly practicing your swing. Top 5 2018 draw drivers howards golf we are talking golf. The reshaped sole design optimizes clubhead speed and aerodynamics at the most critical stage of the swing impact to hit it straighter. He is the founder of innovex golf and the author of the art and science of breaking 90. All drivers currently sold have a face angle that is closed by a few degrees, unless its specifically noted like the taylormade tp series, or the cobra speed pro x so the point is, swing that. Practice hitting with a flat back of the right wrist at impact and experiment with hitting chips straight, then feeling the club face open pointed to the left at impact hit chips to the left, then feeling the club face closed pointed to the right at impact hit chips to the right. The myth of the closed face driver clubs, grips, shafts. Hooks come from a closed face one that points left of the clubs path for a righthanded player. Tired of hitting rockets off the tee that slice into the trees. If you struggle with a shut or closed club face during your golf swing, this short video and easy to perform drill from senior instructor at the. Some golfers do just fine with all clubs but cant hit a driver.
Hitting the ball too low can be caused by shifting your weight to your left side. Keep in mind that hitting a ball straight, curving it to the right or curving it to the left is solely a function of the drivers face angle and path at impact. Often a driver head that on first observation seems to look closed, will perform very well when it is hit. Why you hit slices with a closed clubface at address. Before hitting the course make sure to head out to the range and practice these shots. With less lofted clubs with longer shafts like your driver, the ball will curve to the right if the clubface is open just a tiny bit. You might think its just an open face, but you could be slicing it with your path. I have deliberately doing this last season to tone down my slice to just a pull fade or straight pull. A closed golf driver face was thought to help control a slice. Michael breed, host of the golf fix uses swingfix technology to help a viewer with a shut club face. Impacts of a square, open, or closed clubface in golf golf.
Blocks and pushes to the right with an open face are often the result of falling or hanging back. Clubface is closed at the top golfers with strong grips hands turned right on top of the club often close the clubface on the backswing. Now, to get that face square at impact, you need to open that 10 degree driver a couple degrees, thus adding loft. Club face closed and more body turn golf tip youtube. Driver face angle is an important factor related to ball direction.
Trying to fit your drives into any fairway can feel a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Face angle is the direction the face points relative to the target. Control the club face for straighter drives youtube. Impacts of a square, open, or closed clubface in golf. How adjustable drivers can fix your swing flaw golf digest. I am literally topping the ball and hitting the ground. The new ball position will let you hit the ball solidly without having to reach for it on the downswing. They push the shot right with a slice spin on the ball. For typical adjustable drivers, you can close the clubface, alter the hosel to a more upright position andor shift the movable weighting toward the heel. With less lofted clubs with longer shafts like your driver, the ball will curve to. Hit big drives with higher lofted drivers simple golf. Fwiw if you are ott and are hitting a pull i would say you are hitting the ball with a closed face that is square to your path. Ben hogan left the tour early in his career because his hook had gotten so bad he couldnt get his driver airborne.
If you swing down through the path and the club face is closed a bit, you will hit a great draw. This makes the driver look more open at address which helps you close the face at impact. The ideal method to practice this is to first rehearse slowly in a mirror for better feel and awareness of the clubface, and then start with small, slow swings while hitting balls before working your way to full shots. I have a tendency to leave the club face open when i hit. Ive always done this, and now when i undo and redo my hands just before i swing, i am closing my club face and hitting a low hook with all of my irons off the toe and my driver is absolutely horrendous. Ball flight should be the quide when it comes to face. But a closed face angle merely points your club left of target and doesnt solve the problem of hitting a slice. Use these three tips to square the clubface and drive it. If you get a new driver just make sure you dont get one with and offset hosel or closed club face. The reason why you slice is because you have your clubface open at impact. Hitting the driver straight duke university golf course.
Hitting high on the face helps me launch the ball at 18 degrees red as opposed to most amateurs who can launch the ball half of that p. Mar 31, 20 as my swing improved, i started hitting it left, sometimes way left. Shut face driver fadeslice v open face straightdraw. When you add all of this up with a clubface that isnt square, youre left hitting it towards the heel and slicing. I never liked how it looked sitting closed, so i decided to open it up all the way, and keep the loft low, and i am driving it better than i have in a long time. If you struggle with a shut or closed club face during your golf swing, this short video and easy to perform drill from senior instructor at the belfry, chris ryan, will help. Some manufacturers are making drivers with club faces 1 to 4 degrees closed faces to help slicers. Learning to hit a controlled draw off the tee also helps you have a better chance of hitting the fairway on righttoleft dogleg holes. The draw bias had served its purpose, as a tool, then it was time to move on. Jan 30, 2020 kevin downey is a golf equipment professional.
Mine is that the closed face driver has its place and that many, many social golfers will get more benefit from it than those. I use a neutral grip, but before i begin my take away, i always loosened and retighten my hands. Having a driver with a closed face angle is by far the best way to stop shots from slicing right and were talking around 15 yards reduction. Just about all golfers these days need more loft, but refuse to get away from their 9. Aug 19, 2014 club face closed and more body turn golf tip with pga professional askgolfguru mark crossfield. Of course you need to set the driver head on the ground or some hard surface for this to occur. How to close your clubface into impact to fix slice golf. The face angle in the design will automatically open up the face on an open or slice face angle and automatically close the face on a closed or hook face angle. Learning to hit a controlled draw off the tee also helps you have a better chance of hitting. I was wondering at address do i want the shaft perpendicular to me which would mean the head would be slightly closed, or do i want to square the head at address which would mean my hands would be in front of the ball hooding it. Aug 25, 2015 by twisting it changing the face angle, however, you are taking what was a 10 degree driver with a square face and making it a 10 degree driver that is, for example, 2 degrees closed. Open face can refer to the position of the clubface when the golfer is in the address position setting up with an open face or open face at address or to its position at the moment of impact open face at impact.
Draw bias clubheads understanding the principles behind. Then using your other hand drop the golf ball from about 12 inches 30 centimeters above the club onto the center of. Some manufacturers are making drivers with club faces 1. With a little bit of practice time, you can likely learn to hit a fairly straight tee shot. The big reason why most companies perfer to use a closed clubface is because it increases the effective loft of the driver face at impact. But since you only moved the ball a little, youll have time to get the driver face back square to the target line. The angle of the face in relation to the target at impact has an obvious influence on ball direction. Put a head cover or plastic water bottle outside your ball and a few inches back when you are at the range. Our goal is to get enough spin to achieve lift, while minimizing hopefully eliminating drag. Hook typically a better players problem, a hook happens when the face is closed to the path of the swing. Closed club face for maximum distance driving tip golf. For our test, we had average golfers hit the latest draw drivers without.
This is in contrast to a square clubface which sees the club pointing directly at the target or an open clubface which sees it pointing to the right. But the fact is, most big hooks come from the body slowing down through the hitting area, which causes the momentum of the swing to flip the club over and snap the face closed. So, in order to get your club face square to the target line at impact, you have to have a target line picked out in the first place. If its open, youll slice it and if its closed, you will hit a hook. Tee the ball 12 inch off the ground for hybrid clubs and fairway woods as a general rule. One thing i should first start out by stating is that one should not confuse the difference between a closed face angle and a draw bias clubhead.
Jan 03, 2018 trying to fit your drives into any fairway can feel a bit like fitting a square peg into a round hole. On your downswing you want your wrist to naturally close the club face along the swing path. Assuming a centered impact on the driver face, the initial direction of the ball is. While most amateurs can benefit from a little more spin than that, i see plenty of high handicappers with 4000 or more rpm of. Hit straighter club face square at impact senior golf tip. How to close your clubface into impact to fix slice. Dealing with a shut club face golf fix golf channel. Hitting your driver better does not take hours of learning a new swing. Unless you manipulate the face on the downswing, it will be closed delofted at impact, too. Face on set up tee the ball high and make sure it is not too far back in your stance. In the swing you will need to feel that you are staying behind the ball with your upper body as you aggressively drive the hips and weight over onto the front foot.
We golfers make all sorts of swing errors with respect to what is our swing path and what is our delivery of the face from our handarm rotation. May 24, 2019 open face can refer to the position of the clubface when the golfer is in the address position setting up with an open face or open face at address or to its position at the moment of impact open face at impact. Seventy percent of the golfers hit the draw drivers more to the left. I have fought a slice all season, just about to the point of feeling like i have the driver yips. There was nothing in the instruction book that comes with the driver about the face angle changing when you change the loft, so i went to the taylor made website and saw this. This of course assumes that the player does not compensate and open up the face at address to make it look square. By twisting it changing the face angle, however, you are taking what was a 10 degree driver with a square face and making it a 10 degree driver that is, for example, 2 degrees closed. If you are hitting lots of slice, your clubface must be open to the target at impact. With the clubface closed at the top, johnson has a swing path that is delivered from the inside with a tremendous amount of lag in the clubhead as. How to hit your driver with more consistency adam young golf. So to fix your slice, you are going to have to close your clubface at impact. If more than half of the ball is above the face, you will likely hit the ball too high on the clubface. How to control a fade and draw with your driver lincoln.
We were engaged in a friendly team match for a few bucks, and one of the guys in our group was a former. Yes, a closed face club can help start the ball far enough left assuming a rh golfer to correct for when the ball fades or slices. This is another daily swing fox video helping golfers from all around the world with their golf swings. Note the position of the clubs toe at the top of your swing if it points in front of you, its closed. No open or closed face driver performs the same for all golfers. I play a fade with my driver when i hit it well, but could the closed face be promoting the severe out to in path i am trying to avoid. How to stop hitting the golf ball high on the clubface. This adds side spin slice spin on the ball, and the ball curves to the right. For a righthanded player, this means the ball curves moderately from right to left. Shots hit with the driver, by nature, tend to stray off to a greater degree than shots hit with lower speeds with lofted irons. Club face closed and more body turn golf tip with pga. The key to hitting the ball farther with the modern, 460cc driver and modern golf ball which spins much less off of a flat face than balls of the past is high launch angle combined with a low spin rate. An open clubface is the opposite of a closed face, and the square face is the ideal.
To eliminate hooked drives like hogan and trevino, you need to fix your clubface position at impact. At address, a closed clubface is one where the line of the face of the club is pointing towards the left of the target line for right handed golfers. The closed stance will help you to make the intoout swing path you need. Hold the shaft of your driver in your hand about six to 12 inches 15 to 30 centimeters from the club head with the club face pointing to the sky. Therefore, for this section, well talk about these heads from a face angle. Sep 15, 2014 if you struggle with a shut or closed club face during your golf swing, this short video and easy to perform drill from senior instructor at the belfry, chris ryan, will help. Knowing where you strike the golf ball on the clubface is one of the most commonly overlooked factors in game improvement. Club face closed and more body turn golf tip with pga professional askgolfguru mark crossfield. Aug 24, 2018 the three most popular driver designs are traditional sometimes referred as pearshaped, draw biased, and offset head. With the lower loft, the curve of the ball is exaggerated off the face of a driver.
We recommend a 10 degree or higher driver for everyone unless your have a really high swing speed. A very closed club face of 1 degree or greater can impact ability to work the ball. If this is the case, check to see if you are not trying to hit it too much on the upswing. The draw is the preferred shot off the tee, because it adds distance to your drives. Closed club face for maximum distance driving tip golf channel. Understanding and fitting driver face angle and loft ralph. Many golfers strive to hit a draw shot with the driver. Traditionally, they had severely closed faces, but the new models we. By consciously planting your right foot and keeping your weight on it, you will prevent shifting your weight to the right. About seven or eight years ago i was playing a round down in florida with a few topnotch golfers. Half of the ball should stick above the face of the club. Plus, your driver is also your lowest lofted club in the bag as most range between 911 for amateur players. With the clubface closed at the top, johnson has a swing path that is delivered from the inside with a tremendous amount of lag in the clubhead as it reaches impact with the body rotated, the. Because of modern technology we have so much information available to us now, we have machines that can tell us the angle of attack, clubface to path, swing direction etc.
You also want the swing path to be right of the target. Jan 21, 2016 and when your palm is facing toward the ground, the clubface is more closed, or square, which is much more desired. If the face is pointed to the right of the target, it is considered to be open, while the face pointing left means the club is in a closed position. The secret to hitting your driver better the left rough. When it comes to hitting the ball straight, all it comes down to is what the club face looks like at impact. You should have a sense that you are behind the ball and are preparing to swing uphill as you get set.
The face angle appears more open resulting in a more closed face at impact. I am literally topping the ball and hitting the ground before the ball. If you are swinging outside in and getting the club face to square, the ball will still spin right. Interestingly, they also hit the draw drivers farther5.
Manufacturers have decided to be proactive and give the customers what they need without telling them. The three most popular driver designs are traditional sometimes referred as pearshaped, draw biased, and offset head. Every golfer wants to know how to hit a driver farther, and were going to explore some actionable methods you can use in this article. And when your palm is facing toward the ground, the clubface is more closed, or square, which is much more desired.