Friday, November 6, 2026
The following is a list of impact facts.
The initial direction the golf ball flies is the result of the club face angle.
The curvature of the golf ball (fade, draw, slice, hook) is the result of the clubface angle in relation to the true path of the swing.
Accordingly… a right-to-left draw is hit with an open clubface at impact and a left-to-right fade is hit with a closed face at impact (but of course they are open/closed to the path of the club at impact!)
The dynamic loft (trajectory) of the shot is the result of the vertical angle of the clubface (at the center).
A golf ball struck on the toe of the club will open the clubface.
One struck on the heel of the club will close the face of the club.
A shot struck above the center of the face will minimize spin and launch higher.
A shot struck below the center of the face will spin more and launch lower.
Gear effect refers to the movement of the clubface when the ball is struck off-center. Toe contact will start right, and curve left. Heel contact will start left, and curve right. (Think of gears meshing). These examples are for right-handed golfers
Any ball struck off-center (even a small amount) will have some gear effect. We cannot draw a heel hit or fade a toe hit.
A straight shot is when the ball spins around a horizontal axis. If the center line of the ball is not perfectly horizontal in flight, the ball with have some curvature.
There is no such thing as side-spin. A golf ball cannot fly if the axis of the ball is vertical.
Spin is created by friction and speed not by “grooves”. From a perfect lie in the fairway, with no obstructions between ball and club face, a “grooveless” club will out spin a club with grooves if the surface is larger. But…when playing from the rough, grooves are essential.
“Dems da facts: The scientific truth of impact! So how might this info help you? Well, it can help you diagnose a foul ball. What really happened, as opposed to “I picked up my head” or some such illusion. It likely redefines what might “seem” to be happening. It will dispel certain fallacies. For example:
“Coming over the top” causes a slice. A player can come over the top and hit the ball perfectly straight to the left if the face is square to that path (see bullet point two above).
A steeper attack angle creates lower, not higher, flight for all shots from the turf. The old “hit down to get ball up” is simply false. The reason is…to hit down the club must be de-lofted.
Video is good but not entirely accurate. It is a 2-D representation of a 3-D motion. A golf swing moves up and down as well as around. This is where we need to use radar. I prefer Trackman, although Foresight is just as effective.
When you are hitting down on the ball, you are effectively swing to the right (for a right-handed player) of your target, and you must make allowances for this by aiming slightly left.
When you are swinging upon the ball, you are effectively swinging left of your target, and you must aim slightly right of your intended target. Why?
Golf is a side-on game. Unlike basketball, where the target is directly in front of us, the ball in golf is beside us. Because of this, there is an around part to the swing. So is baseball. But…it is also on the ground and there must be an up and down part to the swing. When we are hitting a middle iron, the golf club is angled 60 degrees from our hands to the ball. A driver is angled 45 degrees. The lie of the club is necessary because of the “beside us” challenge. And we bend at the hips because the ball is on the ground, and this helps the “on the ground” part.
What, you thought it was gonna be easy?
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