One of the best things (and easiest since I outsourced the task) I have done for my golf game was to flatten the lies of my irons.
1. I picked a plane (turned shoulder)
2. Made sure my left wrist was flat level and vertical with a small #3 Acc. angle...my right wrist was bent level and vertical.
3. Asked the guy to match the lie to that alignment.
That alleviated to a large extent the pull that has plagued me persisently for quite some time. My question to those in the know is this: What about the "big sticks". I get that the longer clubs have less loft and less hook face, but the magnet do-hickey that Bucket made me get to check out face alignment suggests that if the sole of the club with the longer clubs is not placed as the manufacturer intended i.e. flat it still looks left. In my case, the toe is always up a bit. This is the case with my hybrids and woods. What to do? Right now I aim a bit right and play a slight pull draw (to observers this looks like a baby draw) The only way I can think to fix this is shorten the shaft...but I refuse! What do you guys think? I am sure the pros have their drivers bent if needs be, right?
Youre touching on something Ive been wondering about. I always get my irons dynamically fitted on a lie board or whatever and then bent. But lately Ive been wondering if that is a disservice to most golfers. A reinforcement for a bad or misaligned Plane or RFFW through the ball. Those over the top guys get fitted with the craziest upright lie angles sometimes!
Should we go back to fitting the lie angles within a range of prescribed Plane Angles? With time the golfer will "morph" into the correct alignment, no?
ob
ps Dont be scared to cut clubs down. It doesnt lessen your distance much if at all I find. With a radius extending from the ball to your feet a 1/2 inch or even an inch isnt much proportionally.
At the end of the day the soles are still a bit cambered, but I have also noticed (using the magnet deal) that lie/face are very much connected through the bag. I have played some decent golf for a while with lies that were quite upright, but I kinda looked like Bernhard Langer at impact...right foot up on the toe and the left shoulder uber-high. My bad shot has always been a tug-boat willie left. But OB you have brought up a good point...again.
The only way I can figure out to keep my Homerized impact alignments with the lie as it is it to change the amoung of #3 Acc. angle, as opposed to setting up with "gorilla arms" the leading edge has to be parralel to the surface that the ball is on, right? So if I the ball is above my feet I increase my #3Acc angle and do my best to kept my hands FLV/BLV. I break out in a cold sweat when I cannot feel those alignments!
Even if you use the camber, flat is flat. The advantage of the cambered sole is the heel/toe is not likely to dig. I have always avoided blaming stuff on my equipment, I prefer to blame my squaw. I played 4 years of top flight golf with a sand wedge that said 56 degrees, but when a club fitter measured it turned out to be 53 degrees and 4 degrees too upright for me! I think that is what it was, it has been a while. I loved it because I hit it 125 yards and sometimes 135 yards...with a pull! What a stupid I am!
Do pros adjust the lies of the woods etc.? I guess if one the hosels snaps they can just get another...and another. I do not see anyone risking their new R9! I may need my hacksaw!
Jack played his whole career with a shortish driver shaft. Cant remember how short but effectively around todays three wood length or so. 42" maybe. I think driver shaft lengths these days are near max'd out. Right at the edge of being too long and too hard to control for most golfers. The longer the lever the harder it is to make it switch ends, the sooner you have to release etc etc..
I got paired up with a guy last year who had nothing longer than a five iron. His driver looked like a kids club in his hands. This was his idea and he was sticking to it. Surprisingly, he wasnt short off the tee. His tempo was up beat and he attacked the ball like it was a mid iron even with his driver. Weird but it made me wonder.
See ya
OB
Ps If your Langerian with a high left shoulder , your right shoulder must be low and on plane, no roundhouse so .....Im wondering if you aimed the thrust of your tugboat a little right if you'd be 2-J-3 on a 10-5-E? Wheel track. Or 10-5-A wheel rim? Either way its an In to Out clubhead Angle or Arc of Approach and a straight shot. But the thrust is out, cross line. Over, copy that , 10-4 good buddy.
Last edited by O.B.Left : 03-30-2009 at 01:44 PM.
Reason: even i dont understand what im saying
I agree with your PS. I did not know it at the time. Thanks for relaying the possibility that Jack used a 42 inch shaft. Interesting approach for the fella you mentioned. I like people that think outside the cubicle...unlike me. Tom Wishon says that 24/38 is the threshold for most players i.e. 24 degrees of loft and a 38 inch shaft. The vast majority of players do not have sufficient expertise to play with less loft and longer shafts. Watching the golf yesterday (WOW!) I paid particular attention to how their longer clubs were "sitting" I did not see one toe up in the air. The strange thing is that even with 44.5-45 inch driver shafts and without overly high hands at address the sole was flat. This got me thinking that they bend the hosels.
Yeah, I am aware of the droop deal. also that hitting off a tee (although doesn't this tend to flatten the plane and accentuate the uprightness of the club?)tends to negate the importance of the lie. As well as the lower loft. I am not looking for a magic bullet equipment wise. I have come to believe that the toughest task for me in golf is to aim the club face correctly. Understanding ideal impact alignments, low point geometry, the value of impact fix has helped significantly. For me it is all about tracing a straight line in relation to the clubface. I seldom try to hit it straight so there has to a divergence of some kind. I rigged a laser deal to determine where my club face is aiming at fix (ideally slightly right/open of square for me) With an upright lie driver (60* I believe) designed with a slightly closed clubface it is tough to set up sufficiently open without raising my left hand into an almost uncocked position. It may just be a matter of shortening my driver by an inch or so. I will report back!
This thread has me feeling a little better. Last fall I found I struck the ball with the driver much more solidly and consistently when I gripped down about 1.5" on a 45" club.
After spending the winter trying to build a swing with the assistance of Kev Carter I thought I might need stiffer shafts. I put in some Rifle 6.5's I had in the corner that had been there for a few years. Unfortunately, the heads that had been in them had quite long hosels. As a result, my new set up starts with the 6 iron at about 36.75". It feels great. I just haven't had them outside to see what the net effect is.
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