[tongzilla]

Think of throwing a ball against a wall.

The only time the ball rebounds 'straight back to you', is if you throw it 'straight into the wall' 90 degrees to the surface of the wall.

Now, throw that same ball at a 45 degree angle to the wall.

It will bounce between 45 and 90 degrees off the wall, not 90 degrees to the wall (the direction of the 'face' of the wall). Even at a slow speed.

If you imagine the 'wall' is the clubface, you can see that BOTH path and clubface are important, as is the SPEED at which the ball is thrown and the amount the ball compresses. You can not seperate out just one variable and assume the rest.

That said, the clubface does have MORE of an influence than the path.

Good point Ed, exactly what I was trying to say. Certainly the clubface has much more influence than the clubhead path, but not 100% responsible for starting direction of ball.