Use the Correct Part of the Club

Many golfers do not know which part of the club they should be using. When you come right down to it you can use either the club head or the butt end of the club. To know which part to use you need to evaluate your golf shots.

Every golfer tends to move the golf ball either right or left. In other words your misses curve right or left. To find out where your misses tend to go hit some balls with a long iron or your driver. These clubs will tend to exaggerate the error in your swing. The reason is in the loft of the club. When you hit a golf ball with your driver or long iron you will contact in the center of the ball. This will have the ball spinning off the face. When you use a medium to short iron you contact under the center of the ball. The ball will roll up the face. Even if you have it slightly open the ball stills rolls up the face so it “camouflages” the ball flight and makes it look better than with a driver or long iron. You see if you have the club face open on one of those clubs it won’t roll up the face it will roll off the face and the result will be a slice.

Now that you know what your tendency is with your ball flight we can now help you use the correct end to the club to cure your curve.

Your tendency is to slice or curve the ball right. This is the most common problem in golf. 75 to 80 percent of the golfing population tends to curve the ball right. Any time you do this the face must be open. The most common problem to this is that the butt end of the club is getting to impact with the club head lagging to far behind. (photo A) What you want to do is reverse this. You want to use the club head and get it to the golf ball before the butt end of the club. The most effective way to do this is to use your hands and wrists. On your down swing get the club head to the ball using your hands and wrists. Make slow practice swings and make sure the club face is closed when you reach impact. Do this until you can get the club face closed and your hands are behind the club head at impact. Now hit some balls and watch the ball flight. Remember, the ball flight is your best source in determining what is going on in your swing. The sensations you have or how it “feels” will most likely be very different than what the ball is doing. The flight of the golf ball rarely lies.

Your tendency is to hook or cure the ball left. This is what a call a good player’s mistake. Better player’s misses are usually left. Any time you do this the face must be closed or closing to early in the down swing. The most common reason for this is that the club head has out-raced the butt end of the club. (photo B) You want to use the butt end in the down swing and get the club head to lag behind you in the down swing. The best way to feel this is to hit punch shots where the hands get back to the ball before the club head does. The swing would stop just past impact and the club head would still be points to the ground. These punch shots will help you tell if the club head gets past your hands. What you want to see is that the club head is even with or behind your hands. (photo C)

A great aid in helping you feel where the club head and grip are at impact is an impact bag. Hitting into the bag you can see where each part is. (photos D & E) By finding the opposite you can correct the problem. I like to use this technique of finding the opposite of where you have been. If you know both extremes of the problem (a slice and a hook) it would be easy to find the middle.

Brad Redding
Director of Golf Instruction at The Resort Club at Grande Dunes

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