Hitting driver on the heel... How can i stop

usudno

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A little background here.... I've recently been having issues with backspin and ballonning drives. Well after hours on a launch monitor testing lower spin drivers i realized that it was my swing not the club. I had been hitting the ball on the downswing causing 43-4600 rpm of backspin with a 16* launch angle or greater. Passing this information on our club pro resulted in me moving the ball up in my stance and teeing it a bit higher. All in all the launch has gone down... spin is definatly down (no more balloning) but i hit the ball on the heel much more frequently. I'm tired of one 200yd drive then the next goes 260 :confused2:. Any ideas on how i can improve on this???

Thanks ahead of time.

BTW Driver is 9* R11 Aldila RIP Phenom 60 Stiff. ASP Closed, Loft set one lower than standard, weighted in the heel.
 
this happened to me last year, the solve was the stretch out from the ball. stretch your arms out (and stand back so you're not leaning back to hit the ball)

stand further away from the ball and stretch your arms out- so much that you feel like if you go much further than you'll fall backwards. if you're not comfortable with that, try just a bit of arm flex

the amount of arm stretch/bend you need correlates to how far you need to be away from the ball.. at least it does for me..

sorry if this doesn't make sence, i woke up 20 minutes ago and i'm leaving in about 2 mins

PS/EDIT: not saying it will completely fix it, but try setting your club to nuetral on the sole, but one setting to the right (open) on the shaft, with the weights the heaviest on the heel, lowest on the middle, and middle on the far side from you.
 
this happened to me last year, the solve was the stretch out from the ball. stretch your arms out (and stand back so you're not leaning back to hit the ball)

stand further away from the ball and stretch your arms out- so much that you feel like if you go much further than you'll fall backwards. if you're not comfortable with that, try just a bit of arm flex

the amount of arm stretch/bend you need correlates to how far you need to be away from the ball.. at least it does for me..

sorry if this doesn't make sence, i woke up 20 minutes ago and i'm leaving in about 2 mins

cough...ask the pro section...cough
 
Please keep this thread clean until the pro has had a chance answer, thank you
 
A little background here.... I've recently been having issues with backspin and ballonning drives. Well after hours on a launch monitor testing lower spin drivers i realized that it was my swing not the club. I had been hitting the ball on the downswing causing 43-4600 rpm of backspin with a 16* launch angle or greater. Passing this information on our club pro resulted in me moving the ball up in my stance and teeing it a bit higher. All in all the launch has gone down... spin is definatly down (no more balloning) but i hit the ball on the heel much more frequently. I'm tired of one 200yd drive then the next goes 260 :confused2:. Any ideas on how i can improve on this???

Thanks ahead of time.

BTW Driver is 9* R11 Aldila RIP Phenom 60 Stiff. ASP Closed, Loft set one lower than standard, weighted in the heel.

usudno,

You are definitely on the right track. It is usually the swing that needs repair. But being properly club fitted by a PGA Professional is also very important.

According to Trackman testing with PGA tour players, the driver angle of attack is 1.3 degrees downward. But if you are too steep into the golf ball it will cause excess spin and launch.

Hitting the ball on the heel is not a terrible thing; it is just not ideal. About every half inch you are away from the center of the club face you will lose 5-10 yards. Without seeing the swing I could not tell you why you are hitting it on the heel. What kind of ball flight are you seeing? Where does the ball start? Online? Left of target? Right of Target? let me know a little bit more about the ball flight and I can start giving you some better specifics of why you are heeling the ball.

Thanks

Lance West
PGA Professional
GolfTEC-Minnetonka, MN
 
My usual ball flight is a very slight draw. As a matter of fact Sunday i hit 3 great drives... having the r11 allows me to see were contact is made. Those three were about a quarter inch towards the toe but they were hit well and went 245-250ish with a slight bit of roll but not very far. I notice when I'm coming at the ball my right arm tends to straighten out and sort of push me farther out then I'd like to be and cause me to come across. I work diligently on my take away coming to the inside (The inside approach training aid i credit for my iron striking lol) to avoid swinging outside in but it seems somehow i get stuck coming back into the ball . Its always on my downswing that i get stuck so to say. To avoid this i exagerate an inside out swing but this can quickly turn into snap hooks if timing isn't perfect. I'm not looking to patch my swing up.. I'd rather fix it. Any video's or drills would be greatly appreciated. As far as ball flight.. with driver set like it is i hit a medium height shot no ballooning if i concentrate on the ball being further up in my stance. If i move it back... well i balloon the heck out of it and it tends to fade out. A truly pathetic flight!
 
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