Just like the title says, how far in do you guys put the tee in when teeing off? Sometimes I put it really high and last night at the range was experimenting with putting it in kind of low........suggestions or comments?
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I change my tee height with the situation. If I want to hit a really high tee shot, I tee it high and swing up slightly. I use this to clear obstacles like the trees in the corner of the doglegs, etc. If it is windy, I will tee the ball up to an inch lower, choke up and hit the "stinger" to keep the ball out of the wind. For normal tee shots, I am between these two positions and try to hit a mid-trajectory that rolls after it hits.
I see, so the tee heigth doesn't affect wether or not my ball after flying straight after about 100-125 yards takes a sharp right curve....damn:confused2: I can't seem to figur out what does this......someitmes when i'm at the range i can hit them straight as an arrow then after a good couple of drives, it will start to go sharp right.......but i'm not changing anything........
Not necessarily.... Tee height can possibly have an affect on your ball flight, not just height, but also side spin. I don't want to get too technical because I am not a teacher, but....
If you make the same swing with the ball teed at different heights, you will get different impact positions for the head which can impart some additional side spin.
Based on what you said, that your shots start straight and then curve to the right, it sounds more like you have a problem with an open face at impact. There are two types of slices, one where the ball starts left and makes a big banana to the right (caused more by an out to in swing path) or the ball that starts on a straight line and then curves right (caused by decent swing path but leaving the face open at impact).
The latter seems to be your problem. I would practice making my normal swing but imagining trying to hit the ball with the toe of the club. This should get you turning your wrists and forearms over at impact and square your clubface, ridding you of the dreaded slice. Try it at slower swing speeds until you get a feel for it and gradually increase tempo until you are at your normal speed.
The second one sounds exactly right!! and what do you mean by square clubface? I have a curve in the clubface itself, like all drivers do. SHould i turn my rists towards my packside or more forward through the swing on contact? I guess what i'm asking is how do I "close" the clubface on impact, I have a pretty smooth swing.. (at least the people that i play with tell me they call me "silk" so how do i get the clubface to close on impact?
I'm throwing this out here purely for the sake of discussion. (Rt Handed Golfer) If you tee the ball high, then it stands to reason you want to hit the ball on the up swing, which also means farther forward in the stance. Since the ball is farther forward, the club path could be cutting across the ball at impact, causing a left to right (fade/slice) spin on the ball. Couple this with the shoulders possibly being slightly open at address due to the more forward ball position, you will be applying more right to left side spin, which will effect the ball after the applied back spin has worn off during the ball's flight. Ball will travel some straight at first, then turn to the right.
Does this sound right?
Would the same apply (in reverse) for a ball tee'd low, father back in the stance? At impact, a right to left (hook/draw) spin would be applied to the ball. Couple this with the shoulders being closed, due to the ball's position farther back in the stance, you get a side spin that takes over after the applied back spin wears off during the ball's flight. The ball will travel some what straight at first, then turn left.
I might have my left, and rights confused here...lol:confused2:
Again, consider that advice is normally worth whatever you pay for it and I am no teacher. However, I did fight this problem when I started playing so I am not without hard-won experience. What I mean by closing (or squaring) the clubface at impact is that you must turn your wrists over through impact so that the clubface is square to the line you want the ball to travel. Many people will leave the face open because they do not allow their wrists and forearms to rotate through the shot. When I say "hit the ball with the toe" I mean try to turn the clubhead over so far through impact that the toe of the club hits the ball instead of the face. (You probably couldn't actually do this, it is more of a sensation thing to practice that will get you to rotate your wrists).
Try it on the range and see if you get any improved results with your driver.
I'm throwing this out here purely for the sake of discussion. (Rt Handed Golfer) If you tee the ball high, then it stands to reason you want to hit the ball on the up swing, which also means farther forward in the stance. Since the ball is farther forward, the club path could be cutting across the ball at impact, causing a left to right (fade/slice) spin on the ball. Couple this with the shoulders possibly being slightly open at address due to the more forward ball position, you will be applying more right to left side spin, which will effect the ball after the applied back spin has worn off during the ball's flight. Ball will travel some straight at first, then turn to the right.
Does this sound right?
Would the same apply (in reverse) for a ball tee'd low, father back in the stance? At impact, a right to left (hook/draw) spin would be applied to the ball. Couple this with the shoulders being closed, due to the ball's position farther back in the stance, you get a side spin that takes over after the applied back spin wears off during the ball's flight. The ball will travel some what straight at first, then turn left.
I might have my left, and rights confused here...lol:confused2:
I'm sorry when you say "over" you mean towards the ground correct?
All of that sounds correct, except in the first scenario where you are cutting across the ball with your swing, that ball would start left and come back with a big banana shape instead of start straight.... If your swing path is right to left, you will pull the ball. If the clubface is open, you get a slice spin that will bring it back towards the right.
These answers are correct if you want to follow the old ball flight laws.
The diagram at above shows how the ball comes off the clubface if the clubhead is not moving in the same direction that it is facing. Here are the basics of what happens:
* The ball will take a direction (red arrow) somewhere between the direction the clubface is pointing and the direction the clubhead is moving.
* The ball's path will be closer to the clubface direction than to the swing path.
* Most references show this as between 80:20 and 70:30. That is, the ball is 80% of the way from the swing path to the clubface direction.
The other obvious consequence of the clubface direction being different from the swing path is spin. The conditions in the diagram will result in clockwise spin on the ball, resulting in a fade or slice.
How does this relate to the "usual" diagram shown above. Well, it would relate very well -- if only the direction of the ball were well aligned to the swing path. But it's not; instead, the direction of the ball is closely aligned to the clubface direction. This fact is not reflected in the "usual" diagram.
When we take this inconvenient fact into account, we get a somewhat different set of ball flights on our diagram. Below are two diagrams. Each has nine trajectories on it, corresponding to the nine ballflights that Ed asked about. In the diagrams:
* Red arrows correspond to an outside-to-in swing for a right-handed golfer -- that is, a swing path to the left.
* Green arrows correspond to a down-the-line swingpath, straight at the target.
* Blue arrows correspond to an inside-to-out swing for a right-handed golfer -- that is, a swing path to the right.
This graphic shows ball flights where the clubface direction is referenced to the target line. That is, instead of using the ambiguous term "open", we say the clubface points right of the target line. The different kinds of arrows mean:
* Solid arrow: clubface points at the target.
* Dashed arrow: clubface points right of the target.
* Dotted arrow: clubface points left of the target.
This graphic shows ball flights where the clubface direction is referenced to the swing path. That is, instead of using the ambiguous term "open", we say the clubface points right of the swing path. The different kinds of arrows mean:
* Solid arrow: clubface points the same direction as the clubhead travels.
* Dashed arrow: clubface points right of the swing path.
* Dotted arrow: clubface points left of the swing path.
A discussion on the Wishon Golf web forum criticized these findings. In particular, Bill (a professional clubfitter from Santa Barbara) argued that "ball flight rules" said that the ball started in the direction of the swing path and curved toward the direction of the clubface. Simple -- but wrong. (H.L. Mencken once said, "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.") Here are my responses to his arguments:
1. As a rebuttal to Bill's version of the "ball flight rules", I pointed out that, whatever they are, they must work in the vertical direction as well as horizontal. If they were as Bill proposes, a wedge shot should start out horizontal and climb in trajectory only due to spin. But we have all seen personally that wedge shots take off on a rather high trajectory, closer to the loft angle than to horizontal. So it is just wrong to say the ball starts off in the direction of the clubhead path; we're just arguing about how close the ball starts to the clubface angle. Which brings us to...
2. Bill pointed out that 19º is a huge amount to be off, either clubface angle or swing path. And so it is for "misses"; it might not be for a deliberate hook or slice. But sorry, Bill; for smaller angles, the results are pretty similar -- but more so. That is, instead of the direction of the ball being 70-80% in the direction of the clubface, it will be more like 90%.
http://www.tutelman.com/golf/clubs/ballflight.php?ref=
Just like the title says, how far in do you guys put the tee in when teeing off? Sometimes I put it really high and last night at the range was experimenting with putting it in kind of low........suggestions or comments?
I officially have a headache after that one.....All I want to know is how to square the clubface so that I will quit having them fade right. do I rotate my hands towards the ground to square it up or not lol
I'm trying to figure out what you mean by "towards the ground". Your hands are following your arms around your body at some angle between parallel to the ground and perpendicular to it? They should rotate (for a right hander) counter-clockwise right going over left to the finish.
I officially have a headache after that one.....All I want to know is how to square the clubface so that I will quit having them fade right.
That would have more to do with ball position, i.e. how far forward or backward in the stance, rather than how high you tee the ball. It also depends if you're hitting it straight right, if the ball is starting off straight and then fading right, or if the ball is starting off to your left and then fading right (for a right-handed golfer).
I think generally most people play the ball way too far back in their stance with their driver. As I said, I recently read Sean Fister's Long Drive Bible (he is a 3-time world long driving champion), and he echoed this. He says you should play the ball off your front toe with the driver. Most people will say off your front heel, but at the very least it should be well up in your stance. I just moved my ball position up and am hitting the ball not only longer, but straighter with my driver.
What is your ball position now?