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Lie angle, its importance? And it's effects?

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golfinFF

golfinFF

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I ask because during my last two lessons I have used the LM at the end of them and am struggling to turn the ball over(draw).

When I did a fitting in the fall I was fit into 2* up plus a 1/2in or basically 3*up. My current irons are 1/2 inch shorter and playing to 1* flat.

Would this difference in lie between current irons and my fitting be part of the issue I'm having turning them over consistently and leaving me with a natural fade of 10-15yds consistently?
 
It could play a part. The club is designed to be parallel to the ground at impact, this allows the face to point to your target. If the lie angle is off at impact, the loft of the face will point to a spot other than your target creating a ball flight that starts off line. All of this is assuming a square face at impact, if it is open or closed, that will also influence ball flight.
 
This could very well be your issue. Lie angle can effect your shots greatly. If your lie angle is too flat your tendencies will typically be to get the toe into the turf first which then causes the face to open. Likewise with a lie angle that is too far upright, as this can cause you to dig the heel closing the face. Simple rule of thumb...upright closes the face....flat opens the face.
 
golfinFF said:
I ask because during my last two lessons I have used the LM at the end of them and am struggling to turn the ball over(draw).

When I did a fitting in the fall I was fit into 2* up plus a 1/2in or basically 3*up. My current irons are 1/2 inch shorter and playing to 1* flat.

Would this difference in lie between current irons and my fitting be part of the issue I'm having turning them over consistently and leaving me with a natural fade of 10-15yds consistently?
Click to expand...

You will be hard pressed to hit a drawing with a club 3* off what your fitted for. As flat as you have it your set for faded all day. I play 1* flat standard. I was sent a few irons that are 1-2* upright and with my normal swing the ball heads left every time. I really have to make an exaggerated swing to the right to get a straight ball.
2* up for you means when you make contact the sole of the club has even contact at impact with the ground. At 1* flat your divots are toe deep. That means not only are you losing distance for not finding the center of the face but the face is open as well.
 
Thanks for the responses fellas and confirming what I thought I knew about lie angle and its effect on shot shape.

I am gonna ask my coach about setting me up with club set to my fitting specs when I hop on the LM to see if my shots don't straighten out. I'll report back
 
I think lie angle has a big impact, and in my case, I checked the lie angle in my irons back then and the result was 2° upright, which led to straighter shots to draw shots. Today...I need re-check this and maybe go 1° flatter, balls keep ending up right (I'm a lefty).
 
I would suggest hitting off a lie board with impact tape on the sole to get it right. Shot shape isn't necessarily going to be affected if a swing flaw cancels it out.
 
Update at my lesson today we looked at my lie angle and the way it effects my setup and because my clubs are too flat I wasn't in a comfortable position which made it difficult for me to make the proper moves.

Once I set up with the the club in a upright position everything was easier, more fluid and more consistent.

We didn't check angle per say but I believe when I get fit again and new irons I will end up in 2 or 3 degrees up right.
 
My last fitting which was 2-3 years ago, I was fit 3* up and +3/4" in length. I now play Xhot pro's and ordered them to my previous fitted specs. My now miss is a pull left or snap hook and find it hard to miss right. I am thinking I may need to go down from 3 up to maybe 1 or 2 up. This miss is now the same with driver too, looks like my swing has changed.
 
Thoroughly confused myself with lie angles in the last couple weeks. Some consistent wedge misses right of my target and the occasional toe divot had me thinking I was due to a change to something a little more upright, but I marked some balls last night and the marks on the face were pointing heel side, which would indicate a degree or two flat was better. LOL. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Going to give it another shot here off grass to see if anything changes, because I have a hard time believing what I saw. Maybe just a rotten swing last night. Or maybe it's just the toe divots and pushed wedges that are the rotten swings.
 
I feel like lie angle is very important. I was playing some of the best golf of my life a few years ago when I was told I needed 2* up so i had my irons at the time adjusted. Then I decided I needed new irons and was fitted for standard all around. While I was initially happy with my purchase I feel like I have just not been playing as well as before. 2* may have been too much but I really believe I need 1* up because when I go the range there is always green marks out towards the toe.

Oddly enough according to the Ping fitting chart I should be yellow or green which is 1.5*-2.25* up. Maybe I need a new fitting. Ugh.
 
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I was playing Ping i15's red dot, (.75 flat), so that was a 5I at 60* lie angle. I recently demoed and ended up buying the Callaway X2 Hot irons. What surprised me is that I was hitting the standard lie clubs, 61.5* 5I, and the lie board indicated that was the correct lie. Granted it has been a few years since I got those Pings, and 3 months ago I had a total knee replacement, but could two sets of clubs be that far different and be correct for me? Could my posture and swing have changed that much to account for the difference in lie angle? I am 66 years old so it is not like I am still growing or anything! :)
 
From what you described it sounds like the lie is definitely affecting your ball flight. Especially being 3* off based on what you described below. I would imagine that the toe is hitting first and being slowed down and the heel is continuing along and opening up the face. You probably feel like you are going under the ball quite a bit as well so you are probably losing a lot of distance as well. Wherever you are taking lessons I would imagine that they probably have access to a fitting system that would have lots of clubs with different shaft lengths and lies. Go ahead and try what you were fit into and see how that works out. Good luck in your seach.
 
Fwiw, I was fit off the ping chart two years ago to green +1/4", which seemed about right at the time. With some swing changes, lower hands, that wasn't even close. As I got more comfortable with the posture changes, I first had them changed to black dot (std), and then later to purple dot, 1 1/2 flat. That's a difference of 3 3/4*. I would think that is a major change, at least it seems like it to me.
I did see a difference in ball flight, as after the swing changes everything was a draw with some pull draws, but still playable even being "off" almost 4*. After 2 rounds of adjustments, it's back to about as close to a straight shot as I can hit with a slight draw normally.
To your question, in going through these adjustments, I think it can make a difference in ball flight. But I do think their is an acceptable margin of error in the 1* to maybe 1.5* range on either side where honestly you won't see any noticeable difference.
 
Is it possible to set up around the lie angle?

When I set up my woods to an upright setting I feel like I'm crowding the ball and can hit nothing but fades to slices. When I set them back to standard or flat I can more easily hit straight to draw shots.

With that in mind I had my 6 iron bent 2 deg flat a few weeks ago. I have not hit any of my clubs on a lie board recently, but I don't notice any difference in ball flight between my standard lie clubs and the 2* flat 6 iron.

However, going to upright really screws me up. So maybe it's more of a room/clearance issue for me.
 
CRW I believe it is possible to set up around lie angle and it's something I do currently as my irons are off 3* from my last fitting and this causes me to occasionally swing around myself(too flat) which causes a smother hook and it's more common with the driver.
 
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