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Lie angle effect on ball flight

Nippon Shafts
wubears71

wubears71

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Albatross 2024 Club
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My 54 and 58 consistently go right (pull for me). I’m making good contact and path looks good. No other irons do it. This could be that they are too upright, correct?

I remember a while back someone telling me I should go 2 deg flat on my high lofted wedges even though I’m 1.5 deg upright on my irons. Does that logic sound right?
 
Maybe, and that logic doesn't sound right to me. Mine are bent consistently across the set by length (e.g., 0.5* flatter for every 0.5" of length added). I play the same shafts in my wedges and irons, but different shaft weights/flex in wedges/irons could cause the shaft to droop (bend) more or less which could effect that dynamic lie angle.

If I had a problem with a club I would bend them to fit the shot. If they are consistently producing different ball flights than what is normal for you, what's it going to hurt to try something different. Especially if you can get them bent for cheap/free and whenever you like. If you have to go to a big box store, bend them both 1* flatter and go hit them on the monitor. If that doesn't get it straight, have them bend another degree and so on. That way you are confident in the lie angle before you leave the store. And have the club measured and right down both length and the lie you came up with through testing so that you have them on hand for future wedge purchases.

There is no rule that says clubs can't have different lie angles rather than being bent to a consistent pattern across various lengths.
 
I have a Mitchell so I can bend them to anything I want. Before I go screwing with them I wanted toast the question.
 
I think I found my answer.
31F1E8A4-815C-4400-9069-554F8644FDA0.gif
 
Yes, a pull can be caused by too upright of a lie angle, forcing the face to flip closed. If your path looks good then it is something to consider. I would check the lie angle with a lie board, analyze the turf interaction (digging more toward the heel), and maybe perform the test with the line on the ball to see if it leaves a mark that is perpendicular to your grooves or if it is tilted. I found that I needed my wedges bent even more flat than a lie board would suggest as I tend to close the face too much relative to swing path with a shorter club.
 
I base a lot of what I do on the quality of the divot.

If you're pulling it and not just drawing it, I'm not sure it's genuinely a path thing.... especially if the divot is square at the back and not heel first.
 
When I had that problem, my teaching pro watched me hit a variety of wedge shots and diagnosed a need for bending them 2 degrees flat. He said it wasn't so much a "fitting" thing as the fact that I had a tendency to dig in the heel slightly on some shots. The flat lie was a preventative measure to keep slight heel contact from causing a poor shot.

According to his advice, occasionally getting slightly toe-down contact from flat-lie wedges would do nothing more than maybe come up a couple yards short. Getting heel-first contact with normal lies causes much worse issues.

Your mileage may certainly vary, I have no idea whether your wedge swing is anything like mine. But the 2 degrees flat sure did the trick for me!
 
i'm not sure i would agree with the logic that a higher lofted wedge should be bent so much differently than your full-swing clubs. i guess the only thing that might make sense would be if you deliver the club quite a bit differently for your short game shots. then maybe i could see adjusting the lie to help with those specific shots.
 
McLovin said:
i'm not sure i would agree with the logic that a higher lofted wedge should be bent so much differently than your full-swing clubs. i guess the only thing that might make sense would be if you deliver the club quite a bit differently for your short game shots. then maybe i could see adjusting the lie to help with those specific shots.
Click to expand...
That's how I am reading it.

A bit steeper means more than likely a bit more over the top which can definitely create a pull if the face is square.
 
My 4i.....I lose it right damn near most of the time. I think its a degree flatter than my 5-PW which are 2 up.

My GW-LW are standard lie which I don't lose either way. They are straight
 
McLovin said:
i'm not sure i would agree with the logic that a higher lofted wedge should be bent so much differently than your full-swing clubs. i guess the only thing that might make sense would be if you deliver the club quite a bit differently for your short game shots. then maybe i could see adjusting the lie to help with those specific shots.
Click to expand...

The way it was explained to me (and I trust the advice of my teaching pro) is that the effect of slightly toe-down contact with a wedge is typically pretty minor. But if the heel catches on the ground the ball can end up flying much too far and also missing well to the left (for right-handed golfers).

With irons you are not "using the bounce" in the same way you do with wedge shots. It's pretty much ball then turf so lie angle matters in the normal club-fitting sense. With wedges in the short game I am typically trying to contact the ground a fraction before the ball, so lie angle issues can drag the club open or closed before impact.
 
wubears71 said:
I have a Mitchell so I can bend them to anything I want. Before I go screwing with them I wanted toast the question.
Click to expand...

Since you have a Mitchell and forged wedges I would just go ahead and flatten the lies and take them out. Worse thing is it doesn't help and you can bend them back to where they were.
 
Thanks for the feedback. It’s really bugging me because the 54 and 58 are the only clubs that do it. It’s so consistent that I can align myself to account for it.
 
wubears71 said:
Thanks for the feedback. It’s really bugging me because the 54 and 58 are the only clubs that do it. It’s so consistent that I can align myself to account for it.
Click to expand...

Flatten it out a degree and see what happens
 
This is why THP is awesome. Lots of great technical responses.
 
@wubears71 are you golfing right now? Referencing your cigar thread post haha
 
McLovin said:
i'm not sure i would agree with the logic that a higher lofted wedge should be bent so much differently than your full-swing clubs. i guess the only thing that might make sense would be if you deliver the club quite a bit differently for your short game shots. then maybe i could see adjusting the lie to help with those specific shots.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this. I've always been 1.5-2.0 degress flat with all my irons and wedges. If you give me a wedge with standard loft, I'll hit it left of where I'm aimed everytime.

If they are the only clubs that you are pulling, I don't blame you for going flatter with them.
 
Canadan said:
show us your divot on the next couple wedge shots you hit.
Click to expand...
Will do if I get into a full shot situation with those clubs.
 
There's also an assumption built into how sets of clubs are spec'd out. It's that for every inch shorter the club is, the lie angle you need is such-and-such degrees different. It's always possible that for a given golfer, when you get down to the shortest clubs that "such-and-such degrees" is no such thing [pun intended]. The normal lie progression is just an average across millions of golfers, not necessarily correct for me or you.
 
Have a good round. I agree they should be flattened a degree.
 
Here’s the 58 deg divot - full shot.
FDA85984-4997-494A-BFBB-26EC9B98013C.jpeg
 
Hard to tell due to the shadow...does the heel side of the divot look appreciably deeper to your eye?
 
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