What is the proper alignment of the club face to hit straighter shots?

AshMan

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So just like the question, what is the proper way to align the club face direction on irons to get the ball straight?

I was at the range the other day and foun2s my irons fading way more on center struck shots than I am used to.

I was messing around and trying to correct it, so I started playing with face angle and I seemed to find if I turn the face a little open right, but still pointing down my target line, I seemed to make better contact and my balls went much straighter and better dispersion.

Is this something I should be continuing to do or is this something I should have always been doing? I'm wondering if I have been using a more closed face setup for so long that it looks normal to me and causing the irons to fade versus going straight.

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We all have alignment issues from time to time. You can have the face lined up incorrectly, or have the face correct but your body or grip misaligned. It's important to practice with alignment sticks (which will help your body alignment), and use the "spot" method for aligning your clubface during play. The "spot" method helps overcome the parallax optical illusions that are present in golf. It is simply to stand behind your ball looking down the ball/target line, and pick a leaf or blade of grass or divot or something that is a foot or three in front of your ball and on that line, then when you address the ball align yourself to the "spot" first rather than the distant target, then after aligning to the spot you can look at the distant target and microadjust. If you do this it can prevent bad alignment issues from popping up. It worked for Jack Nicklaus.
 
We all have alignment issues from time to time. You can have the face lined up incorrectly, or have the face correct but your body or grip misaligned. It's important to practice with alignment sticks (which will help your body alignment), and use the "spot" method for aligning your clubface during play. The "spot" method helps overcome the parallax optical illusions that are present in golf. It is simply to stand behind your ball looking down the ball/target line, and pick a leaf or blade of grass or divot or something that is a foot or three in front of your ball and on that line, then when you address the ball align yourself to the "spot" first rather than the distant target, then after aligning to the spot you can look at the distant target and microadjust. If you do this it can prevent bad alignment issues from popping up. It worked for Jack Nicklaus.

I recently started doing this at the driving range. I stick a tee about 1 1/2 feet out in front of my ball. I was a little surprised at how far off I was from what I thought was square to my target.
 
I have a strong grip. About 2° open at address with club in a neutral position (not leaning forward or backwards) results in a pretty strait shot.
 
I've learned that my eye sees "neutral" as closed, so I actually align the face slightly open and that ends up being square to the target.
 
If it is working for you, keep doing it. Golf is hard enough as it is, so use whatever tricks you can!

That said, your club face alignment at address is somewhat irrelevant to where your shot ends up. The only things that actually matter in a golf swing are the angles delivered at contact. Functional delivery angles are the reason both Jim Furyk and Justin Thomas both shot under 60 recently, despite blatantly different golf swings.
 
I typically will line the ball up more towards the heel since my misses are usually out towards the toe and I get alot less distance compared to hits towards the heel.

Also, I noticed that as long as I swing smoother while doing this it results in great results.
 
Like I saod it looks weird at address to kind of open thebface a bit but the shots seem more pure.

Will do some more range work.

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The straightest shot will be an impact position where the clubface is square to the target, the swing is precisely on the target line and you nail the sweet spot--all at impact. The magic is how to get there.

- Square at setup does not equal square at impact
- All kinds of body alignment pieces at setup can influence swing plane
- I can grip and twist the club any number of ways to arrive at a square clubface at setup. That does NOT mean it is going to be square at impact.
 
I typically will line the ball up more towards the heel since my misses are usually out towards the toe and I get alot less distance compared to hits towards the heel.

Also, I noticed that as long as I swing smoother while doing this it results in great results.

A couple of years ago during a series of lessons my instructor showed me I had this same tendency so I adopted this practice as well. Resulted in much better ball striking with my irons.
 
Not sure if I hit more toe or heel, I think my club face closes at impact giving it a fade. So opening it a bit I think may help me. Will test it out this week and see how it goes

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