Open club face

Well I've played a little golf on my buddies golf simulator the last two days. It has helped to shed some light on the reasons for my poor ball-striking and increase and the Big Slice.

Many many of my shots the ball is struck with the clubface open anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees. My swing is normally okay either down the target line or slightly an inside to out swing. I was very shocked to find out how many times I strike the ball with the clubface open. When I really try to rotate my arms through impact to where the back of my left wrist is pointing towards the target I really make good contact but it feels weird!

I am open to any tips or suggestions as to how and get the clubface square at impact. I sure hate having another swing thought to think about, I've never really thought about getting the back of my left hand turn towards the target at impact.

I can tell this is probably going to be one of those things where practice practice practice is needed. I need to get that muscle memory ingrained in my system.

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I bet Freddie will fix this easy for you.

To me I would try adjusting my grip, just a bit stronger.

Someone with more knowledge then me will surely speak. In the mean-time, change your grip. It’ll feel like 180* different but it will be minor. Rotate your right hand 1/32nd with your thumb going right.

If you go from slice to hook, only go 1-64. That hands position is key.

I’ve fought this issue a bit in the past. It was a combination of a few things so a video could help a lot.

Well after really focusing on my swing and the position of my hands during the swing I think I may have another issue. My second problem is I think I'm sliding forward, I don't think I'm starting my swing with rotating my hips, I think I'm sliding them forward.

I think I'm struggling with both of these issues, my driver is normally impacting the ball with an open Club face anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees and making contact near the heel.

Tomorrow I will try and get some video of my swing.

I did have several hits today where I stayed in posture, got my hands through properly and made good contact with the ball! That sure feels good! I just need to get where I do it more consistently.

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dthogey said:

Tomorrow I will try and get some video of my swing.

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Great! Because the open face is the effect. There are many potential causes and we want to get to the one you are experiencing. Make sure you record swings where the clubface is open at impact producing a slice or fade.

Hopefully I will be able to post a couple of videos. The first thing I noticed with a video is an improper backswing, I take the club too far back and don't stay on the right plane, the clubhead crosses over behind my head. I thought I was correcting it but the second video will show that I did not.

I think I jumped to the conclusion that it was my hands not turning over that was causing my club face to be open, I'm not so sure now, I exaggerated a closed clubface at address and a stronger grip, and still struck the ball with the clubface open. I also more often than that hit the ball on the heel of the driver.


https://youtu.be/z2js4pKvfj0

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https://youtu.be/r3brvs0esNA

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For some reason I tend to hit the ball a lot better with my irons then with my driver. I make a lot better contact and my hits AR closer to the center of the clubface.

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I had been fighting an open club face for quite some time, personally. However, I also had an out-to-in swing path which needed to be corrected first. If you're already swinging in-to-out, I'd imagine that my fix may work for you, as well. In addition to a stronger grip (as mentioned by other posters here), I've also been working on focusing on a flat lead wrist, or even slightly bowed wrist, throughout the swing. By over exaggerating initially, I've been able to more-easily find that happy medium.

For me, bowing my lead wrist required less grip pressure (I'm not able to keep a tight grip on anything with a bowed wrist, the tendons in my hand just don't allow it), which also resulted in allowing my wrist to release through the ball more-effectively. It ends up allowing for a much more fluid swing.

-Bishop

Can I sort of chime in with my own issue? Not to derail you or anything

I took a month off and got back into it over the past week

Today I was at the range and just could not get anything going.

Things were just going low and duckhook left, I could tell my clubface was like dead shut at impact and I couldn't figure out why.

And I don't know what it was but for some reason I decided to OPEN my club-face at address... I would set the club down, and inch my hands over to the left a bit, and actually inch my right hand over to the left even more so, so the club face was open, and my right hand was weaker and more on top of the grip. I kind of tinkered with it, I mean some shots I had driver at like 15* open at address (to my eye).

I actually told myself "don't even look at the club at address" and I swung like normal and I had some of the best ballstriking of my entire life. Driver got right back to where it was, 4 iron flushed, 2i hybrid and 3i hybrid which I loathe were flying to the end of the range.

Prior to this I was setting up with the club face square... but just would shut so damn fast by the time I was to the ball my face had to at LEAST be 5* shut it just felt I was hitting the ball with a brick. But once I set up open I could tell I was hitting it flush the impact with the ball felt like absolutely nothing, like how it is supposed to.

........ puzzling..... I'm a pretty fit flexible guy, struggle with an over the top time to time until I get warmed up. Had a few lessons. Have PGA level clubhead speed, and my kinematic sequence is correct... I just don't know what was shutting me so much. My guess is I was rotating through the ball with my body correctly, probably on the upper extreme end, but with a super strong grip for someone who can't get through the ball; like not compatible at all. I don't flick with the wrist I understand everything undwinds and rolls over naturally so it wasn't manipulation of the club head. I do struggle with overswinging though.

I always thought I had a correct right hand on the shaft, but I suppose not

dthogey said:

https://youtu.be/r3brvs0esNA

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David, like so many golfers you have an OTT swing. Combine your swing path with a lack of hip release and you get an open club face. Your swing is mainly upper body and too fast. Your hips never have a chance to engage and when they do your club handle is almost hip high and already OTT. So when the hips engage, the path of the club continues left and your face never closes. The feeling of striking the ball with the back of the left hand is there and you do turn it over but the path isn’t allowing for a square face.

There are a few ways to fix this with bringing a lot of swing thoughts into play and yes it will take a few weeks to groove.

1. Slow down the swing, by using the shoulders instead of the arms to start the swing. The right shoulder rotates away and the arms follow. You will feel the right hip follow. Now your back is to the target at the top of your swing. The down swing is started by the left shoulder and the arms following. The left hip will follow and the club will be on an inside track which will allow for a square impact position.

2. Continue to swing all upper body but on the down swing feel like your pulling the handle of the club into your right hip. This will give you an inside path and square the face. But if you get too fast you’ll hit some hard, fast draws with the longer clubs. Not so much with the shorter clubs.

The second tip is fun in dry conditions but doesn’t allow for a ton of control unless you groove it and learn your misses.

Tadashi70 said:

David, like so many golfers you have an OTT swing. Combine your swing path with a lack of hip release and you get an open club face. Your swing is mainly upper body and too fast. Your hips never have a chance to engage and when they do your club handle is almost hip high and already OTT. So when the hips engage, the path of the club continues left and your face never closes. The feeling of striking the ball with the back of the left hand is there and you do turn it over but the path isn’t allowing for a square face.

There are a few ways to fix this with bringing a lot of swing thoughts into play and yes it will take a few weeks to groove.

1. Slow down the swing, by using the shoulders instead of the arms to start the swing. The right shoulder rotates away and the arms follow. You will feel the right hip follow. Now your back is to the target at the top of your swing. The down swing is started by the left shoulder and the arms following. The left hip will follow and the club will be on an inside track which will allow for a square impact position.

2. Continue to swing all upper body but on the down swing feel like your pulling the handle of the club into your right hip. This will give you an inside path and square the face. But if you get too fast you’ll hit some hard, fast draws with the longer clubs. Not so much with the shorter clubs.

The second tip is fun in dry conditions but doesn’t allow for a ton of control unless you groove it and learn your misses.

Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to watch this video and give me advice trying to help with my golf swing.

Yesterday I was able to hit a driving range in an attempt to change my swing like you advise. As always changing our swing is difficult, one of my biggest problems is getting too quick but when I was able to combine good Tempo and rhythm with clearing my hips and getting the club on the right path I hit the ball really well. I'm thinking a lot about pulling the club handle down towards my hip.

I know it is a long road to changing my swing and being able to reproduce it in a consistent way. I am making progress!

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