Hey guys, I was recently having trouble with getting minimal role out of my woods. I’m thinking that a lower trajectory would gimmie some of this roll back. I hit a TaylorMade R580XD with 9.5deg loft but it certainly gets up alot higher than that. Thanks in advance.

Mr C.

Get on launch monitor and try different shatfs

many 460cc drivers are closed faces which increases the loft a bit

also how stiff the tip makes a diffference

Yup!

You gotta try a few different combinations.

Custom fitting is the way to go.

ps – Isn’t the 580XD on the banned list?!

the first version is on the list, with no lines in the middle of the face. The second version, with lines in the centre, complies.

MrC you can also try and work on your finish swivel, as you may be coming out of the ball early and adding loft.

Very good thing to check there Spence. Brains Trust at work again.

Yea i thought i had the banned one, but after much hoo-ha realised mine had the lines. Phew! This finish swivel sounds interesting, can someone further explain it for me? Lastly, any new purchases are pretty much out of the question at the moment as crissy shopping has left me broke as a joke but I’m getting the impression more and more every day that i should be getting on one of these launch monitor things :) Thanks guys.

Somewhere on the downswing the hands start turning the same way as the body. If they keep turning that way all the way to the finish, you have your finish swivel as well as your hinge swivel, impact to 45 degrees and the release swivel into the ball.

Most swivel against the body turn and we call this steering.

MrC take your address position and without holding a club, put your left hand as if you were holding one. rotate your hips through as you would during follow through, and your left hand should match and stay roughly centre. As you turn through, the back of your hand will point left. IF you find the back of your hand continues to point along the target line, you are steering, which will add loft.

If a small child were standing to your left at address, you would give them a backhand in the face if you are doing it right. If you are doing it wrong you would hit them under the chin with the back of your hand. (Either way they deserve what they got, as they shouldn’t be standing there in the first place!!!)

Now Spence, you wouldn’t be addressing me as a righty would you?

Yipes!

We’ve got a lefty in our midst!

Everyone take cover!

Why is a lot of height such a bad thing?

I always launch extremely high with my driver (NVG2 Tour 10 degree), and it comes in so handy.

So many courses i play on around here have massive trees near the tee and on a number of dog leg holes i just launch over them and cut the hole in half or more.

Is it really beneficial to get roll from the driver? Even with the height i get i still get massive distance without a lot of added distance from the bounce.

Modern drivers are designed to be all carry so you have a point.

What I’ve taken from Mr C’s post is not that he has a high launch but just that he is plain old skying the ball!

Not quite skying the ball.. Although I do once every couple of rounds when i tee the ball up a lil too high and cant be stuffed putting it lower.. for me the trouble comes in that i am hitting 5 irons where i used to be hitting 9 irons into the green, and with my short game being my strength, I much prefer the short iron approaches. I get a fair amount of spin, and on occasion back up the rocks that I play with but it kills me inside to watch me spank a 3 wood dead straight and have it land soft, 30m short of where I used to play me 2nd shot. I’ve got a mate who tees his driver about 1cm off the ground in the middle of his stance and still launches it high (however his go about 280 before they sit and stay so I don’t think he minds as much..)

Get on launch monitor and try different shatfs

many 460cc drivers are closed faces which increases the loft a bit

also how stiff the tip makes a diffference

If you close down the face of any club, you will deloft the clubface and that will give a lower ball flight not INCREASE it as wrongly stated above.
Jon…

MrC take your address position and without holding a club, put your left hand as if you were holding one. rotate your hips through as you would during follow through, and your left hand should match and stay roughly centre. As you turn through, the back of your hand will point left. IF you find the back of your hand continues to point along the target line, you are steering, which will add loft.

If a small child were standing to your left at address, you would give them a backhand in the face if you are doing it right. If you are doing it wrong you would hit them under the chin with the back of your hand. (Either way they deserve what they got, as they shouldn’t be standing there in the first place!!!)

Well hope you all are happy to know that the Driver is more or less fixed (dangerous to say I know)! It happened today on the 14th hole, was swinging the club with my right hand (I’m a lefty) and really started to understand the whole backhand to kids face thing… Needless to say I’m very happy. Roll is back, distance is back, life is great! Thanks to all who helped out (don’t worry Guru, ill still be reading those articles again ;0)

Get on launch monitor and try different shatfs

many 460cc drivers are closed faces which increases the loft a bit

also how stiff the tip makes a diffference

If you close down the face of any club, you will deloft the clubface and that will give a lower ball flight not INCREASE it as wrongly stated above.
Jon…

I think he means that if you have a driver with a closed face and you return it to the ball square it will have a greater effective loft than what is written on the sole plate.

Lowering the trajetory of my driver = play it off the back foot…..haha

Get on launch monitor and try different shatfs

many 460cc drivers are closed faces which increases the loft a bit

also how stiff the tip makes a diffference

If you close down the face of any club, you will deloft the clubface and that will give a lower ball flight not INCREASE it as wrongly stated above.
Jon…

Jon, you are on the wrong side of the stick here. A closed face driver plays higher as the loft is added back coming into impact. An open faced driver plays lower than its stated loft.

The reason to have a closed faced driver is the player needs to get to square at impact with their hand action – an opening motion. This motion increases loft. Pick up a club and have a good look at it through impact in slow motion.

Since the thread has made somewhat of a resurgence, are there any techniques for keeping the shoulders square while using the driver? I’m finding mine are very open. Not that I’m complaining or anything, cos I hitting longer and straighter at the moment, but would be nice to get square on once in a while :)

I tend to look over my left shoulder at set up (so my left shoulder is high and my right is low). This helps to keep them from opening too far at impact. opposite for lefty.

Since the thread has made somewhat of a resurgence, are there any techniques for keeping the shoulders square while using the driver? I’m finding mine are very open. Not that I’m complaining or anything, cos I hitting longer and straighter at the moment, but would be nice to get square on once in a while :)

Work is for people who don’t know how to play GOLF.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Just rotate your set up position until your shoulders are square – simple as that.

Forget where your feet point and all that rot as your club/swing plane is allied to your non-target side shoulder: it is on plane and you are on your feet.

Lift your right shoulder up and lower your left (as a lefthander) and you will find it easier to square them.

Since the thread has made somewhat of a resurgence, are there any techniques for keeping the shoulders square while using the driver? I’m finding mine are very open. Not that I’m complaining or anything, cos I hitting longer and straighter at the moment, but would be nice to get square on once in a while :)

Work is for people who don’t know how to play GOLF.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Just rotate your set up position until your shoulders are square – simple as that.

Forget where your feet point and all that rot as your club/swing plane is allied to your non-target side shoulder: it is on plane and you are on your feet.

Does that mean that having really open shoulders could lead to pretty drastic pulls which go dead straight but way out right? Done a few of them lately… not the prettiest thing.

Mr C,

Yup!

It is, IMHO, the most common cause of the long, straight shot that dies left for you cack-handers and right for us regular guys.

You, the lefty, are aiming the club face straight, at the target but swinging to your right: in the process you put a little cut spin on the ball as your contact with it is a little on the out side of in – the opposite of what it should be.

The same swing with squared or slightly closed shoulders will engineer a straight, or drawing, ball flight as contact should then be more in to out.

Yeap, squared shoulders won the day! Medal day that is, had a good alround day but i had 5 putts lip out.. when physics would tell you they should drop and a stroke penalty for an unplayable.. All this leads to me playing good enough golf for single figures :)

The best advice I can give you for developing a really good allround game is let your driver go on holidays! The rest of your game kicks into overdrive and when it comes good again you are laughin.

Thanks for the help all.