D-plane Draw

[andrewwrx]

I need a little assistance / reassurance.

My standard shot is a draw, flightscope numbers are 3-4 degrees in to out, club face square-1 degree open, and a -3 AOA resulting in unsurprisingly a ball that has never seen the right side of a pin.

Now my question is, I am attempting to address the ball with the club face more open, with varying degrees of success but my question is, or rather my observation is, that the club feels odd in my hands when its noticeably more open, the weight seems to feel as if it is in the wrong place from the club head. If its closed / square it feels quite natural, when I open it, it feels quite different. Is that a normal sensation and result of changing the club face angle at address?

It clearly works, but it both looks and feels different and I wonder if this is something everyone notices when the lessons from launch monitors are put in to play in changing how they address the ball.

 

[wulsy]

Have you been hitting the occasional shank?

The reason I ask, is that I tried the same thing and had the same feeling you describe. I came to the conclusion that there is NO WAY that the club should feel like that, so I stopped doing it. I'm still struggling to fade it admittedly.

 

[andrewwrx]

Have you been hitting the occasional shank?

The reason I ask, is that I tried the same thing and had the same feeling you describe. I came to the conclusion that there is NO WAY that the club should feel like that, so I stopped doing it. I'm still struggling to fade it admittedly.

I think that the club will have to feel a little differently, if only because if the club is square the weight will be in front of you, if its slightly closed you'd feel the weight of the club head twisting in or forwards and equally if its open the weight would feel like it was twisting the other way.

I can not find anyway of gripping the club and having the face open without it feeling very differently to how the face feels when square or slightly closed.

 

[Kevin Shields]

To a good player moving the sweetspot even a degree in the hands makes a world of difference in feel so its not unusual.

 

[Todd Dugan]

I think that the club will have to feel a little differently, if only because if the club is square the weight will be in front of you, if its slightly closed you'd feel the weight of the club head twisting in or forwards and equally if its open the weight would feel like it was twisting the other way.

I can not find anyway of gripping the club and having the face open without it feeling very differently to how the face feels when square or slightly closed.

Curious, do you ever open the clubface at address for bunker/flop shots?

 

[mgranato]

Isn't this what you are after, though? You want to change the face from what is "normal" to you, so the foreign feeling should be looked at possitively, right? I've experienced the same thing, but took it as a good sign that I could at least feel the difference. I would have been more worried if I couldn't have.

How long have you been trying on your new face, and does it feel less odd than when you started?

 

[ekennedy]

Isn't this what you are after, though? You want to change the face from what is "normal" to you, so the foreign feeling should be looked at possitively, right? I've experienced the same thing, but took it as a good sign that I could at least feel the difference. I would have been more worried if I couldn't have.

How long have you been trying on your new face, and does it feel less odd than when you started?

"Howard Johnson is right!"

Feel is only an indicator of where you've been. You have to change the feel to get the desired ball flight. Try opening the clubface significantly and then take your grip. Hold it out in front of you and waggle it a few times. Don't sole the club when you hit your shots and let your body react to the new ball flight.

Be an athlete.

 

[andrewwrx]

"Howard Johnson is right!"

Feel is only an indicator of where you've been. You have to change the feel to get the desired ball flight. Try opening the clubface significantly and then take your grip. Hold it out in front of you and waggle it a few times. Don't sole the club when you hit your shots and let your body react to the new ball flight.

Be an athlete.

To answer a couple of questions. I do open the face with wedges but the feel from opening the face with a wedge as opposed to opening it with a hybid, mid or long iron is very different and I suspect this is very much to do with the distribution of the weight in the head, when the vast majority of it is low, as in a wedge, how it is orientated is not going feel enormously differently where as where more is higher it will.

It still feels odd, however, there are a couple of tips here, including not grounding the club which are worth having a crack at. The results do speak for themselves, both on the course and range but it is an unfamiliar sensation but understanding it, and then being able to use it are well worth the discomfort and learning curve.

I will press on.