Principles
Take it easy Bob- must be snow on the ground in Oklahoma and the courses are closed- get that plane ticket to San Diego!
Damn.......Are you guys seriously talking dimples here. If I could hit the same friggin dimple every time I'd be playin GOD and givin him 2 strokes a side !!!
The specific example is just to elaborate the principle.
What's happening:
The loft on the club is what essentially determines where the clubface will contact the ball- in relation to the equator - i.e. above it, at it or below it, and that's the primary focus of this post. If you are standing on the side of the ball where our numbers are - right handed golfer- then 3D is going to be dead center back of the ball. Let say just theoretically that the 7 iron clubface will contact the ball 1 dimple on the inside aft quadrant and not at the equator- but below the equator- then that would be 4C. So from a third party observer position- i.e. video camera, etc. we would note that the contact point was below the equator causing backspin etc. - straight shot - you get the picture. A more lofted club - sand wedge- would create a contact point that was even lower on the ball - say row 4 1/2 C.
What you try to do or what you are aware of:
What you try to do or what you are sensing is something completely different than what is happening. You don't sense loft- can't really feel it. You sense the sweetspot or the clubhead weight- but you don't sense loft. Therefore what you TRY to do or what you are AWARE of - in regards to a contact dimple point on the ball is much different than the actual contact point. If you flip the golf club around and grip the shaft near the clubhead- and have the grip end near the ball- as if you are going to hit it with the grip end - and you are hitting the ball on the downswing- then the force and your effort and sensation of it, will be that you are hitting dimple 2C- i.e. above the equator is the point that you want to try to hit.
Hitting down on the ball automatically requires that you TRY (or are aware of i.e. sense) to make contact above the equator-while at the same time with the loft on the clubface it ACTUALLY contacts below the equator.
The shorter the radius (clubshaft length) the more the force is downward (compared to a longer club like a Driver) and your awareness of it is more downward. Therefore you'd be trying to hit dimple C on row 1 1/2 for a short clubshaft length, compared to 2C for a less lofted 7 iron. The sand wedge is a great club that shows off the greatest difference in this principle between actual contact point and perceived contact point - the short shaft creates a shorter radius, and if you have a super delayed release- then the clubhead is rotating around an even shorther radius and the "effective/perceived" contact point will be well above the equator, while at the same time because of the large amount of loft on the sand wedge your ACTUAL contact point is well below the equator.
The zero handicap will "try" to hit a dimple above the equator. The 30 handicapper will "try" to hit below the equator - where the clubface is actually going to contact the ball.
So here are my general guesses:
1) Tank's handicap is less than 10
2) Everyone that picked "at or below the equator" i.e. rows 3&4, wasn't catching the difference between "try" and "actual"
3) or they have a handicap above 10.
4) If all Cavemen said "Let's keep it simple"- you'd still be living in a cave.
5) Auburn010 agrees with me that where you "TRY" to hit the ball and where you "ACTUALLY" hit the ball are two entirely different things.
