Tiger's Driver and fairway woods are at least 2.75* open

[GeoffDickson]

There is some evidence out there in cyberspace that Tiger's Driver and fairway woods are at least 2.75* open...would that help us understand anything about his swing path (i.e. swinging left)?

 

[Bigwill]

It would make sense if you believe what Haney said about him absolutely fearing that left shot.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I play with an open driver too, i like to make sure i can swing a bit right without hooking it PLUS it helps deloft the club a bit and take some launch/spin off it.

 

[magicmarker]

Is there a standard that it is open to, it seems to vary quite a bit from one manufacturer to another.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Is there a standard that it is open to, it seems to vary quite a bit from one manufacturer to another.

They are getting better, if you look at a manufacturer's site they should list a tolerance for loft/lie, it's generally as much as 2* either way...shocking i know.

The above is why i switched last year to a titleist driver/hybrid. They tightened their quality control and have much more precise loft/lie angle and adjustments.

 

[jdswets]

A question for the instructors out there....how prevalent are 2-3+ degree open drivers among Tour players and Club pros? And do you guys prescribe them for your students and if so, to help with what problems? I assume the under planers. Thanks

 

[GeoffDickson]

I play with an open driver too, i like to make sure i can swing a bit right without hooking it PLUS it helps deloft the club a bit and take some launch/spin off it.

An open driver means the face points to first base (OK..not quite)...how does this deloft the club?.

 

[softconsult]

How does it de-loft the club? Take an open faced Driver and rotate it to square. Loft decreases.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

An open driver means the face points to first base (OK..not quite)...how does this deloft the club?.

Assuming you want to hit a straight shot and you have perfect #'s to do that with a square face club, if you introduce an open faced club the ball will go right as you state UNLESS you square it up for impact which will reduce the loft.

Conversely it's exactly the opposite with a closed face club, you'd have to open it and increase the loft to hit it just as straight.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

A question for the instructors out there....how prevalent are 2-3+ degree open drivers among Tour players and Club pros? And do you guys prescribe them for your students and if so, to help with what problems? I assume the under planers. Thanks

Generally there are more open clubs than square/closed face clubs but they are out there; for instance i thin Furyk places a driver that is 2-3* closed and i think Monty did at one point too. The most notable open face driver player was (is) vijay singh who had cleveland cast him 7-8* open clubface drivers because of how far he swung to the right.

I heard numerous stories on tour of people trying to hit is driver on the range and no one could make it go where they wanted it too, i think the only one that could was Parnevik but could be wrong about that.