Quote:
Originally Posted by Ortho
I am working on fixing my beginner over-the-top move. I understand the ball flight laws fairly well.
My slice cures have resulted in big hooks that start left and finish way way left. As I understand, the only thing I can conclude from this is that my path is to the right of my clubface at impact---i.e., I could still be out-to-in but hitting a hook because my clubface is way shut. I can also conclude that my path must be to the right of where the face is aimed, else I'd hit a straight pull.
I'm frustrated that I can hit a big hook and not be able to conclude that my path is in-to-out, but my question is: Is it possible to hit a ball that starts right of the target line and draws/hooks left with a path that is out-to-in? This is impossible, right? If the ball starts right of the target and ends up left of the target, the path must be in-to-out relative to the face and since the face is pointing right of the target, the path must be in-to-out relative to the target.
Is this correct? I've heard people talking about a vertical dimension and don't understand whether that can make this not true.
the bolded is actually possible. If you check out the videos above, the one from the trackman blog is really good. The big factor is how much you hit down on the golf ball.
Tour pros hit down hard on all of their irons. And almost all tour pros have a swing path(trackman calls this horizontal swing path) that goes to the left of the target with their irons. So if tour pros hit the ball at the bottom of their swing arc the ball would go left. But since they hit down on the ball, thus making contact before the bottom of their arc the club at impact is actually pointing right down the target line.
The way to hit the impossible shot is to have a horizontal swing plane that goes to the left. If you were to look at it on video there would be no doubt in your mind that the guy is coming over the top of it and going to hit a cut shot. But maybe he hits down on the ball really hard, so he is impacting the ball well behind the bottom of his arc. This can actually lead to a club path(trackman measures this as the motion of the club head at impact) being slightly from the inside due to the curvature of our swing arcs. And if the club is slightly open to the target the result will be a ball that starts slightly right and draws back.
As for your swing, seems that you have some good work on your path. You are right that you could still be outside in even tho you are hitting hooks. You could have a club face that is 5* closed at impact, and a club path that is outside-in 3* which would still result in a hook even tho it is out to in. Maybe the best thing you can do is to work on your face angle at impact. Get the ball starting at your target, and then you can see what your club path is doing and start working more on that.