Once again, the issue of “hitting up” with the driver has resurfaced. We’ve debated the issue here on several occasions. Now, Golf Magazine has reaffirmed its own previous research in the February 2009 issue with a TrackMan launch monitor to show once and for all that, with the driver, striking the ball with an ascending blow will result in more distance. I want to make sure we’re on the same page when we talk about angle of attack. Remember that the swing is an arc. From the top, the club head moves down the arc and then gets to the lowest point, and then starts going back up the other side of the arc. In the simplest terms, if you hit the ball before the club head hits its lowest point, you have a negative angle of attack and are making a descending blow. If you hit the ball after that point, you have a positive angle of attack and are making an ascending blow. If you hit the ball right at the low point,
Dreaded Shots: Tee Shots on Tight Driving Holes
I’ve been eagerly watching the poll that I currently have going in the sidebar asking you what your most dreaded golf shots are. It’s early, but as results have been trickling in, many of you have voted that your most dreaded are tee shots on tight driving holes. We’ve all been there. You stand on the tee and the hole you’re faced with looks about ten yards wide. There is trouble on both sides. Maybe it’s water, woods, out of bounds, or some combination of the three. There are deep fairway bunkers and the green looks so far away. You stand over the ball and all that trouble is swirling around in your mind. You’re thinking about penalty shots, water splashing, double- and triple-bogeys. It’s not a pretty picture. The most important thing to do on a tight driving hole is to get on the short grass. You need to eliminate the trouble to give yourself a chance to score well on the hole. Let’s see if we can get you on the right track.
Shortening Your Driver for Added Control
Recently, I found myself reading Tom Wishon’s book, “The Right Sticks“, where he topples a mountain of long-standing golf equipment myths. It’s a great book that I’ll be reviewing shortly, but one of the myths stuck out to me. Wishon tackled the myth about longer drivers producing more distance. Myth #18 (out of 37!) is: “The longer the length of a club, the farther you’ll hit the ball.“ That’s right, it’s a myth. Well, to be fair, it’s a partial myth. It’s true that physics dictate that a longer shaft can allow the club head be swung faster, but Wishon holds that only a small number of players possess the right combination of swing fundamentals and athleticism to do it. The rest of us suffer with lessened control and diminished contact. He also pointed out a stunning fact. While we’re buying 45 and 46 inch drivers off the rack, the average driver length on the PGA Tour from 2005-2007, according to Wishon, was 44.5 inches. Remember that small number of players able to hit longer
More About Hitting Up with the Driver
I was interested to read an article at the Grouchy Golf Blog this week about the topic of hitting drives with an ascending blow. Golf Grouch dug up an article from the January 2008 issue of Golf Magazine that shows, via scientific launch monitor testing, that a ball struck with an ascending blow will carry several yards further than a drive struck with a level blow and even further than a drive struck with a downward blow. This holds true for club head speeds ranging from 75 mph to 120 mph. I have no idea how I missed the article in Golf Magazine early this year. Hop over to the Grouchy Golf Blog and check it out. I must confess that I still need to read Bobby Clampett’s book where he covers hitting drives with a descending blow. However, since I covered this topic originally, I have yet to see any of the “hit down” advocates present any scientific evidence that shows that hitting drives with a descending blow will result in more distance. However
Do You Break Enough Tees?
That was the question I asked myself on Sunday when I managed to get out for 9 holes. My own answer was “no”. I guess I should really revise that question. If you don’t break tees, do you at least knock them over or out of the ground? One of the nuggets of wisdom that Harvey Penick shared in his Little Red Book was “clip the tee“. I’ve mentioned that one before and it’s one of my own swing thoughts. After you tee off, whether with a driver or with an iron, the state that your tee is in should tell you something about the shot that you just made. With modern drivers, the sweet spot is fairly high on what is nowadays a very tall club face. It’s not possible to strike a ball in the sweet spot and leave the tee undisturbed. If the tee is firmly in the ground, then you have a good shot of breaking it off. If the ground is soft, or you don’t have a high club head
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