Check Your Face!
No, its not... I mean... you don't have left over mustard on your mouth from that hot dog you had at the turn. I'm talking about your other face... the club face! With the advancements in technology we are able to measure all kinds of things that we used to "think" we knew. Advancements in technology, such as Trackman and Flightscope, have allowed us to analyze things with definitive measurements. Now, we don't think we know, we can "know" we know!
The ability to measure path of the club and the angle of the face at impact have given us a better understanding of what is making the ball DO what the ball DOES. The old addage was that the path dictated the starting direction (left or right) and the face dictated the curve(draw or fade). Though this is true to an extent, there are some situations where we used to "think" that we now "know" is incorrect. Lets talk about one exception.
(Let's take a right handed golfer): "Banana Slicer Guy"
Typically our Fruit Ninja is usually aimed over the trees, left of the fairway, in hopes of catching a piece of short grass on the right side(Sound familiar?! Then pay ATTENTION!). Today we have him, taking dead aim down the center of the fairway for our learning enjoyment. We are also assuming he has unlimited ammo, as there is water right....
Anyway, Banana Man takes a swing. He has his club face pointed right at impact, we're talking way right, wide open to be percise.... His swing path is a typical over the top move (out-to-in) like a majority of amateur players. Especially ones that played a little slow pitch softball, at a moderately high level (Back to Back City League Champs!). We can predict, with a very high level of certainty, that we will need a canoe and perhaps scuba gear if we want to see that ball ever again! We can also predict that this ball started to the right and ended farther right, into the drink. You might be saying "Started to the right?! But I thought his path was to the left??" Oh, well you are doing a bang up job Watson, but here is why that information doesn't matter: The face carries much more weight than the path in considering what direction the ball starts and where it ends up! So check that face. If its open, quit donating to the guy below and check that grip! If you're confused and you're wondering what went wrong between the grand slam in the city league Championship game and currently not being able to sniff a Green in Regulation on a long Par 4, GO SEE A PGA PROFESSIONAL!
