I have written in articles and answered questions many times how to work the ball. The Junior Golf Camp instruction series has a complete and detailed section and video on working the ball where I even do a show and tell. Since it is important to Mike, as we will see in his question, and it is important to playing well, let's look at working the ball as Mike asks.
Mike says:
Will you eventually have any tips for working the ball? I like your swing theory but I have yet to see anything on working the ball.
The Surge says:
Working the ball is the term for intentionally curving the ball the way you want to or need to at will. That is hitting a cut to a fade to a slice or a soft draw to a big draw to a hook. Working the ball also includes hitting knockdowns to lower than normal shots to intentionally higher than normal shots. In this article I will concentrate on curving the ball right and left.
The first thing that is really necessary to curving the ball successfully is first and foremost, having control of your swing and being able to hit the ball straight. Knowing how to hit it straight makes curving the ball at will easier. When DJ was little, I taught him only how to hit the ball straight. Playing with me and other Tour pros I taught, he saw us intentionally curve the ball, but I had never taught that to him. One day, when he was around 8 years old, I was giving a lesson and DJ was hitting balls near us. He turned to me and asked me to watch him hit a few shots. He said here is a draw and proceeded to hit the most perfect soft draw. Then he hit a perfect cut and then a fade to slice.
The point is I never taught him anything except hitting it straight. Knowing straight, he was able to figure out how to make the ball curve. The key is actually to know and understand the ball flight laws of ball contact on the clubface relative to the aiming line. That is where we must start. Understanding how to hit it straight is the necessary starting knowledge needed to be able to curve your ball at will. Adding curve starts with setup adjustments of your body and clubface. The PPGS Mantra is ,'The Setup Determines the Motion.' That not only applies to straight shots but also to working your ball to hit intentional curves.
The physics to hit a golf ball solid and straight starts with the concept of impact I call being ON ' ON and ON. That is defined as the club must approach the ball ON the aiming line, strike or contact the ball while ON the aiming line and be SQUARE to the line at impact, and leave ON the aiming line accelerating. This ON principle sounds like a lot of ON the aiming line. It is, in fac,t very little ON the line with the club square. In his book, 'The Search for the Perfect Swing,' Dr. Alastair Cochran stated that the ball at impact was on the clubface .0005 seconds. That is 1/2 half of 1 thousandths of a second. In terms of club head length traveling on the aiming line during contact, the ball is on the clubface around ½ to a max of 1 inch of movement. In terms of hitting an iron, this time frame of contact is that when impact occurs, by the time the leading edge of the iron contacts the ground, the ball is already off the face. This is why in the PPGS I stress swing up and stand up AFAP after impact.
Now, when wanting to work the ball, that is add controlled curve to its flight, there are basically two flights we are talking about. The first is what I call shape the shot which is curving the ball a little. For the most part these balls start on the aiming line and curve right or left from there. You only want to cut it or hit a soft or little fade, which for a right handed player is curving from the aiming line to the right. For the right hander, a soft draw is a small curve from the aiming line to the left. A bigger curve right to left for a right hander is called either power fade to a slice. Power fades are more controlled as compared to a slice which tends to be out of control and going where it wants to, not where it was planned to go. A power draw curving to the left is more controlled as compared to a hook and especially a duck hook, or some times called a 'snap a doozie.'
The second intentional shaping of the ball is the need to have a big fade to slice or a big draw to hook. This is when you need to turn the ball a lot to get around a tree or other obstacle in your line of flight to the hole. If straight won't work, and going under the branches or over the tree or building won't work, and you don't want to chip back into play, then you have one alternative left. If you do have the room to swing freely and completely, and going around the tree or building works, then it is time for the big slice or hook.
The big slice or hook needing a big curve must have setup and alignment adjustments to successfully execute these shots. Your aiming line is now pointing as far right or left as you intend and need to start the ball to clear the obstacle in your way. You then line up parallel to your aiming line. Next, for a slice, open your clubface, pointing it square to the target where you want the ball to finish. For a hook, you close your club face pointing it at your target.
One last setup adjustment needs to be made in assuming your posture. For the slice you must stand a little closer to the ball than normal and for the hook you stand a little farther away. The reason for the slight distance setup change from the ball is based on the physiology of the rotation of your arms in the shoulder socket.
Standing closer to the ball causes the rotation of the arms into the mitt, to turn more shut or closed to open creating more left to right spin on the ball causing a slice. Standing farther from the ball causes the arms to rotate into the mitt more open to closed which will close the clubface at impact and impart more right to left spin on the ball and thus the hook.
Naturally, each of us needs to practice to learn how much curve is produced based on how much closer or farther you stand to the ball.
You can stand too close and too far and you will know that as you will not be able to hit the ball fairly solid and start it on your aiming line. The toe of the club for the slice will bounce off or dig into the ground and open too much and you can hit a thin blade to almost a shank. For the hook, the heel will dig into the ground and tumble the toe over the ball and you will hit what is called a smothered or duck hook or the snap a doozie.
We have covered the physics and ball flight laws of impact and the setup fundamental adjustments needed to hit a shot with a little to a lot of intentional curve. In my next article we will cover the actual swing motion needed to successfully execute working the ball.
Note to Inner Circle members: Yes (as several of you have discovered, you can get a custom driver just like The Surge uses AND you can find out about the golf school I'm putting together in March. Check out the Inner Circle discussions.
The Surge!