Yesterday evening I went to my local golf club around 7:30 PM to get in some putting practice before darkness set in. The putting green is usually pretty clear, the sun is setting and the temperature is cooler. All this adds up to a great time to work on my putting stroke in peace and quiet, and in the great ambiance of the shadows of evening.
I had just finished doing my putting test of '30 in a row or I don't go.' (I must make 30 putts in a row to finish the test. Miss any one even #30 and it is back to zero and starting over.) A member came over and politely asked if he could interrupt my practice to ask a question about one of his clubs. I said yes and the Q & A session began.
He stated that he always pulls only his 3 wood, dead left, around 10 to 15 yards. He pointed to the 18th hole (which is 20 yards behind the putting green) and said that if he were down in the fairway on the other side of the pond and hit his 3 wood, it bounce on or land left of the mound and bunker on the left side of the green. He said that he just about always hits it solid and they are always just straight 15 to 20 yard plus pull shots.
His first concern was that the problem was the shaft, as it is a super light one at 50 grams, compared to his other woods that had 65 and 75 gram shafts. I felt that a lighter shaft would likely not cause that problem unless it was too weak a shaft. Also, if that was the problem, his shots would not be hit so solid and straight but would have a lot of toe impacts and a lot more curve with low pulls and duck hooks.
My next suggestion was that maybe the 3 wood head was the problem. I asked if he had the club with him so I could check out the face angle to see if it was shut. Shut is a term that means the face is angled a lot more inward from the toe to the heel. A shut club face, even with a square grip and setup, is pointing left of the target line and will cause pulls and hooks. (Note: clubfaces on woods are made shut to help slicers cut down the slice and maybe even hit it straight. The problem is a straight hitter can't take this sort of aid out of the club, like we can't take the stripes off a tiger, and when a good swing is made, the hook face will hit the ball straight left and/or hook it left.) He came right out and said that he knew it was 1 degree shut, and I concluded that if that was correct that should not cause that much pull to the left. Unless'¦if he club was too upright and the toe was up off the ground.
An upright, toe up club hits low power pulls. That is a solid shot pulls left because the heel of the club, instead the center of a flat soled club, hits the ground and the drag of the heel slows down the heel and the toe passes it closing the face. Because the club face is rotating around the hosel, past square to shut, the club face is de-lofting, and pointing left, so a low pull shot is hit.
Club manufacturers like to build this anti-slice mechanism (as I call it) of shut clubfaces up to 4 or more degrees closed, and upright lie angle woods as much as 4 or more degrees upright (where the club is soled at the heel and the toe is way up in the air) into woods to help slicers hit less slice and straighter shots. As I said above, if you hit the ball relatively straight, and especially if you hit a draw, you are doomed to hit pulls to duck hooks if you have any of these anti-slice hook face and upright lie angle woods in your bag. As a side note, offset iron heads are the anti-slice mechanism built into irons.
The solution to this problem is he has to get his 3-wood head bent flatter (if that is possible as many fairway woods have hosels too short to bend, or the metal won't bend) and if he can't, he has to get another one that is flatter and has a square clubface. I made a few suggestions of models that I know are usually built with regular specs that are not upright, and are usually square faced.
I have always felt that clubs should be built correctly, with no compensations for anti-slice or hook. That way, if you make a poor swing, you get a poor shot. And most importantly, if you make a good swing you get a good shot! No trickery and no gimmicks, you get from the swing what you deserve for the shot. Now, I will admit that if the manufactures want to make anti-bad shots clubs, I am good with that, just advertise it and ID the club with its anti-slice property, so if you need it you get it. If you don't need it and want straight, you can also know that you are buying a standard club that will reward your good swing with a straight shot.
Soon, I will talk about offset irons and how a scratch player changed sets from a blade to an offset model and now sees nothing but left of the pin.
The Surge!