Know your driver face angle to ensure optimum driving performance!

by stevendepolo under CC BY  with WPSEOPix

 

 

As we have discussed before, driver face angle is a very important driving fitting and driving optimization variable.  And yet many do not know what the face angle of their driver is – and they adjust their driving setup to account for what they do not know.  Here are three recent instances that seemed to come together yesterday that you might find interesting….

1.  Boo Weekley won the PGA Tour event yesterday.  He put on a clinic of hitting the ball where he wanted it to go with his woods and irons.  His driver has 10 degrees of loft, and it is 2 degrees open.  Someone like Boo is working to take the big hook and left side of the golf course out of play.  So he and  many other Tour pros will play a driver with some open face angle.

2.  Recently I had a golfer ask me to work with him to find a new shaft for his new OEM (name unmentioned) driver.  He said he was hitting a lot of shots to the right, and the shaft just did not feel right to him.  Before working with him on my Flightscope to find a good shaft candidate, I did the specs on his driver.  The driver says 9.5 degrees of loft, it measured 12.  And it had a 4 degree open face angle.  This golfer, however, expected that the driver face angle would be near to square – so at address he moved his hands back to make the face look square.  Once he knew the face angle was open, he set up with his hands in a more normal position and hit a series of great shots.  The issue was not the shaft, it was the head.  He is working to adjust the driver to get the face angle of this club as close to square as possible.

I found out later, for this particular brand of club, that the face angles are typically open and more open.  The club is designed for strong players.  Too bad for golfers who have lower swing speeds and cannot easily get the face to square at impact.

3.  Yesterday I played with a friend who I know in the past typically hit slices with his driver.  However, he has a new OEM driver that he was hitting with a beautiful little draw.  I looked at the face – a few degrees closed.  I am sure this is helping him to hit that beautiful little draw!

These stories hopefully show you that driver face angle can have a big effect on YOUR driving performance.  If you want to know what the loft and lie of your driver is get in touch with me and I would be happy to measure these for you.

The Fit Is IT!!

Tony