PERFECTSTROKE™ - GOLF INSTRUCTION

Written by Mark Officer
Australian PGA Member

TRAINING PROGRAM

1. The Grip
2. Alignment
3. Set Up
4. Power Sources
5. The Full Swing
6. Shaping Shots
7. Ball Flight Laws
8. Putting
9. Chipping
10. Pitching
11. Bunker Shots
12. Video Analysis
13. Analysis & Performance
14. SAM PuttLab

Section 6 - Shaping Shots

CLUBFACE
ASSISTANT™


Training System

SAM PuttLab


Swing Analysis

There are many ways of hitting intentional draws and fades and often we unintentionally make a mistake in our swing or in our set up, which can produce curves on golf shots.  What you want to be able to do is make a small adjustment in your setup, alignment or feel in your swing to help make the ball curve the way you want it to.  Sometimes you need to do a combination of things to get the ball to curve, particularly if it’s the opposite way to which you normally hit your shots.  You could make an adjustment in your grip, or the way your body turns or the way your wrist cock works during your swing but you should consider these other concepts first:

1. Clubface Alignment

2. Arm Rotation or Release

3. Ball Position

4. Swing Path

5. Body and Arm Swing Synch

CLUBFACE ALIGNMENT
The first and most popular way to intentionally curve the ball is to alter the orientation of the clubface at address. The club face is actually aimed, if you wanted to hit a draw shot or a hook shot, to the left of the swing path or for a fade shot, the club face is aimed to the right or open in relation to the swing path. So normally the stance alignment for a draw shot would be slightly to the right. The clubface would actually aim at the target and vice versa for a fade shot. 

The swing path is along the bodyline, which is aligned to the right. For a draw, the club face will return back to the same place it was at address, which is actually aligned left in relation to the path and this produces a right to left spin and vice versa for a fade.

There is no need to change anything else in the swing. The club is still swung along the bodyline and there is no intention to swing inside out or from outside in on the down swing.

ARM ROTATION OR RELEASE
The second method of hitting intentional curves is to either exaggerate the rotation of the arms in the down swing to produce a draw shot or to hold off the rotation of the arms on the down and through swing to hit a fade shot.  In this case the clubface is square at address and there is a feel of more rotation or less rotation as the club swings through the hitting area. 

The swing path and clubface control is the same in the back swing and the down swing but there’s a feeling of more or less release or rotation of the arms in the follow through. In a normal half way through position the butt end of the shaft will point towards the target line in front of the left foot. In a hold off follow through position, the feeling will be that the butt end of the shaft will be pointing a little more vertically or a little more upright in the follow through and for an intentional draw shot, the butt end of the shaft would be angled closer to horizontal or more outside the target line. Alignment wise you would aim slightly to the right when attempting to hit a draw shot and to the left when hitting a fade shot.

BALL POSITION
A change in ball position is another method of producing different shape shots. Without changing the swing , or the club face control at all you can move the ball around in your stance, forward or back to help shape shots. In playing an intentional draw shot you would move the ball back in your stance, keep the club face square to the target, make a normal swing and the club face should return back to the ball slightly left in relation to the swing path. This will produce a shot that starts a little bit to the right and will draw back to the left towards the target.  It will also produce a lower trajectory shot, so if you do the opposite and move the ball forward in the stance, leave the club face at right angles to the target, try and swing along the body line, the club face will actually return back to the ball, slightly open in relation to the swing path and this will produce a left to right shot. The club is bottoming out later in the swing, so this will mean it will be a lot easier to hit a higher trajectory shot.

Very often mistakes in positioning the ball in the correct spot in the stance will produce a ball flight that is not desired so it is important to know where to correctly position the ball when playing your normal shots. A ball position that is back in the stance will also tend to preset the shoulders closed at address, which can make it easier to swing the club back on the inside on the back swing and from inside out on the down swing. A ball position that is forward in the stance will tend to preset the shoulders open at address, which will tend to produce an outside backswing path and a from outside and across down swing path. The alignment when altering the ball position can remain parallel to the target line as the ball will normally start off either slightly to the left or right anyway. Often a combination of the first three suggested methods is required to get the desired shape of shot.

SWING PATH
Another way of hitting intentional shaped shots is to have the club swing either in an inside to out manner on the downswing relative to the true target line or an outside in path. The stance alignment should be parallel to the target line so that on the down swing the path of the club is swinging from behind the body and inside out away from the body, the club face returns to the ball aligned towards the target, there will be a right left spin applied to the ball. With an inside out swing path the danger is that the ball can start out too far to the right. If the clubface is not closed or closing relative to the path then the result will be a pushed shot. If the clubface is open in relation to the swing path the shot would be a push slice. If the clubface is closed too much the ball will start to the right and hook to the left.  Slightly inside out with a slightly closed or closing clubface would be very effective.

For a fade or slice shot, the swing path coming from the outside or in front of the body on the down swing and going across will produce a left to right shot with the club face returning to the ball open in relation to the path. This is often referred to as a cut shot and it too can be an effective shot providing the clubface is open in relation to the swing path. With the clubface square to the path the result will be a pull shot. Even worse would be a clubface that is closed with a swing path that is from outside to in. That would result in a pull hook shot.    

Changing the swing path is not normally recommended, unless you are required to hit a large hook or a large slice and then perhaps the other set up changes or feel changes can be used in conjunction. For example a closed clubface, feeling of release, ball position back and inside out swing path, will mean that the ball can start out to the right and draw back to the left. 

Or an open clubface, hold off release, ball position forward and an outside to in swing path will make the ball start to the left and curve around to the right. Sometimes feeling like you are swinging inside out can help in getting the club to swing more along the desired target line or vice versa. Remember, there are only three possible swing paths for the club to travel on in the down swing:

• Inside out;

• Outside in; or

• Along the target line.

With an inside out down swing, the clubface needs to be closed in relation to the path.  In other words, extra rotation of the club face is needed or with an outside in swing path on the down swing the club face needs to be open or held off in the release and along the target line or “inside - inside” swing path is going to require a normal release.

BODY AND ARM SYNCH
The last method of shaping shots is in the timing of the arm swing and the body turn.  On the down swing, if the body turn’s faster than the arms are swinging down, the club face is normally going to be left open and the ball will curve left to right. If the arms swing down faster than the body’s turning the clubface is going to return to the ball closed and the ball will spin from right to left.         

Normally when the body turns first in the down swing, the club will also be thrown from the outside and when the arms start down first the club will stay inside or even drop further inside. 

To hit an intention fade with this style you would want to feel like on the down swing that your hips are out of the way quickly and that they are open at contact.

To hit a draw shot the feeling on the down swing is that the arms are going to drop down first and that the body is going to be turning slower.

In the model swing, the arm swing and the body turn will be working together so that is what we are trying to achieve. The arms should pretty much feel like they are always out in front of your body. 

Very often unintentional curve shots are hit because of the mistiming of the arms and body - the swing gets too fast. Most of the time if there is a problem in the swing you may need to feel like you are doing one of these things – get the arms down faster to stop from hitting fades or turn the body out of the way earlier to stop from hitting draws but usually you just want these two areas to be in perfect synch.

There are many other styles and methods of hitting intentional draws and fades, but it is recommended that you use these five listed preferences and in particular the first three styles to help promote consistency in your shot making.