Instruction
Impact location by handicap
I was teaching a PGA Tour professional the other day and while we were hitting drivers on the Trackman, I sprayed the face with Dr. Sholl’s Odor X in efforts to see the impact point on the club face. Just as I was doing this another student came into the learning center and asked me a question and while I was answering, the Tour pro continued to hit balls — around 10 or so until we could resume our work. Now that we could focus our efforts again, I wanted to reapply the spray to the face so that I could focus on his impact location.
As I walked over to wipe the face this is what I saw:
PGA Tour professional impact location (10 shots)
After 10-or-more shots, the impact location was VERY consistent and it led me to thinking… What did other handicap level impacts look like after just five shots?
30 Handicap
25 Handicap
20 Handicap
15 Handicap
10 Handicap
7 Handicap
5 Handicap
0 Handicap
So what does this all mean from an observation standpoint?
- The higher the handicap, the more random the impact location in general.
- Radical horizontal off-center impact locations invoke gear effect, making shot curvature prediction impossible.
- Extreme vertical off-center impact locations cause excessively high and excessively low spin rates, making driver distance vary dramatically.
- Higher-handicap players tend to have swing plane issues, causing impact to be too high toward the crown of the club, leading to a the pop-up.
- Mid-handicap players tend to have pivot issues that cause them to hit too much up on the ball, thus hitting shots that are topped, flat, or very low.
- As handicap levels go down, players tend to find the center of the face more often.
- As mid-handicap players move down to into the lower-teen handicap levels there tends to be a consistent impact location toward the toe or heel.
- At the single-digit handicap levels, centered impact isn’t that big of a problem and gear effect is very minimal.
- As the handicap lowers closer to zero, vertical impact location becomes increasingly important.
- Tour players can easily control their vertical impact location to launch the ball with more or less spin depending on what type of shot they desire.
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While there are many golfers who barely know where the practice (I don’t like calling it a “driving”) range is located, there are many who find it a place of adventure, discovery and fun. I’m in the latter group, which could be accented by the fact that I make my living in this industry. But then, I’ve always been a “ball beater,” since I was a kid, but now I approach my practice sessions with more purpose and excitement. There’s no question that practice is the key to improvement in anything, so today’s topic is on making practice as much fun as playing.
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the range, and always embrace the challenge of learning new ways to make a golf ball do what I would like it to do. So, today I’m sharing my “top 5” tips for making practice fun and productive.
- Have a mission/goal/objective. Whether it is a practice range session or practice time on the course, make sure you have a clearly defined objective…how else will you know how you’re doing? It might be to work on iron trajectory, or finding out why you’ve developed a push with your driver. Could be to learn how to hit a little softer lob shot or a knockdown pitch. But practice with a purpose …always.
- Don’t just “do”…observe. There are two elements of learning something new. The first is to figure out what it is you need to change. Then you work toward that solution. If your practice session is to address that push with the driver, hit a few shots to start out, and rather than try to fix it, make those first few your “lab rats”. Focus on what your swing is doing. Do you feel anything different? Check your alignment carefully, and your ball position. After each shot, step away and process what you think you felt during the swing.
- Make it real. To just rake ball after ball in front of you and pound away is marginally valuable at best. To make practice productive, step away from your hitting station after each shot, rake another ball to the hitting area, then approach the shot as if it was a real one on the course. Pick a target line from behind the ball, meticulously step into your set-up position, take your grip, process your one swing thought and hit it. Then evaluate how you did, based on the shot result and how it felt.
- Challenge yourself. One of my favorite on-course practice games is to spend a few minutes around each green after I’ve played the hole, tossing three balls into various positions in an area off the green. I don’t let myself go to the next tee until I put all three within three feet of the hole. If I don’t, I toss them to another area and do it again. You can do the same thing on the range. Define a challenge and a limited number of shots to achieve it.
- Don’t get in a groove. I was privileged enough to watch Harvey Penick give Tom Kite a golf lesson one day, and was struck by the fact that he would not let Tom hit more than five to six shots in a row with the same club. Tom would hit a few 5-irons, and Mr. Penick would say, “hit the 8”, then “hit the driver.” He changed it up so that Tom would not just find a groove. That paved the way for real learning, Mr. Penick told me.
My “bonus” tip addresses the difference between practicing on the course and keeping a real score. Don’t do both. A practice session is just that. On-course practice is hugely beneficial, and it’s best done by yourself, and at a casual pace. Playing three or four holes in an hour or so, taking time to hit real shots into and around the greens, will do more for your scoring skills than the same amount of range time.
So there you have my five practice tips. I’m sure I could come up with more, but then we always have more time, right?
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Anyone can be a better wedge player by doing these simple things
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Mind the gap
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As someone who has observed rank-and-file recreational golfers for most of my life – over 50 years of it, anyway – I have always been baffled by why so many mid- to high-handicap golfers throw away so many strokes in prime scoring range.
For this purpose, let’s define “prime scoring range” as the distance when you have something less than a full-swing wedge shot ahead of you. Depending on your strength profile, that could be as far as 70 to 80 yards or as close as 30 to 40 yards. But regardless of whether you are trying to break par or 100, your ability to get the ball on the green and close enough to the hole for a one-putt at least some of the time will likely be one of the biggest factors in determining your score for the day.
All too often, I observe golfers hit two or even three wedge shots from prime scoring range before they are on the green — and all too often I see short-range pitch shots leave the golfer with little to no chance of making the putt.
This makes no sense, as attaining a level of reasonable proficiency from short range is not a matter of strength profile at all. But it does take a commitment to learning how to make a repeating and reliable half-swing and doing that repeatedly and consistently absolutely requires you to learn the basic fundamentals of how the body has to move the club back and through the impact zone.
So, let’s get down to the basics to see if I can shed some light on these ultra-important scoring shots.
- Your grip has to be correct. For the club to move back and through correctly, your grip on the club simply must be fundamentally sound. The club is held primarily in the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. Period. The lower hand has to be “passive” to the upper hand, or the mini-swing will become a quick jab at the ball. For any shot, but particularly these short ones, that sound grip is essential for the club to move through impact properly and repeatedly.
- Your posture has to be correct. This means your body is open to the target, feet closer together than even a three-quarter swing, and the ball positioned slightly back of center.
- Your weight should be distributed about 70 percent on your lead foot and stay there through the mini-swing.
- Your hands should be “low” in that your lead arm is hanging naturally from your shoulder, not extended out toward the ball and not too close to the body to allow a smooth turn away and through. Gripping down on the club is helpful, as it gets you “closer to your work.
- This shot is hit with a good rotation of the body, not a “flip” or “jab” with the hands. Controlling these shots with your body core rotation and leading the swing with your body core and lead side will almost ensure proper contact. To hit crisp pitch shots, the hands have to lead the clubhead through impact.
- A great drill for this is to grip your wedge with an alignment rod next to the grip and extending up past your torso. With this in place, you simply have to rotate your body core through the shot, as the rod will hit your lead side and prevent you from flipping the clubhead at the ball. It doesn’t take but a few practice swings with this drill to give you an “ah ha” moment about how wedge shots are played.
- And finally, understand that YOU CANNOT HIT UP ON A GOLF BALL. The ball is sitting on the ground so the clubhead has to be moving down and through impact. I think one of the best ways to think of this is to remember this club is “a wedge.” So, your simple objective is to wedge the club between the ball and the ground. The loft of the wedge WILL make the ball go up, and the bounce of the sole of the wedge will prevent the club from digging.
So, why is mastering the simple pitch shot so important? Because my bet is that if you count up the strokes in your last round of golf, you’ll likely see that you left several shots out there by…
- Either hitting another wedge shot or chip after having one of these mid-range pitch shots, or
- You did not get the mid-range shot close enough to even have a chance at a makeable putt.
If you will spend even an hour on the range or course with that alignment rod and follow these tips, your scoring average will improve a ton, and getting better with these pitch shots will improve your overall ball striking as well.
More from the Wedge Guy
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 1
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 2
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It is just crazy how golfers are literally beside themselves when they are placed in a properly aligned set up! They feel they can’t swing or function! We take a dive into why this is and it has to do with how the eyes are set up in the human skull!
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Richard
Aug 24, 2014 at 7:24 am
I’m looking for this exact same data but for irons. Do you know if it exists? If not, can you do the same thing with a mid/high iron?
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Joseph
Apr 6, 2014 at 2:13 am
If I apply the Dr. Scholls with a Left to Right Stroke will it make my Slice disappear or make it worse?
Tom Stickney
Jun 25, 2014 at 11:40 pm
Dr scholl’s works better than impact tape which tends to skew the spin numbers and spin axis.
Mark in Louisville
Feb 20, 2014 at 9:16 pm
Finally a 70º day to try out the Dr. Scholls spray on the range. Thanks for the tip Tom. The stuff works like a charm providing me with accuracy feedback and is infinitely better than tape labels. Dr. Scholl’s better start making more of that spray because I think a lot more amateurs will be buying it up this season. Interestingly for me the majority of my impact locations are just to the toe side of center albeit not nearly as tight as the Tour Pro.
Tom Stickney
Feb 21, 2014 at 12:23 am
Thank the early TrackMan guys for the dr scholl’s idea…just following their lead.
Steve
Feb 16, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Tom, I have a big problem : shank wedges. I hit driver well, 8-9 fairway s, mid- and long irons good, but repeatedly hit 45* right off the hosel with wedges. My hc went from 10 to 13.4. Very frustrating to bomb a good drive, pull out wedge and blast a hoselrocket off into the bushes! At the range, I tried gate drill with 2 tees, blasted toe tee off 20 yds. Slow swing, no good. Lined up with ball at toe, tried to hit toe, got dead center. Don’t know what to try next. Please help.
tom stickney
Feb 17, 2014 at 11:06 am
Tough to guess without seeing you, but make sure you are not picking up your wedges and/or falling into your toes on the way down
Steve
Feb 19, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Tom, thanks. I think I was falling forward towards the ball on my downswing. I concentrated on keeping my weight over my arches, and tried to make the wedge swing much more upright. Last 2 rounds were almost shank free. I slowed down my swing all around, but kept a full shoulder turn, trying to ensure a smooth release hitting the ball in the center of the club. Making solid contact as long as I don’t rush myself. Much happier!
Sboss1
Feb 28, 2014 at 8:08 pm
The other main cause of shanks with the short clubs is the tendency to move your body too far forward on the downswing. This leads to the club running out of room and the hosel is all that is left to hit the ball. Stay behind the ball on all shots and that will go away.
Your likely moving forward on other clubs as well but because they are longer, you catch enough club to prevent a shank. What tips me off that this may be your issue is the short length of the club and the fact that you shank wedges only. Good luck…
Loz
Feb 16, 2014 at 2:53 am
I found my old steel shafted Maxfli Tour Ltd driver at my parents house over Christmas. Looking at the size of the face to these modern 460 heads some of these strikes might have been air shots or certainly off the end of the club head. I personally think my overall game has suffered since the introduction of these clubs with massive heads and overly long shafts. I used to be a pretty good ball striker (3 – 4 hcp 20 years ago) and would typically hit 10 – 12 fairways, 12 – 14 greens and shoot 72 – 75, par 71. I was never a good putter, always 34 – 36 putts per round. My long iron play was particularly good back in the time of wooden headed clubs when I could only hit a 3 iron 180 yds. These days that’s a 6 or 7 for some people and I really think my game has suffered as a result of using new technology. I’d be tempted to try my old War Bird steel driver or an older titleist, back when a Tiger used to hit it well and long, and see what the results are like.
Alex
Feb 11, 2014 at 5:12 pm
Great article!
Can you explain a little more about this: “Tour players can easily control their vertical impact location to launch the ball with more or less spin depending on what type of shot they desire”
Does hitting the ball higher on the face cause more spin and lower on the face cause less spin? Or it the inverse?
Thanks!
tom stickney
Feb 11, 2014 at 6:03 pm
The higher you hit the ball in the face the lower the ball will spin and the higher it will launch…
Denis
Feb 10, 2014 at 6:34 pm
Great article Mr. Stickney,
Wondering if you have you ever done or thought of something similar for irons?
Would be interested to see what other factors could also influence impact position on irons given the sole comes in contact with the ground and what effects ill-fitted lie angle could have as well as other factors.
Maybe that’s a project for another day.
tom stickney
Feb 10, 2014 at 7:27 pm
I have not, but it’s easy to do…grab a few buddies and get some dr sholl’s and hit balls off a dry golf mat…you’ll see some common trends for sure…especially when the irons are ill-fit
Christian
Feb 10, 2014 at 1:59 pm
The pro’s impact makes me sad and angry.
tom stickney
Feb 10, 2014 at 2:04 pm
I feel your pain…knocked my socks off as well!
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Keith
Feb 4, 2014 at 2:10 am
Fantastic article Mr.Stickney! Really opens my eyes to how good the pro’s really are..
Tom Stickney
Feb 8, 2014 at 12:34 am
Thank you!
Carter
Feb 4, 2014 at 12:11 am
Does Dr. Scholls work with putters too or is there something better for that?
Tom Stickney
Feb 8, 2014 at 12:34 am
Yes
Alex
Feb 2, 2014 at 11:12 pm
Bought a can this morning to take to the range. I may just figure out the driver problem after all..
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Justin
Jan 30, 2014 at 1:51 pm
I have to say I’m the 30 handicapper. The beginning of last year I was hitting the ball consistent. As the year progress, I danced in the mid 90’s then I finished the year in the 125’s and lost distance on everything, I was driving around 250 then I couldn’t reach 200. I live in the north east is any drills I could do to help with being more consistent. Thanks
Mikel
Jan 30, 2014 at 4:38 pm
I’m an 18hc, so, ya know….
But, I just got over this literally in the past couple days, “turned” out to be that I was fake-turning. I was rotating my shoulders just fine, but not my torso. The drill (there are diff variations) that cured me was to move my back foot so that my toe was in line with my front foot heel. Gave me a pre-turn in my torso and helped me get the feeling back during my normal swing.
I think my issue came from trying to make sure my shoulders made a complete turn and at some point I stopped turning my torso too.
Good luck!
Justin
Jan 30, 2014 at 6:09 pm
Thanks I’ll try that. It was horrible. just didn’t feel comfortable swinging the club anymore.
Tom Stickney
Jan 30, 2014 at 10:00 pm
If you have had that type of turnaround within your game I would suggest finding a teaching pro in your area ASAP. Too many things it could be without seeing you but if you’ve list that kind if distance you might want to see someone.
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Tyler
Jan 29, 2014 at 10:00 pm
What would be the one characteristic of the golf swing that you would attribute to consistently finding the center of the face? Great balance throughout the entire swing perhaps? High handicaps tend to have terrible balance which would explain the sporadic ball contact locations on the face. Would you speculate that if a high handicap were to swing in perfect balance on every shot regardless of swing path they would consistently hit the same spot on the face?
Tom Stickney
Jan 30, 2014 at 2:04 am
Balance is a huge part of impact location for sure…swing plane would be a close second
Double Mocha Man
Jan 29, 2014 at 11:12 am
I tried this out yesterday on the range. Works perfect. Only downside is that yellow can of footspray sitting next to the range mat that every other golfer seems to want to stare at. That, and the voice coming from my pocket that exclaims, “Golf Sense device is now connected!?
Never knew being on the range could be so embarrassing…
Tom Stickney
Jan 29, 2014 at 5:13 pm
That’s funny!
greg
Jan 29, 2014 at 10:48 am
Any suggestions on how to ‘tighten up’ your dispersion? Shorter shaft? Slow the swing down until you can consistently hit the middle and then add speed as you improve?
Tom Stickney
Jan 29, 2014 at 5:15 pm
100% correct.
Josh
Jan 28, 2014 at 5:28 pm
Since you said all the drivers are 44″ long, would you consider doing a similar test but with different length drivers. I would be interested to see how much impact is affected for the lower handicaps when the length is increased.
Tom Stickney
Jan 29, 2014 at 1:09 am
The shorter the driver the more control…for sure.
Josh
Jan 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm
I know shorter provides more control, but how much control is actually lost by going longer. Any time you add length to a club you will swing it faster, but at what point will adding length be comprised to loss off control. Is it .5″,1″, or something longer than that. Everyone just guesses how much control is lost and no one has ever really looked at what the actual amount is.
David Smith
Jan 28, 2014 at 1:22 pm
Problem here was that it was a TMaG golf club, not the player.
In all seriousness though, why is the tour pro hitting it lower on the face? It should be higher up on the face than that.
TJ
Jan 28, 2014 at 2:26 pm
yeah I was wondering the same thing, in that first pic the impact position was at the very bottom of the face, that seems strange
Tom Stickney
Jan 28, 2014 at 2:37 pm
Creates a shot that launches too low and spins too much.
Tom Stickney
Jan 28, 2014 at 2:36 pm
Yep. What he’s currently working on!
Double Mocha Man
Jan 29, 2014 at 11:05 am
Tell him to tee it up 1/4″ higher and use the same swing. That’ll be 100 bucks, thank you.
Harvey
Jan 28, 2014 at 5:09 pm
Shut up
Harvey
Jan 28, 2014 at 5:10 pm
Does it work with normal spray?
Lou Boezi
Jan 30, 2014 at 3:52 pm
I believe the lower marking on the Pro’s image is in fact his tee!
JCorona
Jan 28, 2014 at 9:34 am
at least my driver will smell good even when my game stinks that day
Tom Stickney
Jan 28, 2014 at 12:16 pm
And it won’t get athletes’ foot either
Alex
Jan 28, 2014 at 7:47 am
good story, mate. It seems my driver’s sweetspot is far from wearing.
Tom Stickney
Jan 28, 2014 at 8:58 am
Welcome to my world…sadly we are not alone.
paul
Jan 28, 2014 at 1:00 am
This article makes me feel like a freak. I’m a 20 handicap who hits the sweet spot like a 5. Hit 13/14 fairways today, shot 95 cause I hit some second shots into the drink on a tight water course. I use the marker.
Tom Stickney
Jan 28, 2014 at 8:59 am
We all have our strengths…fix that second shot and you will be a five!
Guruhe
Jan 27, 2014 at 7:23 pm
In this most recent tourney Tiger only landed on the fairway 4 times with his driver in 1 round. Do you think he was hitting the center of the club face every time but the face angle was off? Apparently hitting a centered shot doesn’t guarantee a straight shot.
Tom Stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 7:42 pm
All depends on his face to path relationship with a centered hit.
Q
Jan 27, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Is there anything I might already have around the house that I could spray onto my clubfaces?
Kelly
Jan 27, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Tom
With the recent article on shorter length drivers, did you happen to measure the club length of the players drivers?
Tom Stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 5:46 pm
All 44″
ParHunter
Jan 27, 2014 at 4:34 pm
For readers in the UK where you don’t get the Dr Sholl Odor X spray: I am using an athletes foot powder spray. Works just as well.
snow52
Jan 27, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Another good trick is to use a marker from a dry erase/white board (make sure it is a dry erase marker, not a permanent marker). You can color the face of your club, and when you make a swing, it will capture your impact position. When you are done, it just wipes off. Might be a little more convenient that carrying around a can of spray. No matter how you do it, this is a great way to improve your ball striking.
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Good call; tell your golf buddies to use a sharpie! Ha!
Duh
Jan 27, 2014 at 6:21 pm
NOT a Sharpie, doofus! With a Sharpie you’d need acetone. With a dry-erase, all you have to do is wipe.
gocanucksfan123
Jan 27, 2014 at 6:54 pm
It was a joke
Chris
Jan 27, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Golf Digest did a similar thing with putters and impact tape way back in the day – if anyone remembers it or has the article, would love to see it again!
For the best putters on tour, the spot was the size of a thumbtack.
Tom Stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Dave Pelz…in his book
Chris
Jan 28, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Yes that’s what it was! Thanks!
other paul
Dec 23, 2014 at 1:23 pm
I put some tape on a putter once and hit balls. I was shocked. As a 12 handicap I had 28 balls in a spot the size of a dime (better then i expected) and two that missed center by 1″ (oops). But it was great feedback.
roger
Jan 27, 2014 at 1:31 pm
Tom, re the last point, Tour Players can hit the ball on the face higher/lower
to add/lessen spin as desired.
Could you expand on this please!Much appreciated!
I use impact tape or marker pen on balls regularly and play shorter lengths to get Good Impact!
Mid hcper.
Chris
Jan 27, 2014 at 2:21 pm
This is a little counter intuitive but hitting higher on the face means ball hits above the COG which causes the face to “roll back” and the gearing effect of this is to reduce the backspin on the ball. Hitting lower does the opposite. This ignores the effect of bulge / roll. Watch the Trackman Maestro on youtube (look for gear effect) he does a better job explaining. All else equal, tee higher = lower backspin, tee lower = higher backspin. Once you understand gear effect you’ll see why.
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Yep…Joe is right on
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Because of the face design from top to bottom…impact should be higher in the face to give you higher launch with less spin. Most players hit it below the center-line of the club thus gaining extra spin.
jm
Jan 28, 2014 at 11:14 pm
actually i think (though i could be wrong) that most clubs are truly designed to be hit on the actual sweetspot, which is typically in the center of the face. it usually gives the highest ball speeds.
impact should only be higher on the face if you need higher launch with less spin. not all players need these specific changes, especially tour players. tour players need a balance of launch and spin to maximize not just distance, but accuracy as well. tour players typically require a higher spin rate than amateurs of the same swing speed in order to keep the ball in play more on the typically firmer fairways on tour.
hitting it high on the face should also not be the first or even second solution to this problem in my opinion. if you need to hit it higher with less spin there are more efficient, effective and consistent ways to achieve
Chris
Jan 27, 2014 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for a very intresting article. I always wonder how certain handicaps hit with their driver off the face. And Great idea with the Dr. Scholls spray.
Barry
Jan 27, 2014 at 10:52 am
thats weird!im off 10 and thats exactly where i connect with my drives,but i have the odd paintscraper too 🙁
Drew
Jan 27, 2014 at 10:38 am
Does this just wipe off when you’re done? If so, brilliant!
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 11:34 am
yes…no residual marks
Chris
Jan 27, 2014 at 10:32 am
Interesting, yet I have read many articles on GolfWRX that have talked about the sweet spot on most drivers being higher towards the outside of the face. So …not really hitting the sweet or hotspot…??
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 11:35 am
all depends on where the driver cog is located…a hot-topic as to where the “actual” sweetspot is located
Rick
Jan 27, 2014 at 8:29 am
Great article. Also, I can’t wait to try the Dr.Scholls spray to check my impact point. Thanks!
tom stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 11:36 am
THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL COMMENTS REGARDING THIS ARTICLE!! I HAVE RECEIVED A TON OF TEXTS, EMAILS, AND TWEETS…..
Erickson Leonardo
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:19 am
My impact zone is so much better with deep face drivers, but sprayed all over the place with shallow face? Please idea?
Tom Stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 9:44 am
Some driver design “looks” make people more comfortable…
Andy
Jan 27, 2014 at 3:10 am
Well im in the 0 handicap category but mostly leave my clubface open or close, great post. thank you.
Spencer
Jan 27, 2014 at 1:45 am
By the far the most valuable piece I got from this was the dr. scholls spray instead tape to mark impacts. I’m getting a can!
Glen Metz
Jan 27, 2014 at 9:03 am
Same here. I’m wondering if that works on irons as well.
Tom Stickney
Jan 27, 2014 at 9:44 am
Yes irons too. Better off a mat
Jack
Jan 27, 2014 at 1:24 am
Note to self: Hit the driver more accurately to break into the 10 handicap range, and also buy a can of dr. scholls odor x.