Instruction
What happens when you hit a shot off the cart path?
Phil Mickelson hitting wedges out of the hospitality area at the Barclays two days in a row showed the true beauty of golf – play it as it lies! It also showed us as golfers that we need to be prepared to play shots from all sorts of lies.
Although very few of us will have to hit out of a hospitality area on the golf course, there is a very real possibility you may have to hit a ball off the cart path. I understand if you’re out having fun and move the ball off the path to the closest available grass, but in competition the rules prohibit moving the ball closer to the hole forcing you to either play the shot or possibly drop the ball into and even worse position, similar to what happened to Mickelson at The Barclays.
With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to look at what happens when you try to hit the ball off the cart path, and with the help of Trackman, put together a couple of thoughts to help you execute the shot successfully. From the lie in the image above, I hit close to 30 shots. The first two groups were 5 to 7 shots each, one group from the cart path, one group from the grass just in front of the cart path. The only thing I tried to control was the speed of the swing. The data sets below represent the averages of each group all of which were hit with a 60-degree wedge.
Grass Group 45 mph (averages)
Cart Path Group 45 mph (averages)
A couple things stick out to me from the data:
- The club speed average is very close, leading me to believe both low launch and higher ball speeds a result of the hard surface of the cart path.
- The launch angle is almost 25 percent lower. Here’s why: As the bottom of the club strikes the cart path, the leading edge slows and torques the the top of the club down and toward the target thus taking some loft off at impact. This is shown by the dynamic loft (loft of the club face at the moment of impact) number from Trackman. The shots on the grass, the leading edge cuts through grass and turf much more efficiently, having much less effect on the dynamic loft.
- The lower dynamic loft and launch with the same club speed, increases the ball speed by 2.9 mph — enough to make a difference.
- As you probably would have guessed, spin rate increases. The firm cart path plays a big part, causing more friction at impact.
Grass Group 60 mph (averages)
Cart Path Group 60 mph (averages)
With a little longer shot, the patterns stays consistent — lower launch, higher spin.
Hitting The Shot
As you address the ball, you’ll need to lean the shaft forward to take some of the bounce out of the 60-degree wedge I’ve got here. In the image below you can see as you set the club down, the bounce brings the leading edge off the ground quite a bit, making if very easy to skip the sole of the wedge off the cart path and blade the ball.
Leaning the shaft forward brings the leading edge towards the cart path, making it less likely for you to engage the bounce.
As you put the ball a little more back in your stance with the shaft leaning forward, you’ll be more prepared to hit the shot successfully.
Once you’re set up, try to hit the shot using as little hands as possible. If you could imagine holding the setup position and hitting the shot by turning your shoulders and nothing else, you’ll have a much better opportunity to hit it solid. When the hands are even a little bit active, hitting the shot solid will be increasingly difficult. You can also experiment with something like a 56- or 52-degree wedge, which will generally have less bounce and may make it easier for you to catch the ball cleanly.
As for how this shot will affect your golf club? Here’s a look at my wedge after close to 30 shots of the cart path (hit a couple extra for fun after I had the data I needed).
The wedge is obviously going to take a little beating, but the overall damage will be minimal, especially hitting just one shot. In terms of loft and lie, I don’t think you’re going to see any difference after the shot.
As a player, I used to fit these kinds of shots into the last few minutes of my practice sessions. I know you don’t want to destroy the bottom of your wedges, but if you’ve got an old wedge you can use, give it a shot. I always got some funny looks from people practicing these shots, but you never know when you’re going to need it. And you all know how much difference saving one shot can make.
- LIKE2
- LEGIT1
- WOW0
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK0
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
- LIKE85
- LEGIT13
- WOW6
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP4
- OB1
- SHANK8
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
- LIKE0
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.
For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.
Setup
You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.
While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.
Get a Better Shoulder Turn
Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.
In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.
Stay Better Connected in the Backswing
When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.
Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.
Conclusion
I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.
- LIKE12
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP2
- OB0
- SHANK8
Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
John Daly stuns fans into silence with brutal opening tee shot on PGA Tour Champions
Things got heated at the Houston Open between Tony Finau and Alejandro Tosti. Here’s why
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
Report: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
Neal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
Paulina Gretzky opens up on receiving death threats following DJ’s move to LIV Golf
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)
Collin Morikawa what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. More photos from the event here. Driver: TaylorMade...
WITB Time Machine: Jordan Spieth’s winning WITB, 2022 RBC Heritage
At the 2022 RBC Heritage Jordan Spieth defeated Patrick Cantlay on the first playoff hole after nearly holing his greenside...
Jason Day WITB 2024 (April)
Jason Day what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Ping G430 LST (9 degrees @10) Shaft: TPT...
Ludvig Åberg WITB 2024 (April)
Ludvig Åberg what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Titleist TSR2 (9 degrees, D4 SureFit setting)...
-
19th Hole1 week agoDave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole3 weeks agoThings got heated at the Houston Open between Tony Finau and Alejandro Tosti. Here’s why
-
19th Hole1 week agoTiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoReport: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole5 days agoTwo star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
-
19th Hole4 days agoNeal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
-
19th Hole3 days agoReport: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
-
19th Hole2 weeks agoAddiction, spinal fusion, and scam artists – Everything Anthony Kim revealed in candid interview with David Feherty
mizuno 29
Sep 18, 2014 at 1:22 pm
When I was young me and my friend used to hit shots off of the cart path from maybe 30 yards to see who could get closest to the pin, that’s how I learned to hit my low spinner, everyone asks how I hit that shot, I tell them that’s my concrete shot. The ball spins like crazy.
Ken
Sep 8, 2014 at 10:48 am
Personally, I always reach into my playing partner’s bag and select the appropriate wedge. Mine still look great.
bobby golfbags
Sep 5, 2014 at 11:03 am
Club repair shops love this article, people who like to play sub 5 hour rounds hate it. If you aren’t being paid to play, move it along, there are a hundred other people out there as well
Bryan
Sep 5, 2014 at 10:06 am
Just wondering what the attack angle numbers looked like in this test? I would venture to guess that maybe part of the lower launch angle from the cart path was in part due to a steeper angle of attack to try and hit the ball first.
Brian
Sep 5, 2014 at 4:26 am
I love these types of articles!!! Thank you for taking the time and effort to even run this kind of test. I applaud the effort you put into it. I will catalog this for the extremely rare occasions (cough) that I am not in the middle of the fairway or next to the pin.
Billy Joe
Sep 4, 2014 at 8:42 pm
AHHH!!!!!!!!!! Why did you use a Cleveland 588 for that when there are tons of Snake Eyes laying around?!
Joe
Sep 6, 2014 at 1:14 am
THATS WHAT I’M SAYING. I WOULD PAY 40 DOLLARS FOR A TOP FLITE WEDGE BEFORE USING A CLASSIC LIKE THAT.
ZAP
Sep 4, 2014 at 4:20 pm
Increased spin is at least partly due to vertical gear effect as well.
R
Sep 4, 2014 at 2:31 pm
The surface doesn’t make a difference on spin. Assuming you’re making ball first contact, the ball leaves the face before the club hits the ground.
For your 45 mph data points:
On both surfaces, (Dynamic Loft – Launch Angle) is pretty much the same (10 for grass, 11 for concrete). The spike in spin is most definitely due to contact, the ground makes no difference in spin.
Mark
Sep 4, 2014 at 2:46 pm
The surface absolutely does effect the spin… Even if the ball is struck first, the ball will always compress some against the surface below it before taking off (though momentarily). The grass and path are significantly different for various reasons.
1) Surface hardness: This one is obvious, but with the path being harder than the grass the surface infulences the way the ball spins. Granted, contact with the grooves makes a difference between a nice fairway lie and the rough, but even on light rough with ball sitting up (good area for direct contact) the fairway lie allows for more spin as the “tighter” lie lets us compress ball against surface with more surface area and less give. The hard path is even more efficient than the fairway lie at doing this, hence more spin.
2) Friction of surface: The path is rough cement. Grass (even tight fairway lie) is still grass and dirt. Not only will the grass give more, but it imparts less friction on the cover of the ball at compression and therefore imparts less spin than the abrasive cart path.
Unless you were to literally skim directly under ball using low bounce club there will be a discernible difference in spin and ball speed on these differing conditions.
As Jessie from BB would say “Science B***H!!!”
Rob Rashell
Sep 4, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Mark,
Very interesting to say the least, would love to see the phantom camera put to work on this one. Something like 17,000 fps, would help shed more light on exactly what is happening.
All the best!
Rob
larrybud
Sep 4, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Mark, thanks for giving up a wedge on this test, but your conclusions are not correct, imo.
The ball doesn’t compress against the surface at ALL. The ball is spinning more on the cart path because you’re hitting on the bottom of the face because the bottom of the club is being stopped by the hard cart path. You might even be clipping it with the leading edge, hence hitting it thin, depending on how accurate your strike is.
If the friction of the surface mattered, you would get LESS backspin on the ball. Imagine it this way: the ball is moving forward, which means the friction on a surface below it would cause it to roll with top spin, like a car wheel. If you push a car forward, the tires roll with “top spin” not back spin.
Jeff
Sep 4, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Simply “hitting it thin” wouldn’t raise the spin number that much, hitting it thin would decrease at least backspin.
How do you get to the ball is moving forward? Every high-speed camera I have ever watched shows the ball roll backward up the face of the wedge
Mark
Sep 5, 2014 at 12:39 am
As the top/back of the ball is being compressed to the ground for the briefest moment the ball is compressed info the ground on a negative angle of attack (ball is not teed and if you bottom out early your club hits concrete, bounces, and you “blade it”… Therefore unless you pick it perfect you will have to do this) the back strike side of ball is staying on the face, and compressing into the grooves, which combined with exit angle and force of strike (stronger than the amount needed to break the balls inertia from rest). The firmer terrain and friction imparted resist exit a fraction longer and with more surface area of ball in contact with more grooves for more duration there absolutely is a difference. Remember. The backspin is being created by significantly more force than the ground can overcome and the added spin from compression over time is positive and significant. You cannot forget, force is a vector. It is directional based on impact path. This is why the pros take nasty divots IN FRONT of their ball. I promise you. The ball compresses and turn firmness (and friction to a lesser extent) 100% allows for more spin to be imparted to the ball with equal effort and quality of strike… Unless you pick it perfect and somehow catch the ball on a perfectly parallel pick clean with a zero angle of attack. So other than that one swing (and a blade), one will get more spin of a cart path.
-Frank the Tank
(Sorry. What happened? I blacked out… We won??)
Jeff
Sep 5, 2014 at 3:40 pm
I’m giving the author the benefit of the doubt as far as the strike. I doubt he would publish all the data on thinned shots. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) that these are based on ball-first strikes.
golfguy
Sep 5, 2014 at 1:46 pm
Everything you’ve said is wrong, and I think Jesse from BB wouldn’t appreciate you tainting his catchphrase. If you tee a ball 1″ off the ground and hit it with a wedge, you’ll produce more spin than hitting it off any surface. Tell me, how hard is air?
Large chris
Sep 6, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Nope…..
Sorry no way does the spin go up because of the ball compressing into the surface a tiny fraction. There is no high speed video in existence showing that.
You have said yourself your swing is different (exaggerated hands forward) and the hard surface will make you shallow out your swing. One of the popular pro bloggers did a lot of wedge testing trying to establish the conditions for highest spin and concluded wedge de lofted to the max and shallower attack angle gave the best spin. All pros now have shallowed out compared to how Woosnam used to play (big dinner plate divots).
Rob Rashell
Sep 4, 2014 at 2:54 pm
R,
Some very good observations, and in my opinion here’s the difference.
On Turf–If you strike a ball in the middle of the club face, the leading edge will have worked under the golf ball and past the impact point on the golf ball to some degree, guessing a couple milimeter’s.
On Concrete–Its physically impossibly to get the leading edge of the wedge under the ball in any way. The best you could do is get the leading edge of the wedge to meet the exact point the ball is touching the cart path.
As the face of the wedge is descending on the concrete there will be a moment when the ball is touching both the cart path and the face of the wedge. I would have to see super high speed video to confirm this, which I unfortunately don’t have.
As far as the strikes, one or two being different or not hit very well I could understand the difference in spin rates, but every single shot of the 15 or so that I hit off the concrete gave very similar data. As did the shots off the grass.
Very interesting to say the least, and would be fun to dig deeper with even better technology. Thanks for the thoughts!
Rob
Tom Stickney
Sep 4, 2014 at 1:01 pm
Nothing like getting massive cheese on the ball from the path!! Spinner baby.
Rob Rashell
Sep 4, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Thanks Tom, was having fun hitting some shots and seeing the numbers.
TR1PTIK
Sep 4, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Very good info. I played one off the cart path recently (I usually try to play it as it lies) because my relief point put me under a small tree where the branches would have interfered with my swing. Unfortunately, my ball didn’t stay on the green (carried too far and pushed it a tad to the right), but I still felt good about the shot since it was the first time I ever tried it. I was still able to get up and down for par thanks to one of the best lob shots I’ve hit in quite a while.
Rob Rashell
Sep 4, 2014 at 1:25 pm
TR,
Love that you played by the rules, something very settling about it, if that makes sense. Taking whatever comes your way and making the best of it.
TR1PTIK
Sep 5, 2014 at 8:34 am
I honestly find a certain amount of joy and satisfaction in playing the ball as it lies because if you hit a good shot, it’s that much more awesome and if you hit a bad shot… Well what did you expect when playing from the hospitality tent (Phil)? So, whether it’s tree roots, rocks, cart path, whatever, I’ll play it (within good reason) for a chance to test my skills and embrace the spirit of the game.
Christosterone
Sep 4, 2014 at 11:46 am
Cool data….i play it off the path with the exact same swing as a fairway bunker.
Take my normal stance with one club longer and choke up 3/4 of an inch…
I swing with a steepish reverse c so its the only way i can keep from smacking the concrete(or sand) after contact.
Again, cool article.
Rob Rashell
Sep 4, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Chris,
Thanks, amazing how a little bit of practice with something like this can pay off down the road. Just being a little bit more aware gives you the confidence to not only try the shot, but to pull it off.