Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Clubface Angles

Intro

Hello golfers, welcome to this weeks tips & tricks. This week we are going to look at clubface angles at different points in the swing. If you struggle with controlling the direction of your golf ball, even with a good strike, then this should help you understand it better. The clubface angle is the most influential factor on ball flight direction therefore controlling it is one of the keys to good golf.

Firstly take a look at the following video to demonstrate what we are talking about.

Clubface Angles

The positions we are going to be looking at and taking the most interest in are when the shaft is parallel to the floor. This is in both the backswing and downswing. Checking these positions can help you understand your ball flight better. Filming your swing in slow motion to check this is a good idea and is what I do in pretty much every golf lesson I give.

Closed Clubface

When the clubface is pointing down towards the floor at the checkpoint it is closed. This means the clubface is pointing left in relation to the target. From this position the ball is likely to start or spin to the left. You body will fight this left if you do it for long enough. You will end up swinging it more to the right to prevent this from happening. The Trackman data shows a negative value which means the clubface is that many degrees closed.

Open Clubface

When the clubface is pointing towards the sky at the checkpoint it is open. This means the clubface is pointing right in relation to the target. From this position the ball is likely to start or spin to the right. From this position it’s likely you will be swinging across the ball to the left to prevent it going right. As most of you reading this will know, the more left you try and hit it, the more right it spins. I spend most of my days fixing this issue as most of the golfing population “slice” the golf ball. The Trackman data shows a positive value which means the clubface is that many degrees open.

Neutral Clubface

The traditional position for the clubface to be in at the checkpoint position is 90* to the floor. This is slightly changing in the modern game and people are now trying to get the clubface angle closer to the line of the spine. I personally like sticking with the traditional method because it’s easier to understand and can help with feeling better clubface rotation. To be able to make the new method work you have to be very mobile and most club golfers don’t move like the elite players.

If you allow some natural body rotation and some natural clubface rotation during the swing the clubface should match up to the target more frequently. People who try to steer the ball forward tend to keep the clubface open. People who are too right hand dominant tend to close the clubface. This isn’t always the case and i’m speaking from my own personal coaching experience. Relax, turn your body, turn your hands, let the golf club swing around you and let the club do the work.

Summary

Understanding your clubface angles can help you get the ball closer to your target. I have been using Trackman a lot this week to try and neutralise my own clubface angles. I have had a slightly closed clubface for the last few weeks (a negative number) so have been trying to get the Trackman number closer to zero. In this video I actually hit it with a zero clubface angle first time which was very satisfying. Practicing hitting these checkpoints in your practice can help you understand your swing better and using Trackman also helps a lot.

If you would like to rent Trackman or would like a lesson then CLICK HERE

See you soon,

Josh