More Incorrect Stuff: Draw vs. Fade

You've all heard it: a draw goes farther than a fade.

The reasons I've seen include "because it has topspin" (d'oh!), "because it's hit with less loft" (perhaps, but less loft can take off distance too), and so on.

The first reason's just stupid. The second would only be true of a pull-draw, and even then it could have the same loft and same (but oposite) side spin as a pull-fade.

Consider two shots that both curve back to the middle of the fairway, both hit with a club that has 20° of loft:

draw: 20° turns into 18 at impact (+2 for the open clubface to the target, -4 for forward shaft lean) with a horizontal spin axis of 4°.

fade: 20° turns into 14 at impact (-2 for closed clubface to the target, -4 for forward shaft lean) with a horizontal spin axis of 4°.

The fade's gonna launch lower.

But one of the ways to hit a fade is to not get the handle quite so far, to help you hit a little more on the "front side of the circle." So let's assume the shaft has no forward lean:

handle-back fade: 20° turns into 18 at impact (-2 for closed clubface to the target, 0 shaft lean) with a horizontal spin axis of 4°.

At that point the fade has the exact same launch conditions as the draw. They'll go the exact same distance and with mirrored ball flights.

Consider this: a spin axis (which takes into account backspin and sidespin) of 4 degrees from horizontal (horizontal being pure backspin) doesn't have a clue whether it was hit by a righty or a lefty. If we launch a golf ball with spin axes that are +4 and -4 degrees from horizontal with identical ball speed and launch angles, they'll curve exactly the same: a righty fade is a lefty draw and vice versa.

So, folks, let's put that myth to rest. Golfers hit draws farther than fades because they're doing other things. Their swing speed is probably higher because they're still connected. They probably have more shaft lean. They do something to get more distance, but it isn't simply "they put draw spin on the ball." Draw spin is the same as fade spin. There's something else that plays a factor.

P.S. I forget why I was prompted to say all of this. Maybe it was Johnny's incessant use of "trap draw." With a square alignment, draws are hit higher than fades. The high faders of the golf ball often played a push-fade, hitting the ball on the back side of the circle - and could have produced equally high shots playing a draw if they wanted to.

I understand that every golfer's bound to be different. I was talking about situations where things are equal: a golfer lining up squarely to a target, and pull-fading or push-drawing a ball the same amount. Same, albeit mirrored, ball flight.

In reality, a lot of people hit fades higher because they leave their weight back a bit, flip at the club a bit (again, handle not as far forward), and so forth. It's tough to make generalizations based on how even "most" people do things because people hit push-slices, pull-fades, push-hooks, and top the ball from stances pointing way left, way right, or somewhere near the target, with various degrees of flipping, downward angle of attack, swing paths, etc. I just wanted to address some BS that people fall into if they don't think about things. The golf ball doesn't know whether it's drawing or fading.

Fade: closed relative to the target because you need to start the ball left of the target. Draw: open relative to the target because you need to start the ball right of the target.

http://thesandtrap.com/playing_tips/ball_flight_laws

Great stuff, thanks Erik

That's not quite right, unless you're talking about

barely aiming the clubface closed (left). The starting line is nearly 90% determined by the clubface angle with an iron. In your example, the ball will start left of "your" target line (I think it's silly to call the target something other than what it is, and the target line connects your ball to the target - you have a start line and a target line, and they're different unless you're playing a straight shot). It's much simpler to think of it as aim the clubface where the ball starts, and swing path relative to that determines the curvature.

You don't seem to have read what I wrote.

Your real-world examples aren't hit with the same clubface. A golf ball hit with identical launch conditions except opposite spin axis (4° and -4°) will go the same exact distance. Do draws go farther in reality? Yes. But that's because the launch conditions vary in ways that are different than the spin. The spin itself is neutral.

Well, that depends. I could certainly - easily - demonstrate a situation where increasing launch angle adds distance to a point, at which point it starts to fall off again: drivers. How far can you hit a driver with 3° loft? How about 9? 15? I could certainly see cases where a high 5-iron (depending on things like backspin) could travel farther than a low 5-iron.