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Straight or Fade?

post #1 of 5
9/29/12 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 

So I have been debating this for a while now, I hear lots of the pro's and many others say that they have their natural fade/draw and that by hitting those shots they are able to take out one side of the course, and also aim to one side of the green and let it go back to the target.

Now why does so many drills and people say to hit the ball straight you must square the clubface? if its better to hit the draw/fade then you don't want to try square the clubface perfectly do you?

 

I have been trying both lately and having good and bad with both. When I try to hit it straight at my target i am not entirely sure where the ball is going to go, sometimes dead straight, a little right, a littl left, and bad times , way left and way right =). So its sometimes hard to get close to the pin.

When trying the fade the big problem I have is that its not just a little fade like the pros have but pretty big. driver can be like 40 yard fade. and i usually don't have much of an in between.(example: if i try to hit it straight i might get small fade, if I try to hit a fade its pretty big.)

 

So what is the best route to take? any opinions would be great thanks

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post #2 of 5
9/29/12 at 4:45pm
You need to understand that a fade not a slice.
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post #3 of 5
9/29/12 at 4:53pm

Your thinking is correct.  There is no reason to try and hit it straight, you introduce a two way miss.  I think talk about "hitting it straight" is a maketing gimmick.  All good players have some shots pattern, draw or fade that they hit 95% of the time.  On a good shot they aren't curving it much, maybe 5 yards max (except Bubba Watson), but there is a pattern.  It may appear straight to most golfers a2_wink.gif

 

 

From this article

Quote:

A Quick Word on Shaping the Ball

 

95% of the shots a pro plays (Tiger Woods may be one of a group of very small exceptions, and even he isn't as different as many think) are their stock shot. They don't curve much, but if a player is a drawer of the golf ball, 95% of their shots draw. It's the most reliable, dependable way to play - with a pattern.

 

Kenny Perry (a pronounced drawer) was playing at Doral a few years ago and someone asked him what he does with a pin on the right side of the green. He said he aimed at the flag and if his ball didn't draw, he got lucky, but otherwise he was content to have a 25-footer for birdie.

 

Then the person asked him what he did when the pin was on the left side of the green. "I make birdie" he said. :)

 

You'll get better, faster if you develop a pattern. Shaping the ball is over-rated - not even the pros do it all that often. Shaping the ball can get you out of trouble. It can be a good shot when the ball needs to be worked around an obstacle (reaching a par five in two, the tee shot on a dogleg, etc.). But if you've got a look at the flag, take the Kenny Perry approach: aim for your shot cone and play your pattern.

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post #4 of 5
9/29/12 at 7:14pm
Thread Starter 

I understand slice and fade, but when I try to fade the ball a little it seems to keep going. Also when I hit it straight(ish) it does fade most often just a little, but it is so unconsistent that my confidence that it will fade is not there. How do you hit such a small fade without accidently hitting a draw or anything else? is it really just consistent practice to hit that fade until I get confident?

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post #5 of 5
9/29/12 at 7:38pm

If you have trouble consistently hitting a small fade, have you tried a draw? If you just swing naturally at the ball, which way does the ball want to curve when you don't try to curve it at all, and just let it happen?

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