Can You Play On Your Bad Side?

[James_Black]

I went up to the local driving range with a friend.
My friend has left-handed clubs and I said I'd give them a try.
Amazingly I could hit the ball FURTHER with a left handed club than with my usual cobra's albeit a good bit less consistant.

Are you any good on your bad side?


I heard tiger woods grew up playing left handed and then changed to right handed and he can still play well left handed and him and phil sometimes swap clubs.

[SQ Bimmer]

You have discovered the trick to becoming one of the best golfers in the wrodl... switching it up. Gonna trade in my clubs tomorrow!

I always wondered though... if you were to switch, and take lessons PROMPTLY, it would be like starting with a clean slate.

[James_Black]

Would it?

All your muscles would be built to suit a right hander though.

[whetstone]

I write lefty, and I'm left-eye dominant. I could switch-hit back in my baseball days, but was always better from the right. I've never tried to swing a club lefty, but I often putt left handed with the back of my putter. Maybe I should give some lefty clubs a try.

[Where's the Cart Girl?]

I think the theory is that if you switch hit you put your dominant side forward, and the forward arm is the controlling arm in the swing.

I can't do it, but there's no doubt it works (Phil). In college I golfed with a natural lefty who learned the game righty because all his brothers' clubs were righty.

He plays lefty now, but he can play to a legit 15 HC righty. And FWIW we would stand apart and hit balls back and forth to each other at practice soccer fields between classes with only my clubs and he would take my PW I'd take my 9-iron to do it.

[FHopper]

I was a Barber when I was young and developed a remarkable degree of ambidexterity over time, most Barbers do. I think it would be fun to try lefty.

[Yukari]

My left side is useless. I cannot do anything with my left side.

[cody west]

phil grew up playing right handed shooting in the 80s and one day he switched to left handed and magically because amazing at golf. alot of people are longer with their oposite hand, most of my friends

[Dartguy]

I made the mistake of hitting a friend's lefty driver at a range one day. I could hit it OK, but very inconsistent. The next day my back was a mess!! Never over do it!!

I am going to teach my 3 year old son to play opposite-handed. I believe it to be the better choice.

BTW, I saw Steve Flesch on "playing with the pros". He said that when he retires, he will begin to play right-handed, so he can have more fun playing with his friends. That's pretty cool.

[Shindig]

phil grew up playing right handed shooting in the 80s and one day he switched to left handed and magically because amazing at golf. alot of people are longer with their oposite hand, most of my friends

Not quite. Phil grew up playing left-handed because he was mirroring his father's (right-handed) swing.

[James_Black]

Not quite. Phil grew up playing left-handed because he was mirroring his father's (right-handed) swing.

you mean Tiger right?

Or was phil the same? because he's right handed in everything else

[Zeph]

I can't coordinate my left side worth anything. For some reason my left hand is stronger though, more powerful grip.

[Jay-Bird]

I heard tiger woods grew up playing left handed and then changed to right handed and he can still play well left handed and him and phil sometimes swap clubs.

Wrong.

Tiger's a righty, he's practiced plenty with lefty clubs, but he's always played right. The video of him on Bob Hope's show at age 2 - clearly show he's always been a right hander... Phil is a righty. His father started taking him to the driving range when he was 18 months old. He'd watch his dad hit balls - for four months before he started to wanting hit balls himself. He immediately took a left-handed stance. His dad tried, at first, to make him hit right handed, but Phil stubbornly kept swinging left handed. So ...

Young Phil was as stubborn then as his smile is now. In his right mind, the boy was a left-hander, and even his old man couldn't change that. "After the third time" (left-handed), Phil Sr. said, "his swing was unlike anyone's I've ever seen for someone that young. We weren't going to fool around and change his swing. We were going to change his club." Into the garage Phil Sr. went, sawing down the pint-sized wood, refinishing it, reshaping it and reshafting it until his son had his lefty driver. Phil Jr. took that club to the beach, to the park, everywhere; there's a picture of him on a pony ride, holding it like Moses held his staff. That wood rests in a trophy case, maybe the one that will house the PGA Championship grail.

I practice left handed often. I suck, but I can hit the ball if necessary. However, if I take a lefty driver and flip it over and swing it righty, I can pound it...

[ND Fan]

as a gag I played left handed with the baseball players inn college cuz they all sucked at golf. After about 15 rounds I broke 80, I have never played form that side again. It felt like thats as good as it was going to get and I was right handed golfer that coulc play far better from the right side.

[Travtex]

I've tried taking a few hacks with my friends' righty clubs. It's a pretty hideous thing to watch.

In 'real life' I'm pretty ambidextrous (According to my neurologist, I'm 'true ambidextrous', but he doesn't know me that well so...). I can throw with either hand, though have more experience throwing righty. Switch hit in the baseball career. Wear my watch on my right hand, eat with my left, write with my right.

I'm weird.

But no, I can't hit a golf ball worth a damn with righty clubs.

[RS22]

I think the theory is that if you switch hit you put your dominant side forward, and the forward arm is the controlling arm in the swing.

This is exactly right. I am right handed in every aspect of my life except for golf/baseball swing. I like leading my swing w/ my stronger arm. It just feels more powerful to have my stronger arm leading the way. My dad is the exact opposite being left handed but swinging right handed. I'm sure it only feels that way for me because I grew up swinging a bat left handed and transitioned it over to golf when I started.

[allin]

I've tried taking a few hacks with my friends' righty clubs. It's a pretty hideous thing to watch.

Some individuals are what is often called cross dominant. In my case that means I naturally did all my fine motor activities left handed, things like writing and eating. My natural gross motor skills are right handed, things like throwing a ball. My neurologist believes that is why after a closed head injury, equivalent of a mild stroke, which affected my left side and left eye vision I recovered considerably better than most people. Evidently cross dominant and ambidextrous people have a better develped corpus collusum, (not sure of spelling) which aids recovery. Writing right handed sucks though.

[Travtex]

Some individuals are what is often called cross dominant. In my case that means I naturally did all my fine motor activities left handed, things like writing and eating. My natural gross motor skills are right handed, things like throwing a ball. My neurologist believes that is why after a closed head injury, equivalent of a mild stroke, which affected my left side and left eye vision I recovered considerably better than most people. Evidently cross dominant and ambidextrous people have a better develped corpus collusum, (not sure of spelling) which aids recovery. Writing right handed sucks though.

In some possibly related random stupidity... When I'm at work and have to jot down a few quick notes -- I tend to write with my left hand. When I sit down and actually think about writing something, I use my right.