Can You Play On Your Bad Side?

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

Been thinking about trying golf left handed and hunted up this thread. Coupla reasons. 1. I always swung a baseball bat better batting leftty. Only reason I can identify is that I can clear my hips a whole lot faster and swing faster. Feels more natural batting left. Swinging a golf club right handed has always felt unnatural and slow. 2. Think I read that Henry Cotton advised swinging the other way to balance muscle development or something. 3. There is, I think, a natural tendency for the left hand to perform activities that come out as a mirror image to the right. For example, when I wrote left handed it felt natural for my writing to come out mirror-imaged from normal script. So the learning curve ought to be reduced. Got a left handed SW that once I thought I might carry in the bag for the odd situation. Never tried swinging it til now. Feels good. Fast and smooth swing. Really clear the hips fast.

[jowlar]

I use my left hand for most tasks but I throw right handed.  I began playing golf as a lefty but switched to playing right handed in college and have continued to play right handed.  I can still hit a ball pretty well left handed but I would not want to try to play a round that way.

By the way, I am using both hands to type this.

[Mac62]

I write (and shoot pool) left-handed, but I'm a righty in every sport I've ever played.  I haven't ever tried golfing left-handed, but I'm sure it would be as disastrous as my left-handed batting/throwing/bowling/basketball/hockey shot.  The only exceptions are that I make better left turns on a dirt bike, and lead left-handed/footed when boxing/sparring (martial arts).

A friend of mine golfs right-handed, but putts left-handed.  He's a righty in everything else, but can't putt worth a lick right-handed.

[ghalfaire]

I am mostly left handed although I do write with my right hand.  For the first couple of years did  play left handed.  But in my early days left handed clubs were difficult to get and instruction an issue so I just switched over and at this point am not temped to go back.  But I can and still do upon occasion wow my buddies by hitting a few left handed on the range if someone will lend me a club.

[Ole_Tom_Morris]

I doubt I would ever play golf left handed. But swinging/practicing left handed is another matter. Physically, in terms of its effect on the body, it ought to be healthy to switch-hit, despite the experience of a poster above who hurt his back. Plus, one speculates the neuromuscular learning on one side helps the learning on the other. I am trying putting left handed, and seem to be better seeing lines that way, though -- or perhaps because -- I am left-eye dominant.

[iacas]

Nah.

[Mattplusness]

I went to the range on Saturday with a lefty friend of mine. I had never tried hitting lefty before... I was nervous. It went straight as an arrow, but the loft was all wrong and the distance was about 75% of what it should be.

[dbuck]

I can't pee left handed, much less swing a golf club. I tried a buddy's lefty clubs the other day and it felt just weird. There was a kid (he is an old man now) at my old club who could shoot par or better right handed. His dad was left handed, and the kid would sometimes play his dad's clubs for kicks and shoot about 3-4 over for 18 on our shortish 9 hole course-maybe 6000 for 18.

[NM Golf]

I can't do anything with my left hand. If for some awful reason I lost my right arm in an accident I might never have sex again!

[MS256]

I do about 40% of things left handed. Eat, write, shoot pool, shoot a rifle and a bow, weld, ect. Most things that require skill and precision.

I do about 40% of things right handed. Throw, swing a sledge, kick a ball, fight, lift something heavy, ect. Most things that require strength.

On the other 20% it doesn't make much difference which hand I use, although in things like tennis, ping pong, and hitting a baseball I am a completely different player right handed (where I play a power game) than left handed (where I play a finesse game).

I play golf right handed just because the guy that gave me a set of clubs was right handed. I've always wondered if I would have been better left handed if I had played that way from the start but the few times I did hit a ball left handed it seemed like if that horse was ever in the barn he's long gone now. (Although I can putt very well left handed).

P.S. The funny thing is that I write on a blackboard right handed but write on paper left handed.