Newbie ? about draws and fades

[mischfit golfer]

I have been striking the ball better lately and I am noticing my ball flight is going more right to left and this made me think about aiming.

On a draw or fade is the ball suppose to land in th same spot as if you hit the ball straight, but with a different flight path? I noticed that my ball is landing to the left of where I was aiming and I had to adjust where I was aiming.

[WUTiger]

As a starting point, I suggest you look at this January thread started by iacas :
http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...l+Flight+Rules

[srjorion]

The short answer, most likely no, the ball will probably not end up exactly on the line where you were aiming.

The image below was on one of the replies iacas posted in another thread and is a great summary of the possible ball flights. In your question, C or G would apply. The ball may land where you were aiming assuming you were aiming at E, but it all depends on the degree the club face varies from the swing path. Most likely the ball would curve more or less resulting in the ball being to the right or left of the aiming point.



(Looks like WUTiger posted a great link to another thread with more info before I pulled the trigger on this one)

[WUTiger]

srjorion ,

You found the diagram I was originally looking for. Thanks for sharing!

[shankalots]

OK now I'm confused. So the correct way to hit these shots is alignment and swing path.. correct?

[mischfit golfer]

Thanks for the responses. All the info is very helpful.

[Zeph]

OK now I'm confused. So the correct way to hit these shots is alignment and swing path.. correct?

What is correct? As long as you get the ball in the hole, it doesn't matter. The idea though is that swinging in-out is better than out-in. The ball flight is a result of clubface angle, swingpath angle and to some degree lowpoint. Alignment comes into play because it is with what we measure our swingpath.

You don't hit correct shots with alignment and swing path, those two are factors in every swing, regardless of style and outcome. The point is knowing what cause the ball to move in the air, and using that information to diagnose your own swing.