Ball flight laws vs Tips published in magazines

[mobosecomin]

So am I right in thinking that these tips published here are inaccurate when examined from a scientific point of view. With a special mention to the "point the clubface to where I want the ball to land"

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/breaking90_gd0704

[Shindig]

First, feel isn't real. She might think she's doing that, but I bet if we look at her successful shaped shots, we'll see that she doesn't. It isn't just her. It wasn't that long ago that Tiger Woods admitted he had it backwards. Tips in golf magazines are great for match play; clip them and give them to your opponent before the round.

[uttexas]

The Golf Digest and other magazine tips are usually hazardous to your golf game. Take a very close look at the club face and swing picture inserts 1st picture--her club face is clearly pointing left at impact (not open) for a pull fade. 2nd picture-her club face is pointing a bit left at impact and she hits a pull draw (not a push draw) Point the clubface where you want the ball to start. Many pros have misinterpreted Jack's description of how to hit a fade. Watch the following video. See how open his stance line is relative to club face. His club face is a hair open, but his stance line is like 30 degrees open. Thus, his swing path will be about 25 degrees more open relative to club face= push fade relative to stance line. Jack has it right, but might not have explained it perfectly. [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwgKj4ipzC0&feature;=player_embedded[/VIDEO]

[Paradox]

what Lorena is saying is "kind of" right, though.  To hit a fade, her face will be open to her SWING PATH but it will still be closed to the target line.  The part about aiming the face at where you want the ball to land is just a misnomer, IMO.  It might help to not close the face down too much when swinging outside in and hitting a pull or a duck hook.

Same thing goes for the draw swing she talks about.  Closing the face down might help her to keep from getting too open and hitting a push fade/slice

My understanding:

A fade is hit with a face open to swing path/closed to target line.

A draw is hit with face closed to swing path/open to target line.

Someone correct that if its wrong...the new ball flight laws get me confused sometimes.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Paradox

Someone correct that if its wrong...the new ball flight laws get me confused sometimes.

That was all correct. The problem is that if you actually did exactly what she said, you'd never hit the target. If you aim your clubface at the target with, say, a 5I and you swing 20 degrees to the left (you really want to hit a big fade), the ball will start 4 degrees left of the target and slice, oh, 15+ degrees right of the target. In other words, the ball will start pretty much at the target where you aimed your clubface and will miss wildly to the right... well right of "where the clubface is pointed."

An image with comments and then a closing comment:

There's an argument to be made that "well, it works for them" but rarely has someone like this - a top player in the game - had the ball flight laws properly explained and demonstrated and proven to them so that we can see whether they *improve* with proper understanding. I'd wager they'd find it *easier*.

[mobosecomin]

Yup your spot on their Iacas. But whatever about professionals understanding the ball flight laws, they do have lots of experience and feel on their side. But amateurs like myself and others I think it's very important for us to understand them. I can't understand why this is not one of the fundamentals thought to every golfer.

I was also wondering what impact you think they have on off-set, closed drivers and draw biased weighted drivers. Dose it almost make them a futile pursuit..?

Also just like to add about instruction in magazines. One mag recently had Hunter Mahan explaining how he draws the ball with swing-path which is correct. Only later in the mag to have Paul Mcginley in an article similar to the one above. Amazing TBH

[KARR2001]

What she said is correct for her swing. This is because most professionals have a swing path and club face angle that are relatively close to each other but not identical. this way they can hit their draw, fade, cut shot, etc. There is a great video on youtube which explains how this works which I have included below because I would need 2 pages to explain it in text. Enjoy the video.

[jshots]

Originally Posted by mobosecomin

Yup your spot on their Iacas. But whatever about professionals understanding the ball flight laws, they do have lots of experience and feel on their side. But amateurs like myself and others I think it's very important for us to understand them. I can't understand why this is not one of the fundamentals thought to every golfer.

I was also wondering what impact you think they have on off-set, closed drivers and draw biased weighted drivers. Dose it almost make them a futile pursuit..?

Also just like to add about instruction in magazines. One mag recently had Hunter Mahan explaining how he draws the ball with swing-path which is correct. Only later in the mag to have Paul Mcginley in an article similar to the one above. Amazing TBH

It is strange that people don't do more research. I used to think like them until I came here!

I had this discussion with my Grandpa for 2 hours yesterday trying to show him the true ball flight laws. He also didn't believe me that if your plane goes through your target line on an iron shot and you hit the ball on the downswing aka taking a divot that the ball would never ever fly straight at the flag no matter how you hit the ball. He was arguing how Nicklaus used to say that for every shot you should use one swing, where your alignment is the same, your swing path is the same, ball position is the same, almost everything is the same. If i'm not mistaken, it is impossible to hit an Iron (on the downswing) and a Driver (more upswing) both straight using the same exact swing path and alignment.

He kept telling me how I should be listening to these pros like Faldo who have been doing it for years and were able to win doing it and that I should not listen to the scientific explanations for it because the people who make those probably can't break 80 hahaha.