Setup - clubface - what are you looking at?

[cbe_golfer]

When you set up to the ball, what aspect of the clubface are you paying most attention to?

[RunOfTheDill]

My teacher told me to make sure the edgeface on the ground is parallel with your target.

[J_Bone]

I voted for the leading edge. But that's on my Irons. My driver has a guide marker on it and it works very good.

[iacas]

My teacher told me to make sure the edgeface on the ground is parallel with your target.

I believe you mean perpendicular.

I look at the bottom groove, or any of the grooves, really, and try to get the clubface pointed over the spot I've chosen a few feet in front of the ball.

[lamebums]

When you set up to the ball, what aspect of the clubface are you paying most attention to?

I make sure it's square (or if for some reason I need to hook or slice it, closed or open).

As soon as that's done I look at the ball. I've learned the hard way that taking your eye off the ball leads to sprayed shots.

[The Golfing Polack]

Did anybody else notice in the last Golf Digest the little page about Jack Nicklaus always setting up slightly open? I was told once that I need to make sure the club face looks slightly closed because it's actually square, but that just led to a lot of problems. Now I just set my feet, breath out and swing. Too much worrying about which way the grooves are facing just messes with my head. I play best when I play fast and let my muscles play instead of my mind.

[Divot Tool]

Please clarify.....

In the case of squaring the grooves with the target line.....what happens if the club is offset (like most irons to some degree)?

Do we then still line up the grooves square to the target line? If we did that....wouldn't it nullify the offset which was intended to produce straighter shots?

OR

Do we close the face, draw a tangent from the leading edge of the club to the edge of the hosel and use that as the line to which we square to the target line....?

[iacas]

Please clarify.....

It doesn't nullify the offset, which has a minimal benefit anyway. The point of offset is to give you just a teeny tiny bit more time to close the clubface. Given that you're swinging at 80 MPH or so, that time frame is very small.

If you're hitting the ball way right or way left all the time, I always suggest you fix that rather than try to just align the clubface right or left to compensate.

[Thrdroc]

I look at the leading edge of my club making sure it is square to the target. A lot of times i've noticed that if i'm just slightly closed my draw turns into a serious duck hook.

[sonicblue]

Did anybody else notice in the last Golf Digest the little page about Jack Nicklaus always setting up slightly open? I was told once that I need to make sure the club face looks slightly closed because it's actually square, but that just led to a lot of problems. Now I just set my feet, breath out and swing. Too much worrying about which way the grooves are facing just messes with my head. I play best when I play fast and let my muscles play instead of my mind.

I think that was just one person extolling something that worked for them as a kind of truism. Yes, I do think that many beginners, with no other alignment technique, tend to set the clubface pointing right of the target, so you would say to them, "put it down so it looks closed." However, that certainly doesn't mean the blanket statement of "align your clubface closed" works for everybody.

I encourage everybody to do this simple drill: stand on some kind of grid surface (tile floor, e.g.) and align your feet along one line and your clubface to a parallel line. Make very slow, mock downswings->impact and note: 1) do your hands tend to return the club to square? 2) when the club is sqare, do do your eyes believe it (or does it "feel" like you're pointing left/right)? 3) how do subtle changes in your hands/wrists affect the clubface (direction and loft)? The essence of golf is simply contacting the ball with the clubface pointed in the proper direction at the proper loft angle. Swing speed, spin, trajectory-control are all nice fine-tuning additions, but you can get real far in this game just being able to hit all your clubs the "stock" distance at "stock" trajectory. Hooks, slices, skulls, chunks are all ultimately due to the club simply not returning to the proper impact position. The above drill was very enlightening to me and is most definitely responsible for my becoming much more of a 'ball-striker' vs. a 'swinger.' Moreover, this drill actually helped simplified my whole swing, because I realized several parts of my swing that simply made it too difficult to get my hands back properly. Thus, I cut out extraneous effort and movements elsewhere, that tried to get "faster" and "wider," e.g., and simply concentrated on good contact. Not surprisingly, it's now that I find myself being one of the longer guys in my groups, and shooting good scores to boot.

[Dent]

I dont look at the club, or the ball, i look behind both, imagining a line behind them both for my swing path.

[allin]

I use the grooves, about 2/3 down on the club head. This really improved my chipping acccuracy. Many modern irons have curved leading edges so the leading edge can be deceptive, especially with the wide soles on game improvement clubs. I believe new golfers need to train their eye by holding the club parallel to the ground, toe up in front of them to see what a square club head position looks like. I do leave the face slightly open on downhill or ball above my feet side hill shots with short irons, maybe it is mental but I am trying to guard against excessive hook and maintain trajectory.

[Leek]

Huh, you're supposed to look at your club? :)

I just try to get my clubface perfectly 90 degrees on the target line.

[striker4]

I'm a little confused. This drill sounds very logical and it sounds like it will halp lots, just one question: In this drill, do you line up your club face and your feet on the same parrallel line?