Closing Clubface at Address

[jonesey]

During the middle of my round a couple weeks ago, I closed the face of my club at address pretty significantly.  For the rest of that round, and the 9 holes I played Sunday, this helped me hit the ball crisper, straighter and longer.  I do get the ocassional hook, but aiming to the right didn't hurt me as bad as a weak fade that I usually hit.

Does anyone else use this technique and will it hold up?

[AmazingWhacker]

I've done it in a pinch but, in my opinion, it won't hold up.  What you're trying to do - or at least what I'm trying to do - is line up to the target and swing from the inside with an *open* clubface . .open to the target but closed to the path of my swing.

For me - closing the clubface intentionally - either at address or in my downswing - tends to lead me to swing out to in and pull or pull-slice it.

You could be different I guess- because all that really matter is that your swing path and clubface are such to produce the shot you want - but I see closing the face as more of a "quick fix" than something to really work on.

[Righty to Lefty]

Originally Posted by jonesey

During the middle of my round a couple weeks ago, I closed the face of my club at address pretty significantly.  For the rest of that round, and the 9 holes I played Sunday, this helped me hit the ball crisper, straighter and longer.  I do get the ocassional hook, but aiming to the right didn't hurt me as bad as a weak fade that I usually hit.

Does anyone else use this technique and will it hold up?

Oh yeah I do it with every club in the bag.  It just takes a lil time to trust that the club doesn't return to impact like that because the body position has changed.  The hooks comes from not trusting the shot and flipping at it a bit or if I get to far inside out with my club path.  Impact for me is much stronger and that is why I stick with it.

[rehmwa]

I've done all sorts of weird things to try to get good hits (closing the face, blocking, trapping, etc etc etc) and they've all worked a little bit or a little while.  It's nice to know that I have bandaids that'll work on a temporary basis by doing 3 or 4 things wrong simultaneously to get wierd, but workable hits.

But I keep coming back to normal swing mechanics and a face square to the target, etc etc etc - because those seem to really work over the long haul, they give me the most consistency, and they identify the middle/ave swing that I can work around (example - trapping was great, but it pretty much lost the ability to shape anything other than a light fade)

I really committed to a classic swing end of this season and had the biggest improvement ramp I've ever had.  I'm thinking lessons this winter to really try to tie it all together and to get ideas to improve consistency that don't involve major changes......

but that's just me and I'm just beginning here - your mileage might vary - I've seen some really great scorers doing some really oddball things, so who am I to talk?

But one thing I'd ask is whether you found an improvement vs whether you should be fixing something else that's a lot more basic......

[Avant]

It could be as easy as doing a slightly stronger grip which will help you turn over at impact and square the flub face up.

Is this how you were closing the face at address?