Nike Str8tfit Question

[rxtim83]

I have a Machspeed Black driver and I'm still kinda confused as to how the whole adjustable thing works.  I understand how closing or opening the face affects loft, ball flight and all that.  What I don't understand is once you make an adjustment, say the full 2* closed, should you still grip the club so the club face is square at address?  Or should you grip the club with your hands lined up with the letters on the grip, as you normally would without any adjustment??  Which would casue the club face to be severely closed at address.  Maybe a stupid question, but just curious.  Thanks.

TR

[Stuffs]

Its not a stupid question at all.  But it really depends on what you want to do with the ball.  Don't mind too much with the letters on the grip and such, but where the face aligns.

General rule of thumb, and this goes with all clubs.  Where you're body is aligned, taking a regular good swing as you normally would, the ball will go that way, regardless (to a certain degree) of where the face was pointed at impact.  It will then draw or fade towards where the face was pointed at impact.

So in your example, you have it at full 2* closed.  It gives you two options more or less.  First option is to still square up the face to your target, giving it more effective loft for a higher ball flight.  Second option is to play it closed to the target, which reduces the effective loft and will promote a right to left ball flight.  Typically, in the latter scenario, you would setup (body/ stance alignment) and aim little right of the target, with the face being closed relative to you, but is pointed at the target. This will allow the ball to start out where you've aimed and will draw towards the target (where the face was pointed).  So on impact, yes, the face will be closed.  But because you've setup and is swinging to the right of the target, the ball will initially take that route first. But because the face was closed on impact, it will put some side spin on it to draw it in that direction once the ball starts losing its initial velocity where the side spin would start taking over.

So to keep it simple, you're giving it the same swing and using the face alignment to promote where you want the ball to be worked to.  Ofcourse you add to that swing by either holding your release a little stiff to give it more fade or release it harder to draw it.  But that's something you need to experiment with at the range.

Hope that helps.