1 Wood Swing

[Karl Woods]

right ive been going to the driving range quite abit lately and im hitting the irons fine, whent on the green and puttings coming along aswell, the problem i have is with the 1 wood.

for some reason i cant hit the ball properly (i dont seem to have a problem with the 3 or 5 woods) i place the club next to the ball with the ball on the centre marker, take my back swing strike the ball and for some reason im hitting the ball on the corner of the club face like so...



and afew other problems im having with this club are, when i hit it, it sometimes frives very low and straight or low on bobbles along the grass for about 100 yards

another problem is if i do get one off the ground it goes straight for about 100 yards and all of a sudden just curves to the right or left

sometimes if i hit the ball aswell though the club vibrates and shakes badly in my hand

help please

[ettsn]

Sounds like you are compressing during your downswing and possibly flattening your swingplane. Curious: if you line up towards the toe, do you hit it squarely on the screws? If so, what does your ball flight look like? From there, we may be able to help diagnose what's going on. Better still, any chance you could record your swing?

[kafka01]

A couple of weeks ago i was on the range with a buddy of mine. For some weeks now he sliced the hell out of the ball with long irons / rescues (for his own sake he didnt even touched a driver) or hit a lot of sockets. So we applied some markup spray and he hit the ball in that exact spot you describe. Funny thing was, when he set up for the shot and placed the club beside the ball to the left - he still managed to hit that spot (even some pro told him that might help on the short term, but obviously isnt a longterm fix for his problem).

If i remeber correctly one of the causes was, that his takeaway was too much on the inside, but i can ask him tomorrow what else might have caused it.

[tigerwoo]

There could be numerous reasons why you are hitting predominantly in the part of the clubface as you've indicated. But first my question is: Are you addressing the ball correctly before you start your swing?

1) Where is the ball in relation to your left foot if you are a righty? Ideally teed up so that it is in line with your left instep of your left heel.

2) How high is the ball teed up? Ideally, with a big headed driver (400 cc's plus) half the ball should be above the crown of the club (though it all really depends on what type of ball flight you want but for new golfers this is a good 'default' setup).

3) Are your hands hanging freely below you or are you reaching for the ball or too close to the ball? Ideally, when you address the ball with the club, your hands should be hanging freely below you (vertical) so that gravity is dictating where your hands grip the club.

4) Posture... knees slightly bent in an athletic position, back bent slightly forward but fairly straight up so that you don't feel any pressure in your lower back to maintain this pose.

Instituting these 4 setup fundamentals will help your swing be a bit more consistent.

Once you start your backswing, however, that's a whole new beast! Other threads in this forum have that info for you.

[Karl Woods]

thanks for all your tips and help, ill be putting what you have said into practice on tuesday