A little bit of a mixed bag...

[JR]

Hey Andy, I have a couple of questions today.

1. I got a new hybrid that I love. I hit it VERY easily, but I was wondering if I am getting the most out of it. I have been swinging it about like I would a 7 iron. Is this okay, or should it be more of a long iron or wood type swing?

2. I have been messing around with two of my drivers and have noted that with the X flex I hit a low hook, and with a regular flex I hit a high fade, which while not a slice, is still a little more curve than I want. Would this indicate I need a shaft somewhere in the middle? I know I need fitted, but would I be in the ballpark saying that i need a stiff?

3. I have become a good ball striker with the mid and short irons, (I have all but given up on the long, thus the Nickent.) and would like to start learning how to work the ball. Any preliminary tips?

4. I have been also messing around with a shallow cavity 7 iron that I LOVE. I have no trouble hitting it straight. Could this indicate that I may be able to successfully swap out the starter set cavitys (which I hate with a burning passion, there is no such thing as feel with these things) to maybe a players cavity in the scoring Irons?

 

[amollerud]

Great questions. First of all I must say for most golfers I would like to pull the long irons out of the bag and replace them with hybrids. I like this move and the beauty is you can swing them like an iron. As for the flex of a driver shaft your first indicator is going to be swing speed. The high right flight with a regular flexwould indicate that it is too week. Stiff sounds better, but I would rather have some numbers to verify that statement. Sounds to me like you are at the point in your game where you really need to be fit. Players cavities are a great iron and forgiving enough for a number of players to enjoy.

 

[JR]

Great questions. First of all I must say for most golfers I would like to pull the long irons out of the bag and replace them with hybrids. I like this move and the beauty is you can swing them like an iron. As for the flex of a driver shaft your first indicator is going to be swing speed. The high right flight with a regular flexwould indicate that it is too week. Stiff sounds better, but I would rather have some numbers to verify that statement. Sounds to me like you are at the point in your game where you really need to be fit. Players cavities are a great iron and forgiving enough for a number of players to enjoy.

Yeah, I agree, which is why I am headed to GolfTec in December. I assume they will try out a number of combos, but I didnt want to go in without knowing what I want/need.

 

[jnug]

Andy,
I am interested in your response to high and right. I would have thought that you would end up high and right if the shaft was too stiff on a driver. Its the other way around? So does that mean that the club head never gets back to square because the shaft never catches up to the force of the swing, leaving the face open? Is that what happens?

 

[amollerud]

Jnug High and right is typically a shaft that is too weak. The head lags behind and the shaft doesn't unload properly and the face stays open. A shaft that is too stiff will go where ever the hands are. Meaning if you leave the face open you will hit a block cut but you won't get the balloon look of it.

 

[jnug]

Got it Andy. I think we were saying the same thing about the weak shaft only you said it way better than I did. Probably my correlating the stiff shaft to a ball going right has to do with the player not generating enough club head speed with the stiff shaft. However I never thought about the defining element of the ball that has gone right being whether or not the ball balloons or not at least relative to the stiffness of the shaft. Thanks Andy, that was very informative at least for me.

It is interesting how many times, going right turns out to be the result of a flaw in the right handers swing or his equipment. It almost seems like most of the things that can go wrong for a right hander will make his ball go right and some smaller number of the things that can go wrong will make his ball go left. That may be an oversimplification but it seems that way.

 

[amollerud]

You are right. I would say of all the people I have worked with over the years I can think of very few right handed that have a miss left. Not to offend anybody out there but the people I run into that miss left tend to be better (low handicap) players. The common flaws in the swing tend to make people miss right.