sweeping vs.hitting down

[golfndawg]

How do you sweep a an iron?.......I always hit down but also take a nice divot.......My driving range probably hates me as I always leave a 1' by 2 ft' crater by the time I leave(good ball striking, not fat shots) ....I have seen alot of folks hit the ball very good with no divot or very small one (just a brush of the grass) and I haven't quite figured that out yet........Path? Coming in very shallow?....

[GregJWillis]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

Nothing to worry about, you hit it the preferred way. Who cares if you leave a patch of earth missing, it will grow back.

[BrianW]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

Depends what club you are using! Anything longer than a 5 iron should not be creating a divot IMO. Hitting the ball correctly is all about catching it on the sweet spot, higher lofted clubs need you to hit down as you can only hit the sweetspot this way. Clubs with lower loft need a shallower approach to the ball and at the worst will only graze the surface. Divots are the result of a good short iron hit not the objective.

[bill reed]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi
to be truthful you can really hit down on a ball, no matter what iron you use you make contact on the ball its below the equator of the ball and therefor you can hit down on it. take a wedge and see the posision you have to put the face on the club in, now try and make contact with the middle of the ball or above the equator to make contact.
the golf club has to be moving towards the target for the loft to work and that loft always is below the middle of the ball.
the driver hits the nearest to the equator center of the ball and the sand wedge or l-wedges the furthest below the equator.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi
to be truthful you can really hit down on a ball, no matter what iron you use you make contact on the ball its below the equator of the ball and therefor you can hit down on it. take a wedge and see the posision you have to put the face on the club in, now try and make contact with the middle of the ball or above the equator to make contact.
the golf club has to be moving towards the target for the loft to work and that loft always is below the middle of the ball.
bill

Didn't quite follow that Bill? Are you saying that you should use the same angle of impact with a sand wedge and a 2 iron?

[GoNavy]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

How do you sweep a an iron?.......I always hit down but also take a nice divot.......My driving range probably hates me as I always leave a 1' by 2 ft' crater by the time I leave(good ball striking, not fat shots) ....I have seen alot of folks hit the ball very good with no divot or very small one (just a brush of the grass) and I haven't quite figured that out yet........Path? Coming in very shallow?....

Actually it is more a product of club and ball position then anything else, short irons will leave a divot when you swing correctly, due to the more upright swing, and ball back behind the low point of the swing, because these clubs are short, you are closer to the ball, means more upright, mid to long irons sweep more, because the they are longer, you are further from the ball, therefore your swing is flatter. I consider short irons as 8, 9, and wedges, 7 iron and up my divots shallow out more, if you are hitting down on these, your swing needs a little work, your angle of attack is too steep. If your taking a divot with a driver, well then, just sell your clubs, there is no hope for you..lol...just kidding..steep angle of attack from longer irons and woods, usually means you come over the top, the dreaded outside - in swing, makes the swing very steep. The more inside - out your swing is, the shallower your swing is, translates to a more sweeping action through the ball.

[bill reed]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
no! you impact higher with a 2 iron.but the contact point is still below the center of the ball with a wedges it is lower still. its like gonavy said the swing is more upright with the short irons and you come in steeper to the ball but the club has more loft and contacts the ball lower.
brian hold a ball against the face of any club and you will see what i mean the point where the face touches the ball.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
no! you impact higher with a 2 iron.but the contact point is still below the center of the ball with a wedges it is lower still. its like gonavy said the swing is more upright with the short irons and you come in steeper to the ball but the club has more loft and contacts the ball lower.
brian hold a ball against the face of any club and you will see what i mean the point where the face touches the ball.
bill

Bill,

Ok, we are saying the same thing then.

[bill reed]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
what i am saying is the face of every club makes contact with the lower face of the ball but to hit down on the ball you would need to make contact with the upper face of the ball and you can't do that as the loft of the clubs dont let you, you could do it is you used a putter and had the shaft leaning forward when hitting the ball but that would drive the ball into the ground. with the high lofted clubs and there steep angle you come into the ball sharper and catch the lower part of the ball as the club head is still decending but you dont hit down on the ball as your making contact with the lower part of the ball and that runs up the groves. most good golfer make contact with groves 3,4 and 5 and that is almost 1/4 of an inch below the center of the ball.
hope you understand what i mean brian, the best way to look is to take a wedge and just place a ball against it and see where the middle of the ball is.
bill

[BrianW]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
what i am saying is the face of every club makes contact with the lower face of the ball but to hit down on the ball you would need to make contact with the upper face of the ball and you can't do that as the loft of the clubs don't let you, you could do it is you used a putter and had the shaft leaning forward when hitting the ball but that would drive the ball into the ground. with the high lofted clubs and there steep angle you come into the ball sharper and catch the lower part of the ball as the club head is still descending but you don't hit down on the ball as your making contact with the lower part of the ball and that runs up the groves. most good golfer make contact with groves 3,4 and 5 and that is almost 1/4 of an inch below the center of the ball.
hope you understand what i mean brian, the best way to look is to take a wedge and just place a ball against it and see where the middle of the ball is.
bill

Hi Bill,

Not sure if I am with that.

As I suggested earlier in this post the objective is to catch the ball on the sweetspot. The more loft a club has the further the shaft lies forward of the leading edge when the club is grounded, this along with the shorter shaft means you have to hit with hands further ahead and a steeper angle of attack so that it is possible to catch the ball in the centre before the swing arc bottoms out. If you hit level at arc bottom using a wedge the ball would be struck too low on the face making it shoot out low and fast. (I can explain why but it's a bit long winded)

Longer irons have less loft and shaft lean encouraging us to hit the ball at the arc bottom while striking it on the sweetspot, thus no or little divot.

The main point here is that some clubs should strike the ball before the arc bottoms out, some as it bottoms out and some after it bottoms out. These differences will affect what type of divot (if any)is created.

EDIT:

Also for clarification: Hitting down is refered to hitting the ball before the arc bottom, I do understand that the loft makes an oblique blow to the ball, the danger in explaining to people that they should contact the lower half of the ball they will start swatting the wrists at it.. As I have stated before a ball can be adequately struck off a tee without any ground contact.

[golfndawg]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

All I know is that I'm hitting the ball better than ever...I'm getting alot scratch marks in the middle of my clubs(irons,nickel to quarter size)...I'm guessing that's telling me I am hitting the ball first........

Going back to the sweeping thing,these folks that I have seen are sweeping the shorter irons too,more or less sweeping everything....Especially this one guy same thing ,sweeping a lob wedge then grab a driver and sweep it off the deck.....The ball got as high as a 5-6 iron....Had me baffled.............Pretty cool though.

[kevinhendrix]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

a sweep is a scoop. a crisp or clean shot is a scoop. neither will impart much power to the ball. take a good divot directly after where the ball used to lie and you will have a far greater chance of hitting the sweetspot with ya irons. learn how to do this with 3skillsgolf baby and the book 'Nail It'. Its the new karma sutra of golf instruction x kevin mcdonald pga

[bill reed]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
i do agree with what you are saying and my point is that you say to hit down on the ball but you mean to swing down more sharply behind the ball but you still make contact on the lower part of the ball so its still a forward blow and not a downward bow, even with the hands ahead of the ball the lie of the face of the club still makes contact about 1/4 of an inch below the center of the ball. you do make contact with the ball before the ground as you said you have not yet reached the ark of your swing. i'm sorry brian but you cant catch the center off the ball, put a ring round a ball and see where your club meets the ball and you will see what i'm getting at, even with the club shaft forward you would need to have your hand a few feet in front of the ball for the face to meet the center of the ball.
please get a ball and place it against the face of any club you want and see where the center of the ball lies compaied to where the face meets the ball.
bill

[bill reed]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

hi brian
two pictures. one of a one iron and the ball and the face touches just under the center of the ball. the other is my 56%-wedge and you can see how far forward i have the shaft and how low it makes contact on the ball.
bill

[bulldog2k]

Re: sweeping vs.hitting down

learn how to do this with 3skillsgolf baby and the book 'Nail It'. Its the new karma sutra of golf instruction x kevin mcdonald pga

He's not going to do this in every post, is he?