Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

[ThePuttKing65]

My game at the moment is very average and its becoming frustrating. It's not one fault but several small ones. My driving is okay but during every round I hit a few wide enough to be in the tree's or in trouble. My irons are either slightly left or slightly right; just enough to be in bunkers or not on the green. Every hole seems to be slight push or pull and of course if your short game isn't spot on then it's easy to get bogeys.

I'm working on alignment and swing path without any decent results. Out of frustration on Monday I decided to play every shot with a fade. I can play that shot with ease. Every hole I aimed at the left rough and did a slice swing. I did the same with every iron apart from small pitch shots.

The result was my driving was fantastic. Hit every fairway apart from a couple and hit some monster drives. My irons weren't as good and I missed most greens to the right. Sliced the ball too much.


Question.

Is this the correct way to try and make some progress ?

Or should I continue working on hitting the ball straight ?

Thanks !

[slater170]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

My game at the moment is very average and its becoming frustrating. It's not one fault but several small ones. My driving is okay but during every round I hit a few wide enough to be in the tree's or in trouble. My irons are either slightly left or slightly right; just enough to be in bunkers or not on the green. Every hole seems to be slight push or pull and of course if your short game isn't spot on then it's easy to get bogeys.

I'm working on alignment and swing path without any decent results. Out of frustration on Monday I decided to play every shot with a fade. I can play that shot with ease. Every hole I aimed at the left rough and did a slice swing. I did the same with every iron apart from small pitch shots.

The result was my driving was fantastic. Hit every fairway apart from a couple and hit some monster drives. My irons weren't as good and I missed most greens to the right. Sliced the ball too much.


Question.

Is this the correct way to try and make some progress ?

Or should I continue working on hitting the ball straight ?

Thanks !

if your fade is repeatable and controlled then go with that!
its impossible to hit the ball straight everytime! go to 3skillsgolf | A revolution in golf instruction and get the "nail it" book my ball striking has been greatly improved since buying my copy

[LowPost42]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

I play with a guy who is always trying to work the ball, never trying to hit it straight. It seems like a reasonable concept - if you're expecting right to left movement, you'd aim right and let the ball work back, vice versa for the other side. But with a 'straight shot', your error margin is wide by comparison.

Granted, this means that you'd have to know how to work the ball.

[Martin Levac]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

You ask several questions but ultimately you want to know how to make some progress, yes?

Trying to hit the ball straight is but one way to make some progress. Another way to make progress is trying to send the ball to a target. A much more fruitful and purposeful endeavor, don't you think? Also, it allows for a little more leeway than just trying to hit the ball straight. It allows to curve the ball as long as it goes to the target. So, your method of curving the ball to send it to the target, if it works and you can do it, is a good way to make some progress.

I did say "if it works and you can do it". Apparently, you can't do it all the time. Perhaps you are not striking the ball properly those times you don't send it to your target. Incidentally, striking the ball properly is another very effective way of making some progress. Even perhaps the most effective way. There's also practice, look in these forums for some information on that.

[GoNavy]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

Working on hitting it straight, limits you to half of everything, half the fairway, have the green, and more importantly, unless you DO hit it straight, the ball will always be moving away from the target.

Play either a draw or fade, allows you to use all of the fairway, or green, and puts you in the position to be moving towards the target. Example if a fade is your normal shot you aim left side, if it goes straight, you are on the left side, if it fades as planned, center, if you over do it, your on the right side, point being, you used the whole fairway. In the case of a green approach, if you planned for a 10 yd fade and it only fades 5 yds, your still ok, because you were moving towards the target (pin) and the 5 yd fade will still move right after it hits, still towards the target. Same thing applies on the other side for a draw.

To progress it would be nice to learn to hit fade/draw on command, but until you do, find your tendency shot, what you do the most often, and play it, fade or draw, but never straight, you should always move the ball towards the target, not away from it.

[Started2k3]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

King, I know what you are talking about. Over the summer I worked on getting rid of my overswing with the desire to get rid of my fade with my longer irons.

Well I think my overswing is greatly improved. The benefit has been straighter shots, but I have gone from shots that range from fade to slice (what I am used to) to shots that range from pull to push (not used to and reflected in poor scores).

One thing that I have noticed is that there is a strong correlation between my clubface angle (grip strong or weak) at address and the resulting shot. So this is what I am working on now.

Thanks, this has been useful for me because I was getting very disheartened about my game (straight shots with poor scores - short game not quite fully there yet). I think I will continue to try and go for straight shot - for a while longer.

Charles

[bill reed]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

hi
i use to play with a pro golfer that i knew before i took up golf and i was lucky in they he taught me to fade the ball from the start. i have said on here often the trying to hit the ball straight is the harder shot in golf and as the others have also said if you don't hit the 100% then the balls moving away from target, if you fade the ball will always be turning to the fairway and you should be closer to where you want it to go on even your bad shots.
i don't know of any pro golfer that tries and hits his there long irons or woods straight, all of them fade or draw the ball. you use to hear on the TV the Lee Trevino was the straightest golfer on the tour but he played with a fade and the commentators meant straight in the ball went where he aimed for it to end up. tiger sometimes aims almost 30 yards to the right and draws it back from there. if i was you I'd work with the fade and get use to how much the balls turns with each club. it wont fade as much with the short irons because of the backspin and it the backspin the keeps the ball going straighter with the short irons, a 5 iron a good club to pratice with and aim your feet, hips and shoulders to the left but ain your clubface between where you are aiming your feet and where you wat the ball to land. use the clubface to ajust how much fade you want and try and keep your stance open the same amount for each shot. that the way i do it and it works well.
best of luck.
bill

[ThePuttKing65]

Re: Are we making a mistake in trying to hit the ball straight ??

Thanks for the replies.

In my next round I'm thinking of fading my drives but with clubs like a 7 iron, I'll aim at the flag. See how that works !