Inconsistent Impact

[golfshooter]

I have an Adams speedline driver, and it is a testament to it's forgiveness that I get an accurate drive at all. I have groupings of three dots in marking pen all over the ball for two reasons, one to identify it as mine, and the other to have it leave a tell tale mark on my clubs. My driver is showing that I am regularly impacting on the inside half of the face. Centre to toe are rarely marked. Boy! can it go with a good strike, dead easy to control the accuracy, 30 metres further distance and finishing with a satisfying CRACK! . So consistency, as the title says is the major problem. I can count on maybe 1 out of 15 shots hitting the middle. I have been persevering only because I am still staying out of the trees and still getting around 200 metres out of it. It was the last drive off the 18th that finally tore it,.... out of the middle,....felt like I was just having a practice swing,... nice little draw to left side of a right hand dog leg, ... and of course that great sound. Has anyone got any ideas as to what I might be doing wrong here ,I really have to get that feeling more often. it is just to good to leave.
Regards Peter

[gatorguy146]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

More than likely the reason you hit it on the inside part of the face is due to your set up...without seeing a picture of your set up i would have to guess that it is one of two things.
You can try standing a bit further away from the ball, but be sure to keep the same amount of bend from your hips, otherwise this will make your problems worse.

The other thing you can try and what I would reccomend trying first is to try and keep the same distance from the ball at address but lessen the amount of bend you have...so in other words try to stand taller and make sure you keep your weight on the balls of your feet (or your heels).

All of this should help to get your contact more in the middle of the face.

[GolfJunkieSr]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

I agree with everything GatorGuy posted. His answer is the first place(s) I would look.

However you might want to look at another possible issue. That being your hands. I have always believed the hands control the club face, and the arms control the shaft, which also controls the club head. A play on words granted.

What sometimes happens is the golfer will slow down their arms during the down swing. Some even stop their arms for just a micro second. This allows their hands to take over just prior to impact. In other words to try and gain more distance they "flip" the hands through impact. What this does is it allows the club head to move a bit further from the golfer's body, which of course makes impact closer to the heel of the club more prevalent. What you want to do is to not let the arms slow down, and swing the shaft through the ball. The hands, shaft, and club face will follow along.

Sometimes with my own swing, I tend to swing from to much of an angle "in" to the ball, because I took the club too far inside on the back swing. When this happens I see impact positions nearer the heel of the metal wood. If I were making these shots with my irons, I would be very close to shanking them. Not a pleasant thought at all.

I agree that heel hits can lose yardage, but I don't think it is solely because of the heel impact. I think for the most part the golfer with this problem is losing distance due to a loss of energy at impact due to some other problem in their swing. I know I can purposely hit a ball with the heel portion of my driver, and still get pretty much my normal distance.

Another possible issue is that the golfer will leave too much weight on their rear foot. A weight transfer issue can cause the club moves from outside in which can also cause a heel contact. If your rear heel (foot) is off the ground, up on it's toe at impact, then of course this is not the problem. GJS

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Thanks for your quick replies. I have started standing a little further out at address (should have thought of that straight up), and definitely am hitting the spot more frequently but I think you hit the nail on the head with the posture reference. I have noticed that if I don't focus on posture from driver to putter I can bring in all sorts of compensations which end up with me chasing my tail and never catching it until my swing is a shadow of it's former self. I suppose I should have known these from past experiences. This forum has been great for me and made my steep learning curve much easier I am 51 and things don't stick as well as they used to!
Regards Peter

[gatorguy146]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Haha no problem..it's golf man this game is the most complicated game there is...i forgot who said the quote "I tell people who say golf is like life that they are crazy...golf is way more complicated than that!"

[BrianW]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

With large headed drivers you should address the ball near the toe if you ground the club at address. Try this: Address the ball near the toe with the club grounded behind the ball, then without moving lift the club so that it is at impact height. You will notice that the ball is now in the middle of the clubface.

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact revisited

Hi guys @ girls as the case may be, I am still having the problem of not hitting the sweet spot of my driver. For those who have just joined us ref. "inconsistent impact" posted a short time ago. I have tried every suggestion other than pulling my swing apart. I even tried a shorter club. I can hit my 5 wood around 200 metres which is the same as my badly struck driver,except the 5 is more accurate. I sometimes strike the middle and get more of that effortless distance though it generally will go slightly right, the vast majority of strike marks are still on the inside half of the face and usually go left or snap hook. I want to do the suggestions on my swing but don't really know where to start. We don't have any real access to a pro here, no driving range,and worse still as soon as I start trying to work out what's happening behind me swing wise my swing gets screwed up anyway. I have no access to post a video. So what I am thinking is to get some drills that have worked for you good people and have a friend watch and give me feed back. Just another thing, I am totally flushing my irons, smacking them dead centre and getting more distance and accuracy than I have in months. Really hoping we can work this out as I am sick of trying to get out of trouble on my second shots.
Regards Peter

[BrianW]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Did you try what I suggested?

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Hi Brian, yes I did try what you said and was surprised to find you were spot on,not because I doubted you but just that it was such a simple thing and I had high hopes that it would work. I told some of my playing partners to try addressing the ball that way and they were equally surprised. Alas it was not the answer for me,but I have still added it to my address.I think the most success I have had is to close the face and stance a little but it is still not what I would call consistent, with the ball going right and just putting me in the edge of the trees. I think I may be on to something here and will try some variations today. It may still lie in GolfJunkieSr's suggestions about what's happening in my back swing but it is hard to self diagnose given we have no range so can only work on it during rounds. Any more suggestions still gratefully accepted.
Regards Peter.

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Hi, well put in a big effort today and discovered a couple of things.I looked into my posture and found that I was setting up ok but dropping my right shoulder as I started my down swing and carried that through to impact. Fixing this put the ball in the sweet spot and wow, wonderful carry and direction. There is something else happening though because I am still getting a lot towards the heel. These are staying straight but losing about 30 metres, there absolutely none in the outer half. There are some that can only be described as shanks even though they shoot off left when it comes to the driver, I still hit more in the middle than usual. It is obviously a combination of things. I have been playing by myself which allows me to tee off a couple of balls, but I have nobody to see if I am coming inside out or flipping my hands. I hope this stimulates any ideas or drills that can expose the problem. Thank you all for your help so far, we are definitely getting somewhere .
Kind Regards,Peter.

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Hi, went out again this morning , shanked the first 2 balls left almost off the shaft. 3rd ball just inside the heel,went straight, though lost about 20 metres. Put a little more bend in the knees tried to relax a little, probably didn't though. Got one in the middle, went off like a missile. maybe it is in the hands, damned if I can tell. Have got a low handicap friend having a look in a few days time, maybe that will reveal something. At the moment I have been going around in circles so many times I have finally disappeared up my own orifice.
Had a gutfull
Regards Peter

[golfshooter]

Re: Inconsistent Impact

Posted this in some one else's problem that was similar to mine. Well you can see by the dates this has been a while coming but it felt useless posting again when I had tried every piece of advice from 3 site forums regarding heel shots.I have solved it in the most unlikely way. I decided to do everything wrong. I stood CLOSER to the ball but with an upright athletic stance. I moved the ball back to the center of my club face and stance which made it easier to get my hands in front. I didn't take long in position, just enough to check these off. When a swung the club it was easy back and accelerate down and through, a bit akin to swing a child on a swing let it reach the natural back swing before driving it firmly forward. I now more often than not middle it and have gained 30 meters avg.and can't remember when I last hit the heel. Keep trying and don't be afraid to break the rules. Oh I forgot don't drop the shoulder ,rotate around your spine ( so I did follow some rules) Hope it can work for you