Ive always wondered about this setup.

[DBC]

Hello, newbie here.

Im in my late 30's and have always hit my driver the same way for years. Ive never had any formal golf instruction, so sometimes I feel "lost".

My question is how I set up. A normal golfer set's up with the shaft of the driver pointing somewhere near his forward leg. Mine however is way outside my body, pointing a few inches left of my hip. This somehow puts a ton of wrist cock at address, and reduces the clubface angle.

I can hit it plenty long, but always straight left. Im pulling the ball.
Occasionally hitting a fairway has angered me into trying to setup differently.
When I setup "normally" with the shaft pointing at my pantleg, It creates a terrible hook for me (still going left).

Should I try to change my setup completely, or work on fixing the pull?
Im not sure if how I set up is completely laughable, and a huge No-No, or somehow acceptable.

Any thoughts?

[keiko]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I would check the grip to make sure you have it nearly neutral. Also, some shaft lean is ok but try reducing it some.
These two things should give you a straight line
If not, tell me where your ball position is.
Also, set up with your left shoulder more closed.

Hello, newbie here.

Im in my late 30's and have always hit my driver the same way for years. Ive never had any formal golf instruction, so sometimes I feel "lost".

My question is how I set up. A normal golfer set's up with the shaft of the driver pointing somewhere near his forward leg. Mine however is way outside my body, pointing a few inches left of my hip. This somehow puts a ton of wrist cock at address, and reduces the clubface angle.

I can hit it plenty long, but always straight left. Im pulling the ball.
Occasionally hitting a fairway has angered me into trying to setup differently.
When I setup "normally" with the shaft pointing at my pantleg, It creates a terrible hook for me (still going left).

Should I try to change my setup completely, or work on fixing the pull?
Im not sure if how I set up is completely laughable, and a huge No-No, or somehow acceptable.

Any thoughts?

[LowPost42]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I think if it's consistent, play the pull.

I setup perfectly square with my irons and play a straight-to-pulled shot.

With my driver, I set up closed like a featherplucker.

I then proceed to hit a gigantic pull or pull cut that carries 240 and runs another 20 or more. But I play for it - I don't aim down the middle of the fairway and then get mad when I yank it left. I aim up the right side and then yank it into the fairway.

[keiko]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I have always believed pulls or pull hooks come from out to in, too strong grip which closes the clubface, closed face at address, or failure to rotate the hips/laying back too much at impact.
I could be wrong.

I think if it's consistent, play the pull.

I setup perfectly square with my irons and play a straight-to-pulled shot.

With my driver, I set up closed like a featherplucker.

I then proceed to hit a gigantic pull or pull cut that carries 240 and runs another 20 or more. But I play for it - I don't aim down the middle of the fairway and then get mad when I yank it left. I aim up the right side and then yank it into the fairway.

[DBC]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

Thanks for the replies.
One thing I want to say is my ball position is forward in my stance, about even with my forward heel.

Yesterday I went out and focused on my wrist cock only. When I set up with the shaft outside my body, my wrist cock is severe (right hand). Almost fully cocked open.

If I set up with the shaft pointing at my pants leg, obviously the angle of wrist cock is reduced (almost half I think-and I think the ball moves forward slightly in my stance)

So if I were to try to hold this 1/2 open wrist angle without moving it....during backswing and forward swing, theoretically I should hit the ball straight.
Somehow I still hook. I try to be very careful not to swing with my hands or arms, just the rotation of my Chest.

Am I thinking this correctly? anything else to work on?

[LowPost42]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I have always believed pulls or pull hooks come from out to in, too strong grip which closes the clubface, closed face at address, or failure to rotate the hips/laying back too much at impact.
I could be wrong.

I believe what you believe.

I just haven't taken the time to fix it.

I know I play the ball waaaaay up in my stance and that my path (being rotational around my body) is effectively coming out-to-in by the time I get the club up to the ball. So I play the pull. The kicker for me is that the hooks come if I a) use a 10 finger grip (which promotes a faster release) or b) let the grip slide more into my palm on my top hand (and I have no idea what this is doing, just that it's bad for me).

[DBC]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I was toying around with my setup with my tile floor today, and it seems to be a pretty good visual aid for me.

Ive added 2 pictures of my setup. The normal setup for me is this severe shaft angle. The clubface in that picture is perfectly at a 45 degree angle to the floor. In otherwords, the face is plumb (as well as along parallel to my tile grout line). The Shaft however, crosses over the center grout line.This setup produces straight, long drives, but pulled every time.

The alternate photo is how Im trying to setup differently. I basically lay the club flat on its back and at natural loft angle (still parallel to the grout line). Even though the shaft and clubface are parallel to the center grout line, this alternate setup is very inconsistant with me. Many time producing a severe slice, or a snap hook.

I "think" I setup this way becasue it puts my wrist cock pre-opened, and all I have to do is turn my body.

Any more advice after seeing these photos?

[DBC]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

LOL...none sees anything wrong in my pictures? I was hoping for some more feedback please.

[LowPost42]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

Your two setups look like classic "impact" and "setup" snapshots.

The other thing I noticed was that your standard setup has the ball deeper in your stance than your alternate - I don't know if this is intentional or simply something you didn't pay attention to. The alternate ball position will promote an out to in path with a higher ball flight (compared to your current setup and ball position) unless you have a huge hip slide.

FWIW, I used to setup like your primary stance for iron shots. It created huge delofting and was a 'block' type release as my wrists had nowhere to go through impact (I just turned my body) and hit low, rope lasers. The downside is that there's no spin into greens with that method as there's no real compression.

[DBC]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

The alternate ball position will promote an out to in path with a higher ball flight (compared to your current setup and ball position) unless you have a huge hip slide.

Hey thanks for the feedback. Im wondering if you can explain why you see this from my setup? Is it my hands or something else? Because that is exactly what happens.
I went golfing this week 3 times and decided to stop using my natural setup, using the natural lie of my driver. My results are sparatic, some left, some right. But SOME went straight and thats why Im obsessed with my driver lately.LOL.

On another note, I just watched a video called Off the Tee....some very useful information there, its a good video if anyone is looking for one.

[LowPost42]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

Hey thanks for the feedback. Im wondering if you can explain why you see this from my setup? Is it my hands or something else? Because that is exactly what happens.
I went golfing this week 3 times and decided to stop using my natural setup, using the natural lie of my driver. My results are sparatic, some left, some right. But SOME went straight and thats why Im obsessed with my driver lately.LOL.

On another note, I just watched a video called Off the Tee....some very useful information there, its a good video if anyone is looking for one.

In the alternate setup, the ball position is forward and your stance is wide. So assuming that you don't slide your hips aggressively towards target, the club will work around your body - with the ball up in your stance and your spine tilted away, this has the clubhead working back to the left (which, being swung on a circular path, is now coming from the outside of the ball) and swinging up. Now, fade or draw, hook or slice, these are about the face angle relative to this out to in path. If you keep the face square to target, you'll get a slice. If you aggressively close it, you'll get a hook. If you just block it through, you'll get a little pull.

I think you may want to try moving the ball to "in between" ball positions in your two setup pictures, and see what happens.

The other thing to consider is tee height. I played with a guy a couple days ago who was hooking his driver all over the place. He started complaining that he was crushing it on the driving range and couldn't figure out what was going on. I asked if he was crushing it after half a dozen swings (ie he compensated like crazy to hit it on the range, and his reply was that he was hitting it awesome right out of the gate). He was teeing it up where he always does - 1/3 of the ball showing above the crown. I mentioned to him that the driving range rubber tees have the ball sitting much higher than that - and that may be the reason he's not hitting it well, being teed up too low. So he cranks it up to the driving range height and proceeds to kill it - way down there and dead straight. He only forgot to tee it high once, and that ugly hook came back. So for him, there was something about how he setup with hovering the club versus grounding it that changed how he hit it. Just something to think about (or tinker with).

[DBC]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

Lowpost,
I took your advise today. I went to the course and really payed attention to my drives today. The front 9 was disasterous. I changed my grip and a bunch of other **** that really depleted my enthusiasm.
On the back 9, since I didnt feel like golfing, I took your "I dont Care" approach, and moved the ball back in my stance, and SUPRISE...the driver went straight. In fact on the back 9 I made 5 par's BECAUSE my drives were in the fairway. My caddy even said something about it.

While Im still learning and improving, I at least have some confidence now just from reading this site alone. The little tips I read everyday seem to be sinking in, at least for now.

So I thank you guys....and its true what they say... knowing is half the battle.

[BrianW]

Re: Ive always wondered about this setup.

I was toying around with my setup with my tile floor today, and it seems to be a pretty good visual aid for me.

Ive added 2 pictures of my setup. The normal setup for me is this severe shaft angle. The clubface in that picture is perfectly at a 45 degree angle to the floor. In otherwords, the face is plumb (as well as along parallel to my tile grout line). The Shaft however, crosses over the center grout line.This setup produces straight, long drives, but pulled every time.

The alternate photo is how Im trying to setup differently. I basically lay the club flat on its back and at natural loft angle (still parallel to the grout line). Even though the shaft and clubface are parallel to the center grout line, this alternate setup is very inconsistant with me. Many time producing a severe slice, or a snap hook.

I "think" I setup this way becasue it puts my wrist cock pre-opened, and all I have to do is turn my body.

Any more advice after seeing these photos?

My advice to you would be to use your alternative setup and work on that because it is a sound balanced one. Your normal setup will only promote a poor release and numerous problems.

I setup with the ball around 2 inches inside my lead heel for my driver and 3 inches for every other club and progressively move my trail foot back as the club gets longer.

[KrudlerAce]

Spot On

I agree with Brian's advice.

The first picture's set up is much the same as the majority of professional golfers. It's a classic set up and not really much needs to change. Practice with it until it feels comfortable. It may take a few rounds but as you get used to it, better results will follow.