Ball Flight Trajectory

[DZ.]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and golf as it happens - hacked around when I was a kid but six months ago decided to have a proper go and see where I ended up.

I ended up purchasing a set of Cleveland CG4 irons and now that I'm hitting a lot more consistently with them I've noticed that relative to everyone that I play with (a mix of 12 to 20 handicappers) my irons seem to soar up into the air a lot higher then their shots. I figured this isn't a bad thing, windy days aside where it gets interesting, as when I land on the green my shots tend to hold fairly well.

I was just curious on everyone else's opinion though as to whether or not a high ball flight off irons was a good thing (to put it into perspective my 6 iron travels around 170 yards). Also, whether the high ball flight was a function of my swing, the irons I'm using, or a combination of both.

Cheers,

Mal

[GregJWillis]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

You answered my first question, and your 6i goes 160. That is right for a 14-18 hdcp.

The real question is when you want to, can you hit the ball low? Or are you only stuck with 1 trajectory?

[LowPost42]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

Loft determines how high your shot goes - this is why your 9 iron flies higher than your 6 iron.

Beyond that, trajectory is effected by what your swing is doing at impact. If you're flipping your hands at the ball, you'll get a much higher trajectory than if you're holding the wrist set and hitting down on the ball.

[DZ.]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

You answered my first question, and your 6i goes 160. That is right for a 14-18 hdcp.

The real question is when you want to, can you hit the ball low? Or are you only stuck with 1 trajectory?

If I want to hit the ball on a lower trajectory I'll generally shift down to the next iron and use a 3/4 swing. Moving the ball forward or backward in my stance to change the trajectory usually results in a thin or a fat shot for me so I find just changing clubs and using less than a full swing a bit more consistent.

[BrianW]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

Delofting the club will result in a lower trajectory, the best way to do this is keeping your hands a little more ahead of the ball at impact and hitting down into the back of the ball, this removes loft from the club. Allowing your hands to move ahead and back will allow you to shape the height of your shot with a club, don't allow them to get behind the ball though as this will cause thinned shots.

[daviesec]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

If I want to hit the ball on a lower trajectory I'll generally shift down to the next iron and use a 3/4 swing. Moving the ball forward or backward in my stance to change the trajectory usually results in a thin or a fat shot for me so I find just changing clubs and using less than a full swing a bit more consistent.

I have a lot of success doing exactly the same thing, I play a links course and its always windy so a low stinger is a great shot to have.

I find if you swing nice and slow the ball will normally stay much lower than normal.

[jamesh]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

I think a high ball flight can, among other things, be attributed to the club. I was just reading a golf magazine which used a launch monitor and data by hot stix showing distance and flight trajectory for various clubs. A friend of mine with Callaway x18s has a high ball flight that I admired - it turns out that his clubs are known for that. From a personal experience, I hit my Callaway Hawkeye Irons next to my Topflight Irons and the ball flight from my Topflight irons is higher - but the club is less forgiving than the Callaway!




Jamesh

[DZ.]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

I think a high ball flight can, among other things, be attributed to the club. I was just reading a golf magazine which used a launch monitor and data by hot stix showing distance and flight trajectory for various clubs. A friend of mine with Callaway x18s has a high ball flight that I admired - it turns out that his clubs are known for that. From a personal experience, I hit my Callaway Hawkeye Irons next to my Topflight Irons and the ball flight from my Topflight irons is higher - but the club is less forgiving than the Callaway!




Jamesh

That was probably more of what I was interested in - whether or not some clubs are known to hit higher than others or not and whether people has preferences.

[BrianW]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

That was probably more of what I was interested in - whether or not some clubs are known to hit higher than others or not and whether people has preferences.

The balls trajectory is decided by the velocity, angle it was struck and the spin created. The more loft on the clubface the more oblique the strike on the ball will be, thus the higher it will fly. The type of ball you use will have an effect on the height due to the backspin created. In general the make of club will not have much effect if the ball is struck well (other than any loft differences).

[ben hogan]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

It's a function of the way you release the club...mid body or towards
you're right...will result in the clubhead accelerating and out racing
the hands.
Ideally you'd want the hands releasing the club at your left thigh...
trapping the ball (compression).
Need to post-up on the left side (hip) reverse K... DTL view, Face on.

[BrianW]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

It's a function of the way you release the club...mid body or towards
you're right...will result in the clubhead accelerating and out racing
the hands.
Ideally you'd want the hands releasing the club at your left thigh...
trapping the ball (compression).
Need to post-up on the left side (hip) reverse K... DTL view, Face on.

It's the amount of loft that creates height. How you release the club etc only affects the amount of loft you apply, good compression will create additional velocity but that's nothing to do with trapping.

[ben hogan]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

DZ since you're just getting back to playing golf take a look.

[DZ.]

Re: Ball Flight Trajectory

Thanks for all of your opinions. As I mentioned in the beginning though, I was just more curious about ball trajectory as when I strike a ball well with one club and people that I play with strike their's with the equivalent club, my ball trajectory is a bit higher than theirs.

It sounds like that there's probably just a loft difference between my clubs and theirs that might be the reason, although my distances still match theirs for the equivalent club.

I'm actually reasonably happy with my ball trajectory as I'm able to land my ball fairly softly on the greens so it was more a question of curiosity - was there technology being incorporated into irons that might change the ball trajectory at all rather than loft. It sounds overwhelmingly like that there isn't really - it just comes down to loft and how the ball is struck.