How Do I Turn The Clubface??

Often times when I’m giving lessons, there might be an issue in where the clubface is pointing at impact. This of course will influence direction even if the path and the movement of the body is working well. Students can sometimes find it difficult in how to alter the face through impact in particular whether it’s controlled by the hands, arms or body.

Controlling the clubface is mainly initiated through the arms followed by the hands. If you’ve been told that you have the face ‘open’ meaning to the right, you would want to feel as though the left arm is starting to rotate more left through impact along with your hands. Vice versa if you’re someone who tends to have the face ‘closed’ meaning to the left through impact, you would simply feel the left arm is not rotating as much as well the hands are slower to turn through impact. When doing this also you want to feel as though the body is always moving through the shot.

Now it’s also important when trying to rotate or under rotate the club that the hands stay slightly ahead of the clubface. This simply means that your left hand should feel it’s slightly bowed forward when trying to control the face. This will steady the club and ensure you still have strong contact through the hitting area. Another method when understanding the rotation of the clubface is just note how the club head looks at impact during the practice swing. For example if you want to stop your balls going right, simply observe the ‘toe’ of the club beating the ‘heel at impact and vice versa if you want to stop the hook, have the ‘heel’ beat the ‘toe’ to the ball.

Lastly when trying to fix whether your ball is going right or left, attempt to exaggerate the feeling in the other direction. This means if you’re ‘slicing’ the shot, simply feel as though you’re turning the clubface left well before impact. Try and hit the biggest hook you can and then once you can successfully achieve this, you can then be more precise to hitting the ball straight. Also when you’re at the range next time, a great drill is just practicing turning the ball left and right. Do this for around 12 shots each time during your practice session and you will soon feel how the clubface moves through impact when performing a ‘slice’ or a ‘hook’.

If you’d like any further help in understanding clubface rotation just contact myself at David Waters Golf.