Why Is Golf Club Face Alignment So Critical To The Direction Of My Golf Shots? (Video) - by Dean Butler
Why Is Golf Club Face Alignment So Critical To The Direction Of My Golf Shots? (Video) - by Dean Butler

So why is the golf club alignment so critical to the direction that my golf ball is going to travel? Well I’d like to think that when you’re looking at this and thinking, well it’s pretty obvious really. Wherever the club faces aiming at impact is where the ball is going to start its journey. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to stay on that path, but it will certainly stop on that. So imagine, I’m going to hit the ball down the path way here, going down these two sticks going straight to the middle of the wall, and I set myself up, with the club face square in other words, set right angles to my stance, and in theory, if I should return the club back to the ball in that position I started, the ball will start its journey down the fairway.

If the club face is to the left when I set myself up, or during the course the actual impact, then of course the ball is now in a position that is called close, so imagine there’s the club face in the square position, and now were going to have it aiming to the left, so it’s now aiming into a closed position and of course if that club comes into the impact in that position, the ball as we set up here has got to start its journey down the left hand side and also, when that club face is in that position here, you’ll notice that my left shoulder sort of where the club face close, the left shoulder is out of sight. So from here, that would make my swing follow the direction of my shoulder which will make it go out to in and that was caused by the club face, the set up being in the wrong position by being close. If I swing from out to in, the ball will start its journey where, to the left because the club face was aiming to the left and it will either stay on that journey, or move from left to right and of course vice versa. If the club face is open, it will start its journey to the right, and so on. So very, very important is one of those sort of silly questions really where the club face of course is absolutely crucial. If the club face is not squared behind the ball on line for the target, that ball isn’t going to go where you want it to go. So remember when you take your set up I want you to take extra, extra care about setting up. I’m just going to show you a very, very simple routine to go through. I’m sure many of you are very, very guilty of doing one of two things. The first one when you're taking the club out the bag, having a couple of practice swings; alright so I need to go over the ball just drop myself into position and then we’re swinging. So there’s no alignment, all I've done is drop myself down having to look down the target, and I’m kind of, I can see where the target is but I’ve not really lined myself for – now come on and be honest you’re watching this video tip here now, I bet you could put your hands how many times around you do that, you take a short cut, of course we know as pros there’s no short cuts. So how do we go about doing this alignment to get this club square? Very simple; if you stand behind the ball, so I’m now going to stand behind, looking at where I want, she wants a hit, draw a line back from the target to the ball. So let’s just assume that I’ve got a little marker just in front of the ball, sometimes it could be a clover, a dandy lion, a buttercup whatever; focus on something just out far in front. Put the club face behind the ball a length of that marker, you think wow that was easy. What’s the chance you getting your club face closed or open from something just not far away? Hardly anything at all, put the club face down, then set your setup, and believe me that is such a simple tip for every single golf shot you’re going to play, and if that doesn’t improve the way that you actually hit those balls more accurately and keeping that club face on line, then I’ll tell you now, nothing will. Go out put it into practice because believe me it works. 2014-07-31

So why is the golf club alignment so critical to the direction that my golf ball is going to travel? Well I’d like to think that when you’re looking at this and thinking, well it’s pretty obvious really. Wherever the club faces aiming at impact is where the ball is going to start its journey. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to stay on that path, but it will certainly stop on that. So imagine, I’m going to hit the ball down the path way here, going down these two sticks going straight to the middle of the wall, and I set myself up, with the club face square in other words, set right angles to my stance, and in theory, if I should return the club back to the ball in that position I started, the ball will start its journey down the fairway.

If the club face is to the left when I set myself up, or during the course the actual impact, then of course the ball is now in a position that is called close, so imagine there’s the club face in the square position, and now were going to have it aiming to the left, so it’s now aiming into a closed position and of course if that club comes into the impact in that position, the ball as we set up here has got to start its journey down the left hand side and also, when that club face is in that position here, you’ll notice that my left shoulder sort of where the club face close, the left shoulder is out of sight. So from here, that would make my swing follow the direction of my shoulder which will make it go out to in and that was caused by the club face, the set up being in the wrong position by being close. If I swing from out to in, the ball will start its journey where, to the left because the club face was aiming to the left and it will either stay on that journey, or move from left to right and of course vice versa. If the club face is open, it will start its journey to the right, and so on. So very, very important is one of those sort of silly questions really where the club face of course is absolutely crucial. If the club face is not squared behind the ball on line for the target, that ball isn’t going to go where you want it to go. So remember when you take your set up I want you to take extra, extra care about setting up.

I’m just going to show you a very, very simple routine to go through. I’m sure many of you are very, very guilty of doing one of two things. The first one when you're taking the club out the bag, having a couple of practice swings; alright so I need to go over the ball just drop myself into position and then we’re swinging. So there’s no alignment, all I've done is drop myself down having to look down the target, and I’m kind of, I can see where the target is but I’ve not really lined myself for – now come on and be honest you’re watching this video tip here now, I bet you could put your hands how many times around you do that, you take a short cut, of course we know as pros there’s no short cuts. So how do we go about doing this alignment to get this club square? Very simple; if you stand behind the ball, so I’m now going to stand behind, looking at where I want, she wants a hit, draw a line back from the target to the ball. So let’s just assume that I’ve got a little marker just in front of the ball, sometimes it could be a clover, a dandy lion, a buttercup whatever; focus on something just out far in front. Put the club face behind the ball a length of that marker, you think wow that was easy. What’s the chance you getting your club face closed or open from something just not far away? Hardly anything at all, put the club face down, then set your setup, and believe me that is such a simple tip for every single golf shot you’re going to play, and if that doesn’t improve the way that you actually hit those balls more accurately and keeping that club face on line, then I’ll tell you now, nothing will. Go out put it into practice because believe me it works.