Check Clubs, Setup to Prevent Contact On Toe - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Check Clubs, Setup to Prevent Contact On Toe - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if you’re on the practice ground of the golf course, you start to feel you’re not striking the ball quite so cleanly, have a little look at what’s the issue, why you’re not striking it cleanly. If you’re getting a nice divot after the golf ball and you’re hitting down on the ball, maybe the height of your swing is correct but maybe you’re hitting it too much in the toe and too much in the heel. You’ll start to notice that maybe the grass or the mud or the white golf ball marks is starting to appear off center, if you’re not really sure, go and see a golf shop, get some impact tape or some face tape. Stick that across your golf club that when you strike the golf balls it will start to show up with little dots or little mark on the golf club. If it’s going too much towards the toe there’s a couple of issues, firstly check your equipment, make sure that the length and the gulf is correct for you.

Also make sure the lie angle of the golf club, the lie angle is this angle and the neck here. We talk about too steep or too flat. So go and have your clubs professionally assessed by a good club fitter or a PGA professional to make sure your clubs are correct for you. Then if you’re still struggling with the toe contact, start to have a little look at the actual swing itself. Get yourself setup and firstly make sure you are standing the correct distance from the ball. The easiest way to check that would be to get yourself in a good setup, lower the shaft of the of the golf club down into your front leg and let’s just make sure it sits nicely two inches above the knee cap. If you are too far, back away from the ball and stretching forwards a little bit. You might see it’s below your knee, you can’t quite reach the golf ball and that’s going to be hitting the toe end too much.

But conversely if you were too close to the golf ball, if you feel like you’re too close here, you might start to sit back onto your heels, making a golf shot when you’re off balanced. You might be still hitting the toe even though you’ve stood too close; your body kind of counts a reaction and gets out of it in a certain way. So just make sure you got a good distance away from the golf ball to start with. Your body waits nice and evenly positioned on your heels, and then as you’re hitting the golf ball, make sure it’s a nice smooth swing with a good quality arm extension in the follow through. If you feel like as you’re coming into the golf ball, you’re popping your arms up and inwards, this way often caused by tension. That could cause the club to pull inside the ball as well hitting more towards the toe end.

Often results in a shot that would weakly fly high and slightly to the right but with quite a weak contact, no real penetration to the flight and you may even feel a little bit of vibration through the hands and through the fingers. So asses where you’re striking the ball in the club face. If it’s not in the right place and if it’s in the toe, check out your golf position that’s correct for you and then start looking for the keys to the technical parts of your swing to make sure you’re setting up to the golf ball correctly as well. And hopefully that will start to bring that strike right back into the middle so you can start hitting the sweet spot again.

 2012-06-06

So if you’re on the practice ground of the golf course, you start to feel you’re not striking the ball quite so cleanly, have a little look at what’s the issue, why you’re not striking it cleanly. If you’re getting a nice divot after the golf ball and you’re hitting down on the ball, maybe the height of your swing is correct but maybe you’re hitting it too much in the toe and too much in the heel. You’ll start to notice that maybe the grass or the mud or the white golf ball marks is starting to appear off center, if you’re not really sure, go and see a golf shop, get some impact tape or some face tape. Stick that across your golf club that when you strike the golf balls it will start to show up with little dots or little mark on the golf club. If it’s going too much towards the toe there’s a couple of issues, firstly check your equipment, make sure that the length and the gulf is correct for you.

Also make sure the lie angle of the golf club, the lie angle is this angle and the neck here. We talk about too steep or too flat. So go and have your clubs professionally assessed by a good club fitter or a PGA professional to make sure your clubs are correct for you. Then if you’re still struggling with the toe contact, start to have a little look at the actual swing itself. Get yourself setup and firstly make sure you are standing the correct distance from the ball. The easiest way to check that would be to get yourself in a good setup, lower the shaft of the of the golf club down into your front leg and let’s just make sure it sits nicely two inches above the knee cap. If you are too far, back away from the ball and stretching forwards a little bit. You might see it’s below your knee, you can’t quite reach the golf ball and that’s going to be hitting the toe end too much.

But conversely if you were too close to the golf ball, if you feel like you’re too close here, you might start to sit back onto your heels, making a golf shot when you’re off balanced. You might be still hitting the toe even though you’ve stood too close; your body kind of counts a reaction and gets out of it in a certain way. So just make sure you got a good distance away from the golf ball to start with. Your body waits nice and evenly positioned on your heels, and then as you’re hitting the golf ball, make sure it’s a nice smooth swing with a good quality arm extension in the follow through. If you feel like as you’re coming into the golf ball, you’re popping your arms up and inwards, this way often caused by tension. That could cause the club to pull inside the ball as well hitting more towards the toe end.

Often results in a shot that would weakly fly high and slightly to the right but with quite a weak contact, no real penetration to the flight and you may even feel a little bit of vibration through the hands and through the fingers. So asses where you’re striking the ball in the club face. If it’s not in the right place and if it’s in the toe, check out your golf position that’s correct for you and then start looking for the keys to the technical parts of your swing to make sure you’re setting up to the golf ball correctly as well. And hopefully that will start to bring that strike right back into the middle so you can start hitting the sweet spot again.