What makes a golf ball curve (Video) - by Pete Styles
What makes a golf ball curve (Video) - by Pete Styles

So now, we're going to talk about what makes the golf ball curve. For a lot of golfers when they hit the ball, they don't want it to curve. It starts off in the straight line and it curves off sideways and for other golfers, they do want it to curve. They're deliberately trying to hit draws around the corner or fades around the tree, so it's important we understand what makes the ball curve.

But this is like golf's, you know, where the babies come from sort of question. You know it's a question that nobody really wants to answer, but there're two fundamental factors that will cause the golf ball to curve. One is the path that the club is taking as it hits the golf ball and travels through the golf ball and the other is the angle of the club phase as that hits the golf ball as well and it's the difference between the club path and the club phase that would case the ball to spin.

Now, a golf ball will spin backwards most of the time when you hit it. If you hit it up in the air, it will have some form of backspin on it, so a ball is more often than likely back spinning. And then when you hit a golf ball and the path and the club phase aren't lined up exactly the same, the ball will start to back spin on an axis and often, people would talk about that is a side spin, but don't understand that the ball spins completely sideways. That's never happening. It's spinning backwards and then it will spin backwards on a slight axis as well, but I'll often refer to it as sidespin and how the ball curves in the air.

We talk about sidespin, but it's actually backspin on a tilted axis, so, anytime that the club path and the club phase aren't perfectly lined up, you don't get a straight shot. Now, it's incredibly difficult to hit a perfectly straight golf shot. In fact, I think Nicholas often talked about the fact, you shouldn't try and hit the straight golf shot. Jack Nicholas always talked about always seeing the ball curving one way or another, just trying to fake the ball or draw the ball because hitting the perfect straight shot is very, very difficult.

Now, we also now know that using launch monitors and flight scopes and track mounts and things like that, that the ball will start off, mainly in line with where the club phase is pointing. In fact, the club phase has about 85% of the influence over where the golf ball will start and then the swing path will effectively curve the ball a little bit in relation to the swing path.

So, if I'm swinging -- let's turn this around a little bit. If I'm swinging, left this way, pulling left from out to in, but my club phase is square to my path, going exactly the direction of my path, I had to pull shot, left staying left. The reverse of that is a push shot which is from end to out down the right hand side that way and the club phase is square to that path, the ball would stay exactly down the right hand side. Make sure you're understanding square to path, not square to target. Square to target would be heading straight to the flag, square to path is along the path that the club is swinging on. So if I'm out to in and square to path, it's a pull; if I'm in to out, square to path it's a push. Do you follow me here? This gets quick.

If the club is traveling dead straight down the target line and the club phase is square to path, it will also be square to target, the map produces your straight golf shot. If your swing path is out to in and the club is left and closed to that path, that's a pull hook. It goes left, further left. If your club is swinging from in to out and the club phase is open to that path, it's a push slice, push phase, push slice or whatever you want to call it. It's a push down the right side and it will slice all phase further to that side.

If I'm swinging out to the right, so it's in to out, but now the club phase is closed to path, it will be a draw. It will start down the right hand side and draw back in. It will have some shape that will move from right to left, that tilted spoon would start to tilt on the drawing axis and turn. If I'm from out to in coming across and my phase is open to the swing path line, it will be a fade.

Generally, a draw and a fade are going to be classified as good shots. You can't really hit a draw into water or a fade into the trees because generally a draw and a fade are moving from right to left, left to right by a slight degree that lands on your target. If you accentuate that and make it more of a draw, more of a fade that actually ends up as a bad shot, you'd classify that normally as a slice or a hook. So, a draw and a fade cased by the same areas that give you a slice and a hook, but actually good examples and bad examples, so you can't fade the ball out of bounce, you're slicing it and some people say that they fade in the ball, a fade is just a push slice basically.

So if you can understand the difference with how the club fades and the swing path react to give the different amounts of spin, we classify, we talk about it as side spin, but actually it's back spin on a tilted axis and hopefully, if you can understand those parameters when you're watching golf and you talk about golf, when you're explaining golf shots to your golf coach, you'll have a better understanding of what's actually making the ball do that and you'll be able to classify your shots a little bit more clearly as well.

 2013-01-17

So now, we're going to talk about what makes the golf ball curve. For a lot of golfers when they hit the ball, they don't want it to curve. It starts off in the straight line and it curves off sideways and for other golfers, they do want it to curve. They're deliberately trying to hit draws around the corner or fades around the tree, so it's important we understand what makes the ball curve.

But this is like golf's, you know, where the babies come from sort of question. You know it's a question that nobody really wants to answer, but there're two fundamental factors that will cause the golf ball to curve. One is the path that the club is taking as it hits the golf ball and travels through the golf ball and the other is the angle of the club phase as that hits the golf ball as well and it's the difference between the club path and the club phase that would case the ball to spin.

Now, a golf ball will spin backwards most of the time when you hit it. If you hit it up in the air, it will have some form of backspin on it, so a ball is more often than likely back spinning. And then when you hit a golf ball and the path and the club phase aren't lined up exactly the same, the ball will start to back spin on an axis and often, people would talk about that is a side spin, but don't understand that the ball spins completely sideways. That's never happening. It's spinning backwards and then it will spin backwards on a slight axis as well, but I'll often refer to it as sidespin and how the ball curves in the air.

We talk about sidespin, but it's actually backspin on a tilted axis, so, anytime that the club path and the club phase aren't perfectly lined up, you don't get a straight shot. Now, it's incredibly difficult to hit a perfectly straight golf shot. In fact, I think Nicholas often talked about the fact, you shouldn't try and hit the straight golf shot. Jack Nicholas always talked about always seeing the ball curving one way or another, just trying to fake the ball or draw the ball because hitting the perfect straight shot is very, very difficult.

Now, we also now know that using launch monitors and flight scopes and track mounts and things like that, that the ball will start off, mainly in line with where the club phase is pointing. In fact, the club phase has about 85% of the influence over where the golf ball will start and then the swing path will effectively curve the ball a little bit in relation to the swing path.

So, if I'm swinging — let's turn this around a little bit. If I'm swinging, left this way, pulling left from out to in, but my club phase is square to my path, going exactly the direction of my path, I had to pull shot, left staying left. The reverse of that is a push shot which is from end to out down the right hand side that way and the club phase is square to that path, the ball would stay exactly down the right hand side. Make sure you're understanding square to path, not square to target. Square to target would be heading straight to the flag, square to path is along the path that the club is swinging on. So if I'm out to in and square to path, it's a pull; if I'm in to out, square to path it's a push. Do you follow me here? This gets quick.

If the club is traveling dead straight down the target line and the club phase is square to path, it will also be square to target, the map produces your straight golf shot. If your swing path is out to in and the club is left and closed to that path, that's a pull hook. It goes left, further left. If your club is swinging from in to out and the club phase is open to that path, it's a push slice, push phase, push slice or whatever you want to call it. It's a push down the right side and it will slice all phase further to that side.

If I'm swinging out to the right, so it's in to out, but now the club phase is closed to path, it will be a draw. It will start down the right hand side and draw back in. It will have some shape that will move from right to left, that tilted spoon would start to tilt on the drawing axis and turn. If I'm from out to in coming across and my phase is open to the swing path line, it will be a fade.

Generally, a draw and a fade are going to be classified as good shots. You can't really hit a draw into water or a fade into the trees because generally a draw and a fade are moving from right to left, left to right by a slight degree that lands on your target. If you accentuate that and make it more of a draw, more of a fade that actually ends up as a bad shot, you'd classify that normally as a slice or a hook. So, a draw and a fade cased by the same areas that give you a slice and a hook, but actually good examples and bad examples, so you can't fade the ball out of bounce, you're slicing it and some people say that they fade in the ball, a fade is just a push slice basically.

So if you can understand the difference with how the club fades and the swing path react to give the different amounts of spin, we classify, we talk about it as side spin, but actually it's back spin on a tilted axis and hopefully, if you can understand those parameters when you're watching golf and you talk about golf, when you're explaining golf shots to your golf coach, you'll have a better understanding of what's actually making the ball do that and you'll be able to classify your shots a little bit more clearly as well.