Will Too Flexible A Driver Shaft Cause The Golf Ball To Balloon Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
Will Too Flexible A Driver Shaft Cause The Golf Ball To Balloon Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

Then when you are taking a driver off the tee, the chances are you are taking the driver because you want to hit the longest shot possible, and it’s important when you are trying to hit the long shot, that you get the trajectory of that driver correct. If you hit the ball too low, it will go below its optimum flight, land and hit the ground too soon. But also, if you get the optimum height -- sorry, the driver height too high above the optimum trajectory, you get what we generally class as a ballooning flight where the ball flies up too high, appears to almost stall in the air like an aeroplane and then it comes down with very little force when it lands. Now, if you are ballooning the ball too much, there’s a couple of things you could consider; firstly, do you have too much loft on your driver? So experiment with trying a lower lofted golf course.

You got the question; are you teeing the ball up too high and are you skying the ball? So if you are hitting it right off the roof of the driver, that might cause the ball to balloon up into the air as a bit of a skied shot. The other thing that you could consider with the ballooning flight; is the shaft of the golf club too flexible for you? If it’s not quite stiff enough, that could cause you problems. So what would happen when we hit a normal golf shot is the shaft would flex this way going back, then as it comes down, the centre of gravity which is in the middle to back edge of the golf club is going to try and line up with the middle of that shaft. So we actually see a golf club at impact bending this way you can see how I’m bending that shaft backwards. That’s what all golf clubs should do at impact. However if the shaft is too weak and too flexible, that could happen too much particularly if there’s a low kick point in the shaft. Kick point is the shaft’s most bendable part and if that’s lower on the golf club, it could bend too much and it’s going to effectively add too much dynamic loft. So while the driver might only have 10 degrees stamped on it, if you were hitting on a large monitor and you were getting sort of 15, 16 degrees of dynamic loft at the points of impact, that’s going to hit the ball too high. You’ll generally find also, when you’ve got a lot of loft, you generate a lot of back spin. So it not only launches quite high, but it then flies higher, scoops up into the air, gets blown around by the wind, comes down without a force momentum. So check the loft, check you’re not skying it, and then check the flex of the shaft. Make sure you are not adding too much dynamic loft by the shaft bending too much at impact. And if you can get all those areas right on your club selection, you should see lower and more penetrating golf shots. 2014-03-27

Then when you are taking a driver off the tee, the chances are you are taking the driver because you want to hit the longest shot possible, and it’s important when you are trying to hit the long shot, that you get the trajectory of that driver correct. If you hit the ball too low, it will go below its optimum flight, land and hit the ground too soon. But also, if you get the optimum height — sorry, the driver height too high above the optimum trajectory, you get what we generally class as a ballooning flight where the ball flies up too high, appears to almost stall in the air like an aeroplane and then it comes down with very little force when it lands. Now, if you are ballooning the ball too much, there’s a couple of things you could consider; firstly, do you have too much loft on your driver? So experiment with trying a lower lofted golf course.

You got the question; are you teeing the ball up too high and are you skying the ball? So if you are hitting it right off the roof of the driver, that might cause the ball to balloon up into the air as a bit of a skied shot. The other thing that you could consider with the ballooning flight; is the shaft of the golf club too flexible for you? If it’s not quite stiff enough, that could cause you problems. So what would happen when we hit a normal golf shot is the shaft would flex this way going back, then as it comes down, the centre of gravity which is in the middle to back edge of the golf club is going to try and line up with the middle of that shaft. So we actually see a golf club at impact bending this way you can see how I’m bending that shaft backwards. That’s what all golf clubs should do at impact.

However if the shaft is too weak and too flexible, that could happen too much particularly if there’s a low kick point in the shaft. Kick point is the shaft’s most bendable part and if that’s lower on the golf club, it could bend too much and it’s going to effectively add too much dynamic loft. So while the driver might only have 10 degrees stamped on it, if you were hitting on a large monitor and you were getting sort of 15, 16 degrees of dynamic loft at the points of impact, that’s going to hit the ball too high. You’ll generally find also, when you’ve got a lot of loft, you generate a lot of back spin. So it not only launches quite high, but it then flies higher, scoops up into the air, gets blown around by the wind, comes down without a force momentum. So check the loft, check you’re not skying it, and then check the flex of the shaft. Make sure you are not adding too much dynamic loft by the shaft bending too much at impact. And if you can get all those areas right on your club selection, you should see lower and more penetrating golf shots.