OFF CENTRE HITS LOW BALL FLIGHT

May 16, 2014

Struggle with a low ball flight with your iron shots?  This could be down to a number of factors.  Probably the most overlooked one is the ability to not center your strikes on the clubface.  Toe and heel strikes mean that the full mass of the club head doesn’t get the ball in the air enough to get maximum efficiency out of your shots.  Although the results may not be devastating they can harm your game in most cases.  Yes you could get a toe end strike resulting in a low-ball flight, which pitches short of the green and then rolls onto the green.  But what happens when you have to go over a green side bunker or you have to play to an elevated green?  Now you will be hurt by a ball flight, which could be up to 20 feet in height lower.  Suddenly you will find yourself missing greens with your irons short even when you didn’t catch the shot fat or thin.

So if you are someone who hits the ball to low and you are not aware where you hit the ball on the face the first thing you need to do is use a feedback drill.  In the image you will see two tee pegs either side of the ball, they are placed close enough to the ball so that it will only allow for a centered strike.  If you hit the tee peg on the toe side of the ball consistently then you are struggling with a heel strike and conversely if you strike the tee on the heel side consistently then you are a toe end striker.

You have now diagnosed which is your bad strike its time to fix it! This is simply done by continuing the drill.  By regular training using this drill you will become a much more accomplished ball striker capable of maximizing the efficiency of your golf shots. Enjoy.