Ball-Striking

[kid2]

Been wondering what peoples opinions or issues are on this for a while now......

When reading club reviews or looking at magazines you'll find the expression virtually all over the place at some point..If your ball striking is good you shouldnt have trouble getting this club going.But what is the description of a good ball striker...

Is it someone that can get the ball airborne with relative ease and get the required said distance out of the club they have in there hand........Or is it a players ability to be able to play any shot they like with any given club in any situation.....

What confuses me is that like alot of mid cappers i have no problem getting the ball off the ground and with enough carry so i have a relatively decent guage on their yardage....BUT.....I will miss left and right of my target quite a bit.....

This i know is down to my swing path and not my ability to get the ball going forward.....So whats the story....


Im aware that this could snowball into a club debate but thats not my intention.....

 

[The23rdman]

It's simple really. Good ball strikers hit the ball first and compress it properly taking a nice shallow divot that begins an inch or two after the ball (with irons).

 

[Macster]

You know when you've struck the ball well, so therefore you should know how good a ball striker you are......

The kind of shot where you dont feel the ball struck, and watch it arc to your intended place,.......

Tis the thing that keeps us coming back for more.

Apparently........I wouldnt know.

 

[kid2]

It's simple really. Good ball strikers hit the ball first and compress it properly taking a nice shallow divot that begins an inch or two after the ball (with irons).

See here's where im confused....I hit the ball well.....Take a divot after it which i think means that im definately hitting ball then turf..I know that im taking it after the ball as iv checked many times.....I have an out to in swingpath which is steep like many players but i wouldnt say its a severe path..I do take a heavy divot occasionally unearthing small families of worms.. ..

Im not talking about aiming 30 yards left of where i want my ball to finish though...Its usually only a few yards...So its pretty playable..

So do i consider myself a decent ball striker?

 

[Toby_LeRhone]

I know when I strike the ball well; it goes straight and long and I don't feel a thing (apart from my heart swelling).

 

[The23rdman]

It's simple really. Good ball strikers hit the ball first and compress it properly taking a nice shallow divot that begins an inch or two after the ball (with irons).

See here's where im confused....I hit the ball well.....Take a divot after it which i think means that im definately hitting ball then turf..I know that im taking it after the ball as iv checked many times.....I have an out to in swingpath which is steep like many players but i wouldnt say its a severe path..I do take a heavy divot occasionally unearthing small families of worms.. ..

Im not talking about aiming 30 yards left of where i want my ball to finish though...Its usually only a few yards...So its pretty playable..

So do i consider myself a decent ball striker?

From what you say I'd say nope. You can hit the ball, but I doubt you're compressing it. Have you ever played with someone who when they hit the ball you can hear it fizz? THAT'S compression.

 

[AndrewJohnson]

It's timing, pure and simple. I remember reading an interview with Paddy Harrington who said it's all down to timing which obviously the pro's do really well. He also said that if he had a round with any 18 handicapper and played all their shots from inside 100 yards, they would play to a 5 handicap.
Moral of the story - work on the timing for ball striking and work on your short game. Here endeth the lesson.

 

[golfstick]

i cudnt imagine being a "picker". I smash down on the ball and my divots are a nice small roll of turf. Wudnt have it any other way.

no divot, go home haha

 

[lobthewedge]

If the middle of your clubfaces are starting to wear or discolour, then you are a good ball striker.

 

[Alex1975]

So, great topic...

@Kid, I think before your wrote this post you did think you were a good ball striker and I think your definition of that was that you hit the ball good and solid and it feels pretty right and it gets up in the air + you don’t suffer for range but you can be a little wayward. Am I right? Even if I am not, that is what I thought but even with so few replies I am now not sure that that is what it means.

I’m going to leave it there for now as even though I don’t think there is a golf dictionary definition for this, much like the tough/feel post from last week, I do think I may learn something here.

 

[Alex1975]

If the middle of your clubfaces are starting to wear or discolour, then you are a good ball striker.

Is that so? I ask because I have new clubs and they have that new club shean on them so you can see the wear on them pretty easy, if you know what I mean. Well mine are wearing really nicely, but if you were hitting the ball badly how would they wear? Like what would it look like? To be clear, mine are wearing in an upside down V shape that looks like I am finding the right part of the club.

 

[kid2]

So, great topic...

@Kid, I think before your wrote this post you did think you were a good ball striker and I think your definition of that was that you hit the ball good and solid and it feels pretty right and it gets up in the air + you don’t suffer for range but you can be a little wayward. Am I right? Even if I am not, that is what I thought but even with so few replies I am now not sure that that is what it means.

I’m going to leave it there for now as even though I don’t think there is a golf dictionary definition for this, much like the tough/feel post from last week, I do think I may learn something here.

Thats what im thinking myself Al.....

My clubs wear is mostly in the middle which is why i kind of posted the question......
My belief is that you dont need to be way down in singles to be a decent ball striker...

Kinda brings back the theory that some singles digit golfers are **ss poor off the tees but are so short in there distance that they are well away from trouble.....And iv experienced that first hand....BUT....there short game is pretty good.....
So you cant exactly say that these guys are decent ball strikers at all

 

[golfstick]

My belief is that you dont need to be way down in singles to be a decent ball striker..

if u arnt in single figures and u find the middle of the club all the time then u have seriously bad other parts of your game cos u shud be

 

[Alex1975]

Can you be called a good ball striker if you hit the middle of the club but you tend to push it left or right? Thats the question.

 

[kid2]

My belief is that you dont need to be way down in singles to be a decent ball striker..

if u arnt in single figures and u find the middle of the club all the time then u have seriously bad other parts of your game cos u shud be

Not really talking about my own game golfstick....
Im still improving as per my handicap...I know that there are things i need to work on....
Its more of a general comment...Nothing to do with my own game
And you echoed exactly what i had said in my post above!....

See this is where its getting a little cloudy....Regardless of your swing path you can still hit the ball out of the middle of the club.....Its just that it could go right or left which brings me back to my point of.... What exactly describes a decent ball stiker....

 

[kid2]

Can you be called a good ball striker if you hit the middle of the club but you tend to push it left or right? Thats the question.

See thats it Al...I think that you can be....The direction is not down to how well struck the ball was!

Pro's are fairly adept at finding the cabbage now and then...So would that class as a bad ball strike for them.....I would think not

 

[Losttheplot]

Kid2

The problem you have is your using Pings.... That's enough to make anyone question their ball striking ability!!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Been working really hard on getting much more on top of the ball and compressing down this winter in a bid to stop that destructive lift I have in my swing. When it is on and I'm turning through impact and not sliding, you can really hear that fizz and you hit ball first particularly off a range mat. On the course I am getting ball and then turf although on Monday the divots were much deeper than I would have liked but the contact was still good.

My direction issues are coming from sliding the hips too quick and hitting weak cuts or getting trapped behind the ball and having to use the hands and hitting snappy hooks. Both are more timing and tempo issues now. As I said elsewhere, tiny steps forward and it isn't the finished article but when I'm getting it right it is a lovely feeling

 

[Swinger]

Hitting the ball well is one thing but I'd have thought to give yourself the title of good ball striker you would need to get some good results out of these well struck shots. I would say that a good ball striker would connect with the ball well a big percentage of the time and when he does connect with the ball well then he gets good results nearly all the time.

I think that really good ball strikers have a greater ability to manipulate the ball through striking it from different angles and paths. They seems to have a better natural understanding.

Does it relate to better scores? Not all the time. People can often be good at one part of the game and not great at others but it should take pressure off the rest of their game.

Can higher H/C golfers be good ball strikers? When judged against similar level plays sure and I'm sure there are some that are alot better than their H/C but not many. They have a high H/C for a reason so there is something wrong along the way.

Can you really say you are a good ball striker if when you think you hit it well it goes nowhere near where you wanted it to??

Not for me, even if you do get an upside down V on the club!!

If higher H/C golfer really are good ball strikers then they are either on the way down rapidly, extremely unlucky, overcompensating (for good ball striking) with poor short games or they are disillusioned.

 

[splashtryagain]

I dont think you can be a good ball striker simply by hitting the middle of the club most of the time, if you are pushing or pulling the ball, hooking or slicing then you are not transfering all of the swings power to the ball as you must have an oblique impact of some degree. As has been stated one of the more reliable methods of identifying a good ball striker is the sound of impact (solid but actual sound varies from club to club) and the fizz (swooshing after leaving the clubface) of the ball.