Confused by off-centre strikes with the driver

[cliveb]

When you hit a drive off the toe, it hooks. When you hit it off the heel, it slices.
But this seems completely counter-intuitive to me.
Given the shape of the driver face, one would have thought that a toe strike would impart the kind of side spin that causes a slice (and a heel strike the opposite side spin that would cause a hook).
What's going on?

 

[robinthehood]

Its called gear effect,

thats all I have on the subject

 

[bobmac]

That will be the gear effect

 

[cliveb]

That will be the gear effect

Thanks. That video explains things well - now I understand.

 

[Curls]

A good tip I picked up was playing against a much better player, he had hit a couple of hooky drives when we got to a hole with OOB left. He teed it down quite low (about half the height you'd expect for a driver), and set the ball slightly out of the heel. The lower tee encourages a heel strike (you can imagine how hard it would be to hit it out of the toe when it's so low). The drive took off low and slicey, but found the right-side semi rough never troubling OOB, so you can use the gear effect to your advantage.

 

[Diamond]

Does this mean that when I hot my drive that is low and fades or that is high and sliced the ball is coming off the heel every time?

 

[jim8flog]

Does this mean that when I hot my drive that is low and fades or that is high and sliced the ball is coming off the heel every time?

When I hit a consistent left to right shot with the driver (virtualy all the time) it was very noticeable that the wear spot on the face was slightly more towards the heel.

 

[Curls]

Does this mean that when I hot my drive that is low and fades or that is high and sliced the ball is coming off the heel every time?

Not necessarily, you can slice the ball out of the middle if you're swing path is out to in (you cut across the ball). Have you recorded your swing? Have a watch, if you think you're moving pretty square at impact then perhaps heel striking is your issue, but at a guess the majority of folk actually cut across it (and indeed you could be doing both)

 

[cliveb]

Does this mean that when I hot my drive that is low and fades or that is high and sliced the ball is coming off the heel every time?

My guess is that a big high slice is more likely to be due to you falling back off the ball. It happens to me when I am too close to the ball at address.

 

[Diamond]

My guess is that a big high slice is more likely to be due to you falling back off the ball. It happens to me when I am too close to the ball at address.

The tip from the pro at my local course was to consciously move an inch further back before I let rip with the driver. That's probably why thanks.

 

[timd77]

That will be the gear effect

Mind. Blown.