Lining up with the toe of the club behind the ball?

[rudebhoy]

I've been hitting my hybrids and irons pretty poorly recently. I went up to the practice ground this morning to try to work on this.

I lined up as normal with the middle of the club face behind the ball. The result was the same, pretty poor strikes not going particularly far.

I then tried a tip someone gave me years ago about lining up with the toe of the club face behind the ball. The results were much better, lots of really nice shots with every club from 3H to PW.

I'm guessing I'm coming from outside to in and lining up with the toe behind the ball is resulting in a strike out the middle, while lining up with the middle behind the ball is resulting in hitting it out of the heel?

Assuming this is the case, is the advice to try to change the swing path, or simply stick with lining up with the toe behind the ball?

 

[Neilds]

I know what is the easiest, and what I would do, and that is change the alignment of the club to suit your swing path.

I seem to recall that Bobmac was also an advocate of changing your aim as a fix for bad shots.

 

[Orikoru]

I've also started aligning slightly to the toe on driver and 3 wood, after something I saw online recommending it*. Given that my problem is a slice, and getting heel strikes only makes that worse, whereas hitting it slightly toe-side is absolutely fine.

I'm guessing I'm coming from outside to in and lining up with the toe behind the ball is resulting in a strike out the middle, while lining up with the middle behind the ball is resulting in hitting it out of the heel?

Did you mean in to out? As that would make more sense. I'm trying to swing more in to out with driver, hence lining up slightly toe-side hopefully means more centred strikes.

*I think it was two separate videos I watched, one was Tubes on Golf Life when Michael Block got him to aim his 5 wood more at the toe, and the other was Club Champion 15 handicap driver fitting where Ian said the same thing. Both times they were getting too much left-to-right and the advice straightened them out nicely.

 

[D-S]

I've also started aligning slightly to the toe on driver and 3 wood, after something I saw online recommending it*. Given that my problem is a slice, and getting heel strikes only makes that worse, whereas hitting it slightly toe-side is absolutely fine.


Did you mean in to out? As that would make more sense. I'm trying to swing more in to out with driver, hence lining up slightly toe-side hopefully means more centred strikes.

*I think it was two separate videos I watched, one was Tubes on Golf Life when Michael Block got him to aim his 5 wood more at the toe, and the other was Club Champion 15 handicap driver fitting where Ian said the same thing. Both times they were getting too much left-to-right and the advice straightened them out nicely.

If their bad shot was left to right, then wasn’t their swing path out to in?

 

[Orikoru]

If their bad shot was left to right, then wasn’t their swing path out to in?

I guess so, but in both cases the person giving the advice mentioned that heel strikes were making it worse due to 'gear effect', which makes sense.

 

[rudebhoy]

I've also started aligning slightly to the toe on driver and 3 wood, after something I saw online recommending it*. Given that my problem is a slice, and getting heel strikes only makes that worse, whereas hitting it slightly toe-side is absolutely fine.


Did you mean in to out? As that would make more sense. I'm trying to swing more in to out with driver, hence lining up slightly toe-side hopefully means more centred strikes.

Yes, you are right, my mistake.

 

[Hxck]

If their bad shot was left to right, then wasn’t their swing path out to in?

You can hit a shot that's left to right with a path that's neutral, just needs the club face a degree or two open to the path.

I've been hitting my hybrids and irons pretty poorly recently. I went up to the practice ground this morning to try to work on this.

I lined up as normal with the middle of the club face behind the ball. The result was the same, pretty poor strikes not going particularly far.

I then tried a tip someone gave me years ago about lining up with the toe of the club face behind the ball. The results were much better, lots of really nice shots with every club from 3H to PW.

I'm guessing I'm coming from outside to in and lining up with the toe behind the ball is resulting in a strike out the middle, while lining up with the middle behind the ball is resulting in hitting it out of the heel?

Assuming this is the case, is the advice to try to change the swing path, or simply stick with lining up with the toe behind the ball?

You may find that you're lining up with the ball more towards the heel than it looks from where you're standing (very common). Have someone take a picture down the line to check.