Distance From the Ball and Shot Shape

JStang · May 14, 2019

I have been fighting a hook lately and was working on some things yesterday. I was looking at my setup and it looks like I am standing a bit too far from the ball and "reaching" a bit at address. This got me to thinking that this has to be contributing to my left miss. My thought is that the farther away I am from the ball the more room I have to come into the ball from in to out. Alternatively, if I was standing too close it would make it very difficult to swing from the inside without completely standing up to "get out of the way." A friend of mine stands really close to the ball and it's almost as if he only hits pull fades opposed to my push draw. I took a few swings last night and was hitting it really solid with very minimal left movement.

Are my thoughts accurate here or is it just a bandaid fix?

ddetts · May 14, 2019

Yes, your distance from the ball will change shot shape with all else being equal. The further away you are, the more "toe up" the club will be and promote a left flight and the closer you get the more "toe down" the club will be and promote a right flight. You could definitely still hit a pull or a push from any position. But the flight will be biased draw/hook for too upright (standing farther away) or slice/fade biased for too flat (standing too close).

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-truth-about-lie-angle-1563330