High ball flight

[lifevicarious]

Why is it bad?

Hey everyone!

I'm starting to play golf again after a 6 or 7 year hiatus where I played once every two years or so. When I was playing I was relatively good, about a 8 or 9. I was a great iron player but pretty much sucked i nthe short game. I played my first 9 holes this past weekend and my irons were still great. I hit 7 of 9 greens, 5 of 7 fairways, and shot a 39 (the course was fairly easy and only ~3100 yards).

I have always hit my ball really high, especially with my irons. I have a pretty upright swing which I know plays a role in it. I have owned a set of Lynx Parallax since about 93 or 94 which I have always loved. I just ordered a set of MP-60 / MP-32 combo (4-6 in the 60 and 7 - W in the 32). I have heard those clubs have a high trajectory. I am curious why a high trajectory is bad. I have always liked it as it has allowed me to land the ball softe with less forward motion and therefore allowed me to hold more greens. But having seen numerous refernces on this forum to wanting a lower ball flight, I am curious why that is.

Any explanatons would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

[tanguy]

Maybe the 'lower ball flight' or 'low penetrating ball flight' was a reference for a driver off the tee. I'm not sure how high you hit it but it's definitely not a bad thing. Sometimes with the positioning of the hole and where the bunkers are in play, it's an advantage to have a high ball flight. Ofcourse if it's windy then you'd have to change your approach. There was an article I read last year where Sergio was concerned with Michelle Wie's low ball flight off her irons and how he thought it would hurt her on small greens. I play the i5's in reg CS-Lite and have a pretty high ball flight as well which I prefer.

[villa]

The main reasons for wanting to lower ballflight are loss of distance and playing conditions.

 

If I played where the weather was always great and there was no wind then i'd probably stick a set of Callaway Fusion irons in the bag and hit it as high as I want. The problem is that I and many others (not just in the U.K) play in mainly windy conditions and a lower (or more penetrating) ball flight is the best way to play.

 

As I say, distance loss is also a reason. Theoretically though if somone's losing distance because of high ball flight, it's probably a swing fault.

 

MP-60's and 32's shouldn't really deliver a high ball flight. It'll be higher than most other muscle back irons but I certainly wouldn't call it high.

[lifevicarious]

Thanks!

 

I'm not concerned about the distance. I think I'm about average with my irons. I was hitting my 5 iron about 185 this past weekend and my Wedge about 125. And I was really trying to keep my swig at about 85 to 90 percent this weekedn which seemed to work wonders for me. The rest of the clubs fell in between (although I didn't hit them all this past weekend).

[thenewbie]

with those distances I wouldn't worry about it too much. check your trajectory though. does the ball noticably lift up as it travels through te air? if so, your puting lots of spin on the ball. this is good to hold a green, but on a windy day the spin actually "allows" the wind to move it around. people with higher trajectory need to spend some time on their knock-down shots.

 

personally, I like to have complete control over my trajectory. high or low, I decide based on the shot I'm playing. of course, that doesn't necisarily mean it does what I want it to. . . :D

[lifevicarious]

Yeah, I typically do have a fair amount of spin and spun a number of them back this weekend, and completely plugged one but the greens were a tad soft. As for the wind, I always hated playing in the wind, and I think your explanation is the reason why! :D

[Young04]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm starting to play golf again after a 6 or 7 year hiatus where I played once every two years or so. When I was playing I was relatively good, about a 8 or 9. I was a great iron player but pretty much sucked i nthe short game. I played my first 9 holes this past weekend and my irons were still great. I hit 7 of 9 greens, 5 of 7 fairways, and shot a 39 (the course was fairly easy and only ~3100 yards).

 

I have always hit my ball really high, especially with my irons. I have a pretty upright swing which I know plays a role in it. I have owned a set of Lynx Parallax since about 93 or 94 which I have always loved. I just ordered a set of MP-60 / MP-32 combo (4-6 in the 60 and 7 - W in the 32). I have heard those clubs have a high trajectory. I am curious why a high trajectory is bad. I have always liked it as it has allowed me to land the ball softe with less forward motion and therefore allowed me to hold more greens. But having seen numerous refernces on this forum to wanting a lower ball flight, I am curious why that is.

 

Any explanatons would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks!

 

given benign conditions, i think a high ball flight (not ballooning) is a good thing. just be able to hit it low when the need comes (windy, etc.) if you're losing distance because of a high ball flight from a set like MP60/32, then it's likely a swing fault. MP32 are higher than most other blades, but still low relative to the irons that saturate the market these days.

[larrybud]

if so, your puting lots of spin on the ball. this is good to hold a green, but on a windy day the spin actually "allows" the wind to move it around. people with higher trajectory need to spend some time on their knock-down shots.

 

It's not the spin that "allows" the wind to move it around, it's because the spin generally is going to make the ball fly higher, thus the wind has more an effect.

 

All other things being equal however, the more spin (backspin, that is) a ball has on it, the straighter it's going to go in a crosswind. That's why solid shots are less affected by the wind than poorly struck ones.

 

If you'd like to go into an aerodynamics discussion on why this happens, I'd be happy to!

[lifevicarious]

If you'd like to go into an aerodynamics discussion on why this happens, I'd be happy to!

 

I'm all ears as I must admit I never understood the aerodynamics of the dimples and different dimple patterns.

[DanZ]

I too would like to hear more about this.

[rufus mangler]

7 out of 9 greens. Hmmm, let's pick this apart.

[Shaitan]

Pretty much, the more backspin you have the less sidespin you have, this generally means that if you hit a solid shot and it go's straight and penetrates the wind you've hit it with enough spin so that the ball isn't affected to much by the wind. Some ball dimples are shallow and some are deeper and this also affects the way a ball flies, both in the wind and out of it. Those with higher spin rates can generally use a ball with shallower dimples as a ball with deep dimples will create too much spin as the wind gets into the dimples and makes it spin more. This is why the balls are dimpled. If you don't have enough spin the ball will fall out of the air and not go as far, so dimples make it fly further and straighter due to this.

 

As to your high tragectory, it is fine as long as it works in the wind. I'm from Australia and it sometimes can get quite windy here, especially as I play at a course on the coast, and I like my mid-low tragectory that still has plenty of spin to pretty much stop a 4-iron in the space of a couple of metres - and I don't worry about rolling over the back of greens because of this spin, even though we have small greens. Different strokes for different folks though, and remember, if it works, use it, because don't touch it if it don't need fixin' cos u can just make it worse.

 

Oh yeah, and if anyone is ever in Queensland, in the northern Brisbane suburbs give me a bell and I set you up a round at my course - it's honestly one of the best in the area.

[iCollector]

.... Tiger Woods loves his high trajectory - it allows him to drop the ball on the greens.... There - since he likes it, maybe everyone will want a high ball flight now.... :D

 

I'm not a Tiger fan, but I do agree with it.... If the distance is good, accept it as a plus.

[yoonie]

It's not a big deal I don't think, as long as it's not ballooning, and you can lower it when necesary. Tiger and Vijay both have extremely high ball flights, but both can lower it enough to deal with the wind when necessary.