Good players shaping driver shots

[Myherobobhope]

3 minutes ago, tannyhoban said:

Most don’t. They play a stock shot and work it that way. When they feel forced to go the other way they often cannot. Working the ball both ways on tour under pressure is the most overrated part of the game attributed to pros on this forum. It’s nonsense.

 

They score well when they can manufacture a shot from trouble (that suits their stock, I should add) and putt well. 
 

That’s what I’m saying. 

Yes. I agree with you… but that doesn’t mean they cant work the ball… it’s just not a skill they bring to the course. 

[golftech]

Bruce Lietzke, 13 wins on the tour and definitely only worked the ball left to right.   

[Primo1868]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:49 PM, playit said:

I'd like to know if pros can shape their driver shots with these modern big driver heads for draws/fades to fit the dogleg shapes. And what about mere mortals, amateurs?

I can draw it, fade it, and hit sick nasty buttercuts. I just don’t know which one is gonna show up to the party! 

[HoosierHacker89]

Duck hook is the only draw you’d see out of my bag. 

[Jamie_Tee]

There is only two reasons not to be able to hit a draw/fade with modern drivers.  You can't control club path, or you can't control the club face.  Nobody has yet made a driver to defy physics, but I'm sure they are trying.

 

 

[Billfitz]

On that note pretty much everyone has a natural path and one that they have to work at. The one that's natural you're more likely to hit consistently, the one you have to work at you're less likely to hit consistently. You can pretty much tell which is which for anyone. When they hit a double cross that's the one they have to work at. When they miss it the double cross happens. Outside in tends to be the most natural path, explaining why a fade is more common than a draw, and why the most common double cross is a slice.

[MattC555]

Shaping a long iron either way on command I find to be a big ask, but I'm not losing sleep over bending a driver around a hard dogleg.  It's an exaggerated swing one way or the other. 

 

I prefer to hit a fade, but we have a hard dog leg left par 5 at my local course and I think it's fun to bend one around it.  I think it's pretty important to understand what in your swing makes the ball go one way or the other.  Certainly helps me avoid trouble at times. 

[dubbelbogey]

I'd say most good players could shape the their driver both ways, certainly any pro can.

 

But it's also true that many choose to not do so and will hit their favored driver shape independent of which way the hole bends (unless absolutely forced to by something like a very tight corridor of trees too high to clear).

 

One of my local courses has good number of dogleg left holes, and as a right handed golfer, I still hit a fade off the tee on every one of those. I do this because my the dispersion of my driver fade is tighter and more predictable than when I hit a draw. Going "against the grain" is a higher percentage play.

 

If a player has enough control of their driver to have and know their typical carry and dispersion pattern, then it's just a matter of knowing if the landing area is big enough to contain that pattern. Doesn't matter, really, which way the hole bends prior to or after that dispersion area. 

 

Edited September 28, 2021 by dubbelbogey

[Bad9]

1 hour ago, dubbelbogey said:

I'd say most good players could shape the their driver both ways, certainly any pro can.

 

But it's also true that many choose to not do so and will hit their favored driver shape independent of which way the hole bends (unless absolutely forced to by something like a very tight corridor of trees too high to clear).

 

One of my local courses has good number of dogleg left holes, and as a right handed golfer, I still hit a fade off the tee on every one of those. I do this because my the dispersion of my driver fade is tighter and more predictable than when I hit a draw. Going "against the grain" is a higher percentage play.

 

If a player has enough control of their driver to have and know their typical carry and dispersion pattern, then it's just a matter of knowing if the landing area is big enough to contain that pattern. Doesn't matter, really, which way the hole bends prior to or after that dispersion area. 

 

 

What you describe is how I have heard most pros(including Nicklaus) describe how they play, favour what they do well whenever possible. Its certainly goes against a common Wrx refrain of carving the ball left to right, right to left almost at will and its companion that "shot making" has left the modern game. I don't believe such shot making was ever as prevelant as some people think.

[EDT501]

I have yet to meet an elite player (college or pro) who can't shape the ball both directs. On the other hand, I know many great players who won't hit their non-dominant shape unless they are in deep trouble and have no other choice. Off the tee they prefer to lay back with a shorter club or take a slightly more indirect line than force their non-preferred shot off the tee. The know the shot that they are most confident in and take the path that best fits that shot rather than trying to match their shot shape to the hole.

 

Take Bubba, for example. I can't recall ever seeing him hit anything other that variations of his big fade off the tee, but his recovery shot in the 2012 Masters proves he can work the ball left to right on demand. 

 

Another example is DJ, he won't hit anything but a fade off the tee because that is what he has his utmost confidence in. But he has stated on multiple occasions that he will work the ball right to left if the approach shot demands it. In a recent Golf Digest article he said that he works the ball right to left slightly with his wedges as a way to control trajectory and spin. 

[Mcgeeno]

If my driver does anything but curve right to left I did something wrong (Left handed player).

 

The rare hole that comes around that doesnt suit my driver shape I usually hit a driving iron that I can turn over.