Stupid question - if I open my club face (irons) I get more distance but even that has failed now...

[murfman89]

Hello,

I am 53/250lbs and can hit my 3wood 240 easily and driver 250-270, but my irons over the last year have started to decrease in length/distance.   I find that if I open the club face (probably wrong) on back swing I can get more solid distance.   If I go square face, slightly shut on backswing I lose distance but gain some accuracy (sometimes I duck hook the shot, probably grip).   Is opening and some what rolling the wrist open wrong if I can hit it further but have less accuracy ?

[otto6457]

You will get more responses in the regular Instruction forum.  This forum is almost exclusively dedicated to Hogan and his swing dynamics.

[SwagGolf6112]

On 9/27/2022 at 2:50 AM, murfman89 said:

Hello,

I am 53/250lbs and can hit my 3wood 240 easily and driver 250-270, but my irons over the last year have started to decrease in length/distance.   I find that if I open the club face (probably wrong) on back swing I can get more solid distance.   If I go square face, slightly shut on backswing I lose distance but gain some accuracy (sometimes I duck hook the shot, probably grip).   Is opening and some what rolling the wrist open wrong if I can hit it further but have less accuracy ?

 

Without seeing a video of your swing it is very difficult to see where it all goes awry. With that said I'd like to give my two cents. And as this is the Hogan forum I will no doubt steer it into the Hogan mechanic LOL

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The "clues" you've given are as follows and I will try to see if I can piece it together into a coherent opinion.

 

Clue No. 1

"I am 53/250lbs and can hit my 3wood 240 easily and driver 250-270"

My assumption

So either you're a very strong individual or have an already decent swing mechanic(idiosyncracy and all).

 

Clue No. 2

"If I go square face, slightly shut on backswing I lose distance but gain some accuracy (sometimes I duck hook the shot, probably grip)"

My assumption

Your swing plane is upright and you having a rolling/flip release pattern. So when you keep the face square of shut and your sequence is off you will hit that dreaded quacker due to outside in path and shut face. And unless you're gumby having a shut face with a steep backswing it will limit your ability to turn, hence.. "lost of distance"

 

Clue No.3

"I find that if I open the club face (probably wrong) on back swing I can get more solid distance"

My assumption

Refer to my assumption from clue no.2 regarding your steep plane of backswing and limited turn. So when you open the face which I assume you did it by rotation of your forearms rather than a flick of your wrists, it get your backswing more on plane with fuller rotation and in a better angle to attack the ball on the downswing. Hence.. "more solid distance but less accuracy" due to the face being open and you don't have a clear picture of how you're gonna square the face on the way back.

 

 

So in conclusion..

 

- No, it isn't wrong to rotate the face open in the backswing.. Hogan did that as well(I told you I was gonna bring Hogan into this LOL)

 

- You can hit it further and actually gain more accuracy if you know how to "square the face" after having the forearms rotate open.. nudge nudge, wink wink LOL

 

 

Have a blessed day. Cheers!