iron push draw vs straight draw

Dewdman42 · February 15

so I have a pretty consistent iron draw I can make as I swing from in-out fairly routinely. Fine so far. However I am getting into nitty gritty about how to line up for my shots consistently. I typically am lining up straight at target and attempting to get a pretty push draw. which means club face open from the target line but not as much open as my in-out club path. In theory if I get all those things angles right..the face open just the right amount and my in-out path just right..I get my baby push draw. I'm not so sure my in-out path is absolutely consistent either.

But I am considering about the possibility of lining up feet right of target and going for a straight draw. I think this is probably counter to conventional wisdom, so I want to just run some of my thinking past this group...hear arguments about it...

For one thing, I think I like the idea of lining up my feet with the direction I want the ball to fly initially. But I don't know if this is right or wrong, help me to see both sides. Ultimately that gives me body awareness that once i have stanced for the shot, I will be trying to bring the club face square to that stance, with precision. As opposed to thinking about squaring the face to some direction to the right of the target, which is a bit hazy in the mind during the downswing while I am looking down at the ball.

For another thing, that means I will be able to deloft the club better bringing the face square to my feet and the rest of my body, as opposed to a push draw where it should be slightly open from the foot target line. In my mind that equates to more compression, distance, penetration, etc. compared to a push draw.

I understand about pychological factors, lining up right of the target may cause me to start swinging out-in or other strange things if I know the target is to the left of where I'm lined up. I get that and will take that into consideration also, but mainly I think I'm asking about ideal swing mechanics. Seems like a push draw is somewhat compromised swing mechanics in order to have a pretty push draw, which indeed looks pretty, and perhaps getting over the pyschology of lining up the feet right of the target.

Either way we have to kind of know what our in-out swing path is like and either open the face by an amount less then that, for push draw, or line up our feet to the right by a certain amount that will account for our expected draw based also on our expected in-out path. either way we have to make this calculation of the angles to get the line and club-address right...the main difference i see is that with push draw you have to bring the club face square at impact to some nebulous angle to the right of the target which we rean't looking at while we swing...whereas with a straight draw we bring it square relative to our feet, which we can feel at least, and also this brings a degree or two of delofting compared to push draw...

Well....tell me your thoughts please...

Some of this might be related to d-plane also....would be curious how any of that might relate here.

Dewdman42 · February 15

I suppose another interesting positive reason for using a push draw is that if your swing is fairly significant in-out, then a straight draw is going to draw a lot, probably more then we want unless we go for a steeper/straighter downswing. Whereas with a flatter/in-out swing...the open face is closer to in line with the club path, in other words...baby draw while still coming from inside. Maybe i just talked myself out of the straight draw.

phizzy30 · February 16

I play a straight draw and it can get very wonky and unpredictable when my swing goes off the rails. When I'm off, the ball starts off at the target and curves more than I want. I'd much rather play a push draw honestly. At least you know the ball will start off right and turnover. It's more predictable and the margin of error is significantly less, IMO.

TLUBulldogGolf · February 16

The mechanics are the same if you are talking about a draw that ends up at the target. Certain face angle right of target with a path more right of that. Use whatever setup is most reliable to produce the shot that ends up on target.

My natural flight is a very slight draw and it feels more natural to me to align to the target and let my path etc. produce the draw. If I want to move it more like around trees or something then I will adjust my setup more to the right.