ball flight question - two "curves"

[avrag]

but I can only do it with one club

Currently, I am falling more and more in love with my Nike SQ Sumo (non squared) driver. On the last few rounds I have played with it, I have hit more fairways than ever before.
But I notice a strange kind of ballflight, I never had before, and it is great. After starting out straight, the ball starts to move a little bit to the right once it gets really high. Then it has almost reached the apex. Now, at that point bad swings with my other drivers became full blooded slices, once they started to go right. But exactly at that point, many drives with the Nike just flatten, become straight again, and at the end even fall a little bit to the left. So the ball curves twice ever so slightly in the same shot. First left to right, than the opposite. Those drives are also by far the longest I have ever hit. Now, of course the Nike driver is extremly forgiving, everybody says so, and it is true. But I wonder what causes that strange ballflight. Do I manage to do something REALLY right, when that happens?

[sktheman]

knuckle fade + right to left wind perhaps?

[avrag]

knuckle fade

 

I wouldn't even dare to hope that. ;)

 

+ right to left wind perhaps?

 

No, not always. I had this ballflight a few dozen times now, no matter where the wind came from.

[irishfight4it]

optical illusion... your used to seeing it slice and the small amount of fade it has looks like a draw as it falls

[Zach Heusser]

Do start each hole with a clean or none scuffed ball?

[ezra76]

I've seen this flight you describe from an R5TP I had for a while. It seemed to fade just slightly but then drop in right to left. I really have no idea but wonder if the "gear effect" could physically cause the fight off the the sidespin that late in the ballflight. I say just keep bombing it and don't worry about it. ;)

[bignose]

optical illusion... your used to seeing it slice and the small amount of fade it has looks like a draw as it falls

 

The optical illusion is the most likely.

 

The laws of physics do not allow a spin reversal in mid-air like you describe. In order for a ball to slice then fade at the end, it would have to have right turning sidepsin to start, shed that, then pick up left turning sidespin to draw. This just doesn't happen. There is a little -- just a little -- of spin decay during ball flight. That is, the spin tends toward zero during the flight. The only way the ball can change spins would be if it was in the presence of very large velocity gradients in the air -- the velocity gradient would be needed because one side of the ball has to be pushed more than the other -- that's the only way the ball can gain spin while in the air.

 

I suspect that this is a slight push draw. The push takes the ball to the right, meanwhile the draw spin slowly brings the ball back to the left. The ball starts right due to the slight push, the draw eventually "balances" the push initial velocity -- when you think the ball is flying straight -- then eventually the draw becomes largest and that's why you see a little draw at the end. If you had a blimp's-eye view I think that this would be easy to see. But, it can be really hard to see from your point of view. Especially, as mentioned above, you are used to seeing sliced shots so your just assume that any ball going to the right is a slice, but that isn't always so.

[larrybud]

Currently, I am falling more and more in love with my Nike SQ Sumo (non squared) driver. On the last few rounds I have played with it, I have hit more fairways than ever before.

But I notice a strange kind of ballflight, I never had before, and it is great. After starting out straight, the ball starts to move a little bit to the right once it gets really high. Then it has almost reached the apex. Now, at that point bad swings with my other drivers became full blooded slices, once they started to go right. But exactly at that point, many drives with the Nike just flatten, become straight again, and at the end even fall a little bit to the left. So the ball curves twice ever so slightly in the same shot. First left to right, than the opposite. Those drives are also by far the longest I have ever hit. Now, of course the Nike driver is extremly forgiving, everybody says so, and it is true. But I wonder what causes that strange ballflight. Do I manage to do something REALLY right, when that happens?

Well, with no wind, the ball can't turn two different direction. The ball spin is along 1 axis and does not change.