What degree path is “too much”?

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

Was thinking about this earlier. I’ve been hitting the ball great lately, but my path numbers are higher than I’d like. Driver probably averages about 7-8° in to out, and in the rest of my bag my path gets closer to neutral all the way down. Wedges I’m probably about 3° inside.
 

I probably shouldn’t care as much about this, but at what path degree would you start to get worried? Obviously the face needs to line up (which I’ve been doing well) but certainly a 12° path would be too much, right? What do you think?

[phizzy30]

Anything above 5* either way starts becoming excessive, IMO. 

[golferdude54]

Knowledge of trigonometry, namely S.O.H.C.A.H.T.O.A., and average widths of fairways and greens will give you a good answer. To save you the time, approximately 3.5 degrees is when you start missing fairways and greens entirely.

[Nickb333]

Nobody said there would be a test! 

[ChxDigLongBall]

I read anything I see in Trackman that is +/- 2* as pretty down the line. Beyond that, in my opinion, it becomes difficult to get the face square to the path. 

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

9 minutes ago, ChxDigLongBall said:

I read anything I see in Trackman that is +/- 2* as pretty down the line. Beyond that, in my opinion, it becomes difficult to get the face square to the path. 

Doesn’t that get a bit too close to 0°? 2 way miss becomes pretty easy at that level

[bmbsawy]

2* either way with driver is about as far as you want to go

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

Just now, bmbsawy said:

2* either way with driver is about as far as you want to go

Wow that seems much lower than I would’ve guessed. IIRC Bryson and Brooks both play at about 5° (opposite ways)

[bmbsawy]

6 minutes ago, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

Wow that seems much lower than I would’ve guessed. IIRC Bryson and Brooks both play at about 5° (opposite ways)

I googled and trackman shows him at 1.7* out/in

 

theres no golden rule but generally the further you get away from 0 it requires better hand/eye to square the face regularly

[MonteScheinblum]

Most golfers can manage under 5 +or -

 

Around 2 is ideal for most

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

1 minute ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Most golfers can manage under 5 +or -

 

Around 2 is ideal for most

Thanks Monte. 

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

17 minutes ago, bmbsawy said:

I googled and trackman shows him at 1.7* out/in

 

theres no golden rule but generally the further you get away from 0 it requires better hand/eye to square the face regularly

Yeah you’re right I see the trackman blog. Many ways to skin a cat but some of these guys going like 0.5° with driver is wild to me

[dffjunior]

57 minutes ago, ChxDigLongBall said:

I read anything I see in Trackman that is +/- 2* as pretty down the line. Beyond that, in my opinion, it becomes difficult to get the face square to the path. 

You wouldn't want face square to path anyway, you'd be hitting dead pull/push.

 

There's no right answer here, you want to work with a fitter or coach to determine your best swing.  If you're 4 degrees inside but open 3 degree to path you'll hit a manageable fade.  My coach started me out to in slightly open to path and it was a nice high fade but I was never comfortable with the swing so I'm back to in-to-out and closed to path for a baby draw.

[phizzy30]

delete

Edited May 10 by phizzy30

[Chunkitgood]

It may be impractical to emulate a professional or achieve an ideal.

 

Monitor path angles are a bit puzzling to me since nobody sets up exactly parallel to some imagined target line, as far as I can tell.  Can anybody explain?

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

4 hours ago, Chunkitgood said:

It may be impractical to emulate a professional or achieve an ideal.

 

Monitor path angles are a bit puzzling to me since nobody sets up exactly parallel to some imagined target line, as far as I can tell.  Can anybody explain?

This is interesting I’ve never considered it

[doctor220]

On 5/10/2024 at 1:42 AM, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

Yeah you’re right I see the trackman blog. Many ways to skin a cat but some of these guys going like 0.5° with driver is wild to me

Why? They hit the ball very straight. This concept that you have to curve the ball only one way is ludicrous. Generally as people improve their path becomes closer to zero. It’s far more common for double digit handicaps to have a path 4+ in one direction than it is for a + handicap. 
 

accidentally hitting a 5 yd draw instead of a 10 yd fade with a driver is rarely fatal. 

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

On 5/12/2024 at 4:57 AM, doctor220 said:

Why? They hit the ball very straight. This concept that you have to curve the ball only one way is ludicrous. Generally as people improve their path becomes closer to zero. It’s far more common for double digit handicaps to have a path 4+ in one direction than it is for a + handicap. 
 

accidentally hitting a 5 yd draw instead of a 10 yd fade with a driver is rarely fatal. 

More so saying that it's so impressive they can swing at 120 mph with a 0.5 path consistently 

[Nickb333]

11 hours ago, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

More so saying that it's so impressive they can swing at 120 mph with a 0.5 path consistently 

Happy to read that 3 is OK. I just finished testing a couple 7 irons and one 6. Average path was 1.5. The problem was roughly half were 3-4 i-o and half were 3-4 o-i. 

[GungHoGolf]

7 minutes ago, Nickb333 said:

I just finished testing a couple 7 irons and one 6. Average path was 1.5. The problem was roughly half were 3-4 i-o and half were 3-4 o-i. 

That’s unusual, unless you tried to correct mid-session. Just curious, what’s your index, and what kind of launch monitor were you using?

 

Regarding the average, you can drown in a lake with an average depth of 1.5” lol.

 

[Nickb333]

1 hour ago, GungHoGolf said:

That’s unusual, unless you tried to correct mid-session. Just curious, what’s your index, and what kind of launch monitor were you using?

 

Regarding the average, you can drown in a lake with an average depth of 1.5” lol.

 

Ya, I’m in transition to be sure. Before I knew what kind of path numbers mattered, I was probably -6 or more consistently. Working hard to arrest my life long OTT habit. So yes, lots of corrective moves. 
 

Also, all 3 clubs had different shafts. 6i mmt 105s, 7i kbs tour s, 7i dg 85ss regular. 

Current index is 17 but I doubt anyone would believe it based on my good strikes. I’m very inconsistent. If I could eliminate 2 holes per side I’d be a 10 or better again. 
 

Anyway, the monitor is a foresight system of some kind. Overhead cameras and includes full club data when you apply the dots on your club properly. They just did a full update and it seems to be consistent to me. 

 

 

Edited May 14 by Nickb333