Understanding Your Ball Flight

Although grip, stance, posture etc. are all very important, your golf ball only knows what your clubface tells it to do. The best place to start when trying to improve your golf shots is to understand what’s happening at impact.

We hope the following article will help you to understand what is happening at your impact to cause your most common ball flights, other ball flights, and the ball flight you dream of.

To keep the complex subject of ball flight as simple as possible, we will focus on the two main factors  that affect where your ball goes - Swingpath and Clubface alignment at impact.

Swingpath relative to ball-to-target line
(Ball-to-Target line shown by the clubs on the ground, the target is the white dot)

                 Out to In                                     In to Out                                      In to In

Clubface Alignment relative to swingpath
Important! - In to In swingpath used for illustration only, clubface angles can be square, open or closed relative to any of the swingpaths above.

         Square to swingpath                    Open to swingpath                      Closed to swingpath

Use the combinations below to help you evaluate your most common ball flight(s). The easiest way to do this will be to find your ball flight in the photos on the righthand side and then find out what is causing it.

Be careful! - be honest with yourself when identifying your ball flight. For example many people believe  that they Slice the ball when in fact they Push Slice the ball.

The Out to In Swingpath Family

 The Pull

         Out to In Swingpath            + Clubface Square to Swingpath     =            Pull

The Slice

         Out to In Swingpath             +       Clubface Open to Swingpath       =      Slice

The Pull Hook

         Out to In Swingpath            + Clubface Closed to Swingpath       =       Pull Hook

The In to Out Swingpath Family

The Push

         In to Out Swingpath            +  Clubface Square to Swingpath      =         Push

The Push Slice

         In to out Swingpath              +  Clubface Open to Swingpath        =    Push Slice

The Hook

         In to Out Swingpath            + Clubface Closed to Swingpath       =           Hook

The In to In Swingpath Family

The Straight Shot

           In to In Swingpath                + Clubface Square to Swingpath     =        Straight

The Push Slice (again!)

           In to In Swingpath                +   Clubface Open to Swingpath            = Push Slice

The Pull Hook (again!)

           In to In Swingpath              +  Clubface Closed to Swingpath         =   Pull Hook

As you can see from all the swingpath and clubface alignment combinations shown above the only combination that results in the ball finishing on target is the Straight Shot, (this combination is also the hardest to achieve!). The combinations above also show there is, unfortunately, more than one way to hit the same errant shot!

However, it is possible to to hit golf shots that curve in the air and finish on target, these are the Fade and Draw shot that require more specific swingpath and clubface alignment conditions at impact.

The Fade Shot

         Out to In Swingpath            + Clubface Open to Swingpath,      =            Fade
                                                       but Closed to ball-to-target line

The Draw Shot

         In to Out Swingpath             +    Clubface Closed to Swingpath,     =       Draw
                                                           but Open to ball-to-target line

In reality, for a good player in particular, the Fade and Draw shots are easier to hit with more regularity than a straight shot.  From playing and watching golf yourself you will already be aware that you rarely ever see a perfectly straight shot. 

As coaches, when teaching a student and gaining information about their swing from their ball flight we also have to consider the other factors that affect the ball. These are the angle of attack, clubhead speed, quality of strike and the club being used. As stated at the top of the article we have tried to keep this explanation of ball flight as simple as possible by focusing on only the two most important factors that affect ball flight - every shot you hit (even putts) is affected by all of the factors.

We hope you have found this article helpful. If you have any questions or for further information please email us, we are more than happy to help.