REPORT - hybrids
Hybrids & Fairway Woods How to Make the Ball Fly from the Fairway
Easy Golf Lesson Series
HYBRIDS and FAIRWAY WOODS How to Make ʻem Fly... Darrell, “I bought one of those super new XYZ hybrids a few weeks back, and is it ever a great golf club!” So I comment, “Really? That sounds wonderful. How are you hitting it?” Get this one. The answer to my question usually goes like this, “Well, thatʼs why Iʼm calling you. Some of my friends hit their hybrids like a professional, but I canʼt hit mine to save my life. Can you help me?” This is such a common story and it makes me laugh in one way, and then it makes me sad in another way. I laugh because golfers tend to go out and buy whatever they think will make them a better golfer--everything but good professional instruction, usually. The other is real simple. Golfers tend also to not want to be outdone by another golfer. If their friends have a new club then they want one, also. What crazy game!! How did we come to a place where we let others dictate what we do? Back to the first statement for a moment before we go go ay further with this. Golfers CANNOT purchase a golf club which will suddenly make them a great player. Tiger, Phil, and all of the others are paid to tell you they hit XYZ club and it is the “best” one out there. There are certain laws of physics out there, and none of us is going to change any of them. The R&A in Europe and the USGA in the United States make rules concerning golf clubs, golf balls, and how each is designed and constructed. When all of the dust has cleared a golf ball will only fly when it is in forward motion and has backward spin. It is all that simple, and none of us is going to ever be able to change it. As a result of all of this, the only thing we must learn to do with a hybrid or a fairway wood is to spin the golf ball backward. As my grand daughter used to tell me when I would try to tell her a story she didnʼt wish to hear, THE END, Grandpa. Now, how are we going to accomplish this task? That is why I have written this report. I want to show you how completely simple this task actually cane be. Kin physics we have something called “center of gravity.” quite simply expressed, this is nothing more than the place inside an object where the exact center of the weight is. As an example, I the case of a golf ball, the center of gravity is in the exact center of that sphere.
Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
Letʼs now look at another form of a ball. This time we are going to consider a tennis ball. This ball is hollow in the center, however it is still a perfectly round object. Even though the center if the tennis ball is hollow the center of gravity for the tennis ball is still in the exact center of the sphere. New we will take a look at a hybrid or a fairway wood. This is not a perfect sphere, so physics has formulas and methods for calculating exactly where the center of the weight of that club head might be inside this also hollow object. If the head of one of these clubs were made of a consistent thickness the the center of the weight would be in one specific place. However, those clubs are intentionally designed in order to make them easy for us to spin the golf ball. The club heads are designed so there is more weight in the lower portion. This intentionally moves the “center of gravity” to a place which is quite low in the club head. I know all of this sounds quite technical, but it will really help you to do a much better job of hitting these simple clubs. In order to create backspin the only requirement is for the center of gravity in the club head to be lower than the center of gravity in the golf ball upon impact. Let me be just a bit more technical for a few moments. The golf ball is 1.68 inches in diameter, which means the center of gravity on a golf ball is .84 inches from the bottom of the ball. Donʼt worry about trying to remember all of this. I only want to show you in a manner which I have never used in the past how this all works. It can and will vary a small amount, but basically the center of gravity in a hybrid or a fairway wood is probably somewhere around .33 to .40 inches from the bottom of the club head. At this rate, if you were to place a golf ball and a hybrid or fairway wood club head flat on a counter top the center of gravity of the club heads would be more than a quarter of an inch, and in some club head designs maybe as much as a half inch, lower than the center of gravity of the golf ball. If you can visualize this picture you will suddenly realize that if the club head were pushed or propelled forward along that table top backspin would be applied to the golf ball as it sprung off the face of the club head. Try to visualize one more thing if you would. If the club head had an angle of fifteen degrees of loft in the club face the ball would also be launched at an angle of fifteen degrees. In other words, the ball would spring off the club face with a launch angle of fifteen degrees and it would have backward spin. Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
We have just created flight. The reason golfers have struggled with all of this is because they are attempting to strike the golf ball in and upward sweeping motion of the club head. They feel like they must get UNDER the golf ball and lift it into the air. As a result of this CONCEPT they have lifted the center of gravity of the club head IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE GOLF BALL. They have raised the club head to a point where the center of gravity inside it is now higher than the center of gravity of the golf ball which is still resting on the turf. In order to remedy this we must learn to simply BOUNCE TEH SOLE OF THE CLUB HEAD ON THE TURF RIGHT AT THE BACK OF THE GOLF BALL. This aligns the two centers of gravity so the ball will spring off the club face at the same angle as the loft of the club, and the golf ball will have backward spin. Once you can do this consistently you will ALWAYS HAVE FLIGHT AND SOLID CONTACT. After you can do that consistently, then all you need to do is to rotate the club either more closed or more open in your hands in order to create the curve shape you desire, whether it be to draw or fade the ball. We use the same left and right curve concept to COUNTER the slice or hook spin which we are unintentionally applying to the golf ball. Now you can hit your hybrids and your fairway woods, and you can also begin to control the way they curve in flight. This is the whole essence of playing golf, to make the golf ball fly and to control where it flies.
Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
Easy Golf Lesson Series
HYBRIDS and FAIRWAY WOODS How to Make ʻem Fly... Darrell, “I bought one of those super new XYZ hybrids a few weeks back, and is it ever a great golf club!” So I comment, “Really? That sounds wonderful. How are you hitting it?” Get this one. The answer to my question usually goes like this, “Well, thatʼs why Iʼm calling you. Some of my friends hit their hybrids like a professional, but I canʼt hit mine to save my life. Can you help me?” This is such a common story and it makes me laugh in one way, and then it makes me sad in another way. I laugh because golfers tend to go out and buy whatever they think will make them a better golfer--everything but good professional instruction, usually. The other is real simple. Golfers tend also to not want to be outdone by another golfer. If their friends have a new club then they want one, also. What crazy game!! How did we come to a place where we let others dictate what we do? Back to the first statement for a moment before we go go ay further with this. Golfers CANNOT purchase a golf club which will suddenly make them a great player. Tiger, Phil, and all of the others are paid to tell you they hit XYZ club and it is the “best” one out there. There are certain laws of physics out there, and none of us is going to change any of them. The R&A in Europe and the USGA in the United States make rules concerning golf clubs, golf balls, and how each is designed and constructed. When all of the dust has cleared a golf ball will only fly when it is in forward motion and has backward spin. It is all that simple, and none of us is going to ever be able to change it. As a result of all of this, the only thing we must learn to do with a hybrid or a fairway wood is to spin the golf ball backward. As my grand daughter used to tell me when I would try to tell her a story she didnʼt wish to hear, THE END, Grandpa. Now, how are we going to accomplish this task? That is why I have written this report. I want to show you how completely simple this task actually cane be. Kin physics we have something called “center of gravity.” quite simply expressed, this is nothing more than the place inside an object where the exact center of the weight is. As an example, I the case of a golf ball, the center of gravity is in the exact center of that sphere.
Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
Letʼs now look at another form of a ball. This time we are going to consider a tennis ball. This ball is hollow in the center, however it is still a perfectly round object. Even though the center if the tennis ball is hollow the center of gravity for the tennis ball is still in the exact center of the sphere. New we will take a look at a hybrid or a fairway wood. This is not a perfect sphere, so physics has formulas and methods for calculating exactly where the center of the weight of that club head might be inside this also hollow object. If the head of one of these clubs were made of a consistent thickness the the center of the weight would be in one specific place. However, those clubs are intentionally designed in order to make them easy for us to spin the golf ball. The club heads are designed so there is more weight in the lower portion. This intentionally moves the “center of gravity” to a place which is quite low in the club head. I know all of this sounds quite technical, but it will really help you to do a much better job of hitting these simple clubs. In order to create backspin the only requirement is for the center of gravity in the club head to be lower than the center of gravity in the golf ball upon impact. Let me be just a bit more technical for a few moments. The golf ball is 1.68 inches in diameter, which means the center of gravity on a golf ball is .84 inches from the bottom of the ball. Donʼt worry about trying to remember all of this. I only want to show you in a manner which I have never used in the past how this all works. It can and will vary a small amount, but basically the center of gravity in a hybrid or a fairway wood is probably somewhere around .33 to .40 inches from the bottom of the club head. At this rate, if you were to place a golf ball and a hybrid or fairway wood club head flat on a counter top the center of gravity of the club heads would be more than a quarter of an inch, and in some club head designs maybe as much as a half inch, lower than the center of gravity of the golf ball. If you can visualize this picture you will suddenly realize that if the club head were pushed or propelled forward along that table top backspin would be applied to the golf ball as it sprung off the face of the club head. Try to visualize one more thing if you would. If the club head had an angle of fifteen degrees of loft in the club face the ball would also be launched at an angle of fifteen degrees. In other words, the ball would spring off the club face with a launch angle of fifteen degrees and it would have backward spin. Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
We have just created flight. The reason golfers have struggled with all of this is because they are attempting to strike the golf ball in and upward sweeping motion of the club head. They feel like they must get UNDER the golf ball and lift it into the air. As a result of this CONCEPT they have lifted the center of gravity of the club head IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE GOLF BALL. They have raised the club head to a point where the center of gravity inside it is now higher than the center of gravity of the golf ball which is still resting on the turf. In order to remedy this we must learn to simply BOUNCE TEH SOLE OF THE CLUB HEAD ON THE TURF RIGHT AT THE BACK OF THE GOLF BALL. This aligns the two centers of gravity so the ball will spring off the club face at the same angle as the loft of the club, and the golf ball will have backward spin. Once you can do this consistently you will ALWAYS HAVE FLIGHT AND SOLID CONTACT. After you can do that consistently, then all you need to do is to rotate the club either more closed or more open in your hands in order to create the curve shape you desire, whether it be to draw or fade the ball. We use the same left and right curve concept to COUNTER the slice or hook spin which we are unintentionally applying to the golf ball. Now you can hit your hybrids and your fairway woods, and you can also begin to control the way they curve in flight. This is the whole essence of playing golf, to make the golf ball fly and to control where it flies.
Fairway Woods and Hybrids... How to Make ‘em Fly....
