[elle123]

Originally Posted by SHIBUMI

Take a golf lesson, you either have a poor set-up or bad swing mechanics.

This step will help you get closer to the sweet spot more often but, remember, the sweet spot is the size of a pinhead on an iron. Expanded sweet spots are a myth. But on a driver it is partially true as the face is bigger.

Your goal is to hit closer to the sweet spot more often than not. That spot on an iron is about 4 grooves down from center and slightly inside about, I Said about, 1/8 of an inch. Thats also why you set the ball there at address. Seems like I heard that from somewhere before.

In a round of golf if you hit the sweet spot 5-6 times you have done outstanding. Like finding a needle in a haystack. But the more you are around it the better the miss hits. I strive to hit the sweet spot, but , I realize I am going to be off more often than not and I can feel it at impact. So if your sweet spot 7 -iron goes 165 than figure your normal 7 will go 160. You aint nutting the ball all the time so don't play that distance.

The driver sweet spot is above center and about, I said about, 1/8 inch toward toe. So teeing the ball above the clubhead makes sense. Fairway woods are hit closer to center still sweeping them. But YOU don't know what makes that happen, seek professional help. I like You Tube for fixing my toilet and not my golf swing.

When they come out with an iron the size of a tennis racket, then, there will be a bigger sweet spot. But, until then, seek professional help to get you closer to the head of that pin and your enjoyment of the game will skyrocket. Very Very Sweet!

Kirk Out....

Make sure the face of the club is square at impact.

[SHIBUMI]

back to the drawing board

Originally Posted by Sparky99

The single most important rule for hitting the golf club sweet spot more often is to start the downswing with your lower body (hips and legs) and keep your head and 7th cervical vertebra centered and steady, rather than pulling or swarming with your upper body and arms.

[SHIBUMI]

learning HOW to do it is the issue, the one I referred to. Seek Help...

Originally Posted by elle123

Make sure the face of the club is square at impact.

[SHIBUMI]

I had faith in you! Check your gnome, the sweet spot or center of gravity is a spot.
Contact with that spot produces maximum energy transfer. As you said.

The golf ball will leave a quarter size mark on the club face, if you can hit that quarter you will get the best results as your illustration provides because somewhere in that quarter is the sweet spot. It covers the dime in your illustration. Yes a quarter is bigger than a dime. But most players, not tour players are hitting a silver dollar or more spot causing varied results. As your illustration shows.

No club can make up for your hitting a silver dollar or more. And they'd say bigger faces bigger sweet spot which is untrue. Bigger faces better misses from not hitting that quarter spot.

Yes, almost impossible to repeat hitting that spot. BUT, nailing the quarter for most effective hits is possible. And thats what better players do.

How is it possible....too easy...fill in the blank..by learning HOW.

Thanks for the illustration and sorry to say a lot of folks are just happy with hitting the club face somewhere. I knew you could finally figure it out. Sweet!

And thanks to coach for his simplification for those confused souls. Very Sweet!

Originally Posted by BrianL99

If the sweet spot is merely a tiny, fixed point, why have golf club manufacturers spent the last century developing perimeter weighting, cavity backs, variable face thickness, and higher moments of inertia (MOI) ... all of which are used by the best players in the world.

Why aren't we all still playing with tiny 1930s blades?

Even the world's best tour professionals don't consistently strike the exact same pinhead-sized location on the clubface. Their impact patterns vary. If it didn't, why do PGA Tour Professionals, all use different clubs, all of which benefit from modern club technology?

The entire purpose of modern iron design is to minimize the loss of ball speed, distance, and accuracy when contact occurs away from the ideal impact location.

You're confusing a theoretical point of ideal impact with the larger area of the clubface that produces effective results. They're two entirely different concepts.

The sweet spot may be a point. Forgiveness is an area. That's the distinction you've missed.

Tiger Woods: "If I’m able to hit one perfect shot per tournament, it would be great." Source: Golf Digest — Tiger Woods on managing misses

Ben Hogan: "A good round of golf ... is when you can hit three shots that turn out exactly like you envision them before you swing the club." Source: The Irish Times — Dan Jenkins recounts Hogan's explanation

No one hits the exact "sweet spot', but we're supposed to believe that PGA instruction can teach amateurs in The Villages, to repeatedly strike a pinhead-sized point on an iron face? Nonsense.

Golf is a game of managing your poor shots, not making perfect shots.

Purposely complicating the process, isn't helpful to anyone other than someone who wants to get paid to uncomplicate it.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by Sparky99

The single most important rule for hitting the golf club sweet spot more often is to start the downswing with your lower body (hips and legs) and keep your head and 7th cervical vertebra centered and steady, rather than pulling or swarming with your upper body and arms.

I think Dustin Johnson used to mention that in most every interview, after a win.

Maybe Boo Weekley, too.

(actually, in 50 years of playing, I've never seen reference to the 7th vertebra)

In Byron Nelson's instructional book, Shape Your Swing the Modern Way, which was published in 1976, Nelson says ... ""If you will actively push your right knee toward the target to start the downswing, you will find it automatically causes the shoulders to drop and begin the forward swing on the correct path. Try it and you will see that it forces the start of the downswing without any conscious effort from the upper body."

Modern 3D photography has shown this approach is likely to lead to "humping the goat" (a ticket to Shank City) for most amateur golfers and the current wisdom advises that the downswing is initiated by the "lead side pulling the pelvis open (Athletic Motion Golf )" and the trail leg is passive.

[SHIBUMI]

This is true but not for seniors it is too hard on the back.

And probably why some of the young bucks have back problems.

Originally Posted by BrianL99

I think Dustin Johnson used to mention that in most every interview, after a win.

Maybe Boo Weekley, too.

(actually, in 50 years of playing, I've never seen reference to the 7th vertebra)

In Byron Nelson's instructional book, Shape Your Swing the Modern Way, which was published in 1976, Nelson says ... ""If you will actively push your right knee toward the target to start the downswing, you will find it automatically causes the shoulders to drop and begin the forward swing on the correct path. Try it and you will see that it forces the start of the downswing without any conscious effort from the upper body."

Modern 3D photography has shown this approach is likely to lead to "humping the goat" (a ticket to Shank City) for most amateur golfers and the current wisdom advises that the downswing is initiated by the "lead side pulling the pelvis open (Athletic Motion Golf )" and the trail leg is passive.