Which loft would you recommend for me?

[Roy]

Okay i have been using 10.5 loft forever but my Driver shots go Very high and about 170-215 depending on how high it goes.. Now my swing is very freaky i have to open the face alot to get the ball to go straight when i swing but at impact it square. Its a HeadCase of mine , It lets me know i need to close the face when i swing and it happens. Do you think i should go with a 7* or maybe a 8* driver to get more distance out of the driver or do you think i'am just poping the ball up? Any comments would be great.

[Slingblade61]

I have a pretty high ball flight as well. I usually have time for tea while I wait for it to come down.

I will, on occasion, move the ball back in my stance and that seems to help some.

[Roy]

heh I guess i should have said this as well. The ball is on the inside of my right foot .

[Youngun5]

if you're hitting it straight i wouldn't worry unless its putting stress on other parts of your game.....

off topic, how're you liking your irons?

[Roy]

Well, I was praying they would make it to my house by Today. But as always Usps let me down "again" So it will be Mon,Tuesday before i get them.

[Roy]

I just feel iam getting robbed some distance on my drives because how high they are balloning. They go mid flight then just ballon up with no spin forward so no rolling distance. I havent tryed hitting a lower loft driver so i figured i would see what everyone else had to say about it.

[ualtim]

Try teeing the ball lower. If you are hitting the upper part of the face, the built in roll will actually have your loft a bit higher than at the center of the face. Do not press it all the way to the ground, but experiement by gradually lowering the ball height. Combine that with moving the ball back in your stance a bit (not too much again, experiment in small increments) and if you are still ballooning your drives, you may want to start trying out different lofts to see if that helps.

I was experimenting with a 14* Driver the other day and found that lowering the tee height and bring the ball back a bit really helped with the ballooning. 14* Is a bit much for me, so I am sticking with my 10.5 for now.

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by Roy

heh I guess i should have said this as well. The ball is on the inside of my right foot .

I'm assuming you're left handed?

Teeing the ball lower and changing the loft won't create a consistent ball flight from the tee. Those are just bandaids for a larger problem.

The problem is most likely the shaft. You probably have a low kick shaft in your driver, which gets the ball airborne much faster. What you need is a mid-low or mid kick shaft.

It's somewhat of a myth that loft makes the ball go lower/higher. I hit my ball super high, so high that when I play with new guys, they wonder how I can do it with an 8* driver. It's all in the low kick shaft.

To optimize ball flight, you want carry maximized along with a good launch angle for your swingspeed. There are alot of factors involved in this, but to simplify, you want a driver with a decent weight for your swing that has the proper characteristics for the ball flight that you are trying to achieve. Then, once you've established how you want the ball to fly (high/mid/low) you can fine tune that club by establishing what degree loft you should be using.....if you want just a bit more control, you go to a higher loft....if you want more peircing drives, you go with a lower loft.

Don't think that hitting an 8* driver is going to make you gain 70 yards on your drives. But a shaft might.

R35

[KB1982]

Hit up a launch monitor and get your launch angle checked. In my opinion it's one of the most overlooked stats that people don't take into consideration.

Playing a lower lofted club, especially if you don't have a high enough SS will rob you of even more yards. If your drives are in the 200 range, your SS is probably somewhere in the 80-85 range. Which means with a lower lofted club, you'll get even less distance. Work on building up your SS then maybe you'd be better off with a lower loft, or even the shaft.

Check the bags for the guys on tour. I'd say a good 60% of them play a 9.5 or higher. And the ones that play a 8.5 are the ones with SS's in the 120+ range.

[dave.]

Work on your swing before you spend any money on gear.

[Roy]

I'am right handed and I take granny swings because I cant seem to keep the club on the right path in the downswing doing my full swing speeds. Moving the ball in the inside of my right foot helps me come around and make a straight or slighty draw on the ball. If i tryed to put the ball in the middle or even on my inside left foot i'll banana slice it. My shaft is a Aldila HM-65 with a .350 tip if that helps.. It seems whipy but i kinda like it.

[Silver]

you are left handed, right?

[Roy]

Right handed

[GregInOz]

From how far back you seem to have the ball, it seems that you are chopping down on it very steeply. This downward blow will cause a great deal of backspin and hence the ball will balloon and you'll lose distance. This doesn't seem to be an issue of equipment, but your technique.

I, being a hacker will not attemp to give you a lesson, but you probably need to look at a more conventional setup (there's lots of literature on this if you need it). Playing the ball back will only lower ballflight if you can still make a level strike at it.

[dave.]

Rory,just don't fall for the techy babble just yet.Tip size has a small effect on feel providing you strike the ball consistently,but what shaft is that? The HM is assoicated with their Tou spec shafts and they are all .335 tip? What exactly does it say on the label?