Clubface question

[Loop]

Most of the drivers these days have bulging heads. I understand why it would provide more power, with some kind of trampoline effect on dead center hits. And supposedly, they are more forgiving. Now when you make an in-to-out path, with a square clubface, but hit the ball at the toe of the club., wouldn't it make a push??

 

[Youngun5]

just one more thing that club manufactureres have found a way to confuse us

 

[grazo]

Loop

I think you're right. I've thought about this before and the only conclusion I can draw is that manufacturers are aware that they will exaggerate a push on an in-to-out swing path, but are happy to live with this because most amateurs would suffer from an out-to-in swing path, in which case the rounded clubface will help.

For Pros it's not an issue of course because they always find the centre.

:thumbup:

 

[Loop]

You've got a good point there Grazo....
Wait, come to think of it, if you're out to in, isn't it better that the clubface is slightly more closed than square, so to avoir bigger slices?
Okay, I'm stopping those mind boggling questions, it also confuses me :sobbash:

I'll just try to make more center hits.

 

[Jeff Gallo]

Most of the drivers these days have bulging heads. I understand why it would provide more power, with some kind of trampoline effect on dead center hits. And supposedly, they are more forgiving. Now when you make an in-to-out path, with a square clubface, but hit the ball at the toe of the club., wouldn't it make a push??

well in the unlikely event of an impact as such one would see a weak draw, because of the offcenter strike. however what most people dont understand is that a push or pull are not purely swing path, they are also based on club face alignment.
one example of this is that it has been drilled into everyones head that a slice is caused by the head moving from out to in. now a slice is very different from a pull and im sure most will agree there. why?

well the simplest explanation (ie without trying to explain the spin imparted on the ball and gear effect which i dont completely understand in this instance myself) is to boil direction down to a two dimentional idea. So, now we are viewing the ball flight from above, we have an X axis and a Y axis. now there are only two factors that will afect the two dimentional curve we will draw here initial direction (swing path) and final destination (face angle). so lets start with a ball on this grid, at impact the angle of the face is perpendicular to the y axis and therefore the ball's final destination will be somewhere on the y axis. then we look at the path, the initial motion of the ball will be inline with the momentum of the clubhead, so the ball will begin its flight lets say 4degrees right of the y axis and curve back onto the y axis at its end.

so in short the angle of the face determines where the ball ends up and the swing path determines the start of its flight. (note that this is slightly over simplified and therefore not one hundred percent correct.) this principle makes up for the bulge of clufaces in large part so by simply missing the sweetspot of the face more is lost in terms of energy transfer than direction.

 

[Rockford35]

Gallo pretty much has it. Off center hits lose more power rather than direction when it comes to oversized clubfaces.

On an in to out swing, you put left to right spin on the ball, creating a draw effect. And, hitting it on the toe increased this effect.

For example, if you hit a baseball off the end of the bat with an outside to inside swing (pulling the ball to left field) you put huge amounts of left to right/topspin on the ball and pull it foul, but weakly.

If you catch it sweet on the nails, it goes farther and stays fair. If you catch it inside on the label, it still goes to left, but with hardly any topspin or distance.

Conversely, if you hit the ball with your hands being late through the zone, you create right to left spin and the ball slices foul down the right feild line. AKA the slice.

The bulged face on the driver flattens in a trampoline effect apon impact. So, a square shot on a dead center hit results in a great shot. Off center, you hot the ball with more spin and less power transfer to the ball/less tramp effect resulting in weak fades or hooks. But, if the face it not square, but you hammer it on the screws, you hit a huge duck hook with fast hands and a big banana with late hands.

It's as simple as that. If the clubface were flat rather than buldged, you'd see less energy return to the ball. Try hitting a golf ball with a wooden baseball bat and then a pressure treated ash 2X4. No comparison.

Confused yet?

R35