Understanding The Ball Flight Basics

Jason Sutton

Jason Sutton

SwingU Master Faculty, Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, #1 in North Carolina by Golf Digest

One of the most important things to know as a student is ball flight. This will help you as you start to diagnose your shot on the range or the golf course.

The number one basic in ball flight is understanding that the clubface is responsible for the initial start direction of your shots. If your clubface is pointing to the right of the target, the ball will start to the right. The same if it was facing towards the target, it will go straight and will go to the left if the clubface is pointing to the left. The second basic is the direction that the club path is what creates the curvature of the golf ball.

If you’re slicing the golf ball, your club head is traveling outside the target line and swinging to the left too much with a clubface that is facing towards the right. When the clubface is pointing towards the target line but the clubhead is moving across the ball, the ball will slice.

For the hookers, the clubhead is moving from the inside with a clubface that is left of the path which will hook the ball.