Should I be switching my shot shape at will while I'm playing??

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, chisag said:

... I am beginning too think you are a Robot here just to disagree with everything I believe.   

I'm laughing, and I'm sure you know better.  I just don't think you can eliminate anything.  Yes, you absolutely need to plan your start line to accommodate your normal shot shape, that's the way to hit the most fairways.  Yes, for most players, planning for a straight shot is foolhardy, you have to understand your tendencies and plan accordingly.   But for all that planning, you'll still miss on both sides, you won't eliminate anything.  And again, DJ is one of the best drivers of the ball on the planet, and he chooses to play a fade to increase consistency, and he still misses about the same percentage left as he does right.  If HE can't eliminate one side, I sure as hell can't.  

[chisag]

24 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I'm laughing, and I'm sure you know better.  I just don't think you can eliminate anything.  Yes, you absolutely need to plan your start line to accommodate your normal shot shape, that's the way to hit the most fairways.  Yes, for most players, planning for a straight shot is foolhardy, you have to understand your tendencies and plan accordingly.   But for all that planning, you'll still miss on both sides, you won't eliminate anything.  And again, DJ is one of the best drivers of the ball on the planet, and he chooses to play a fade to increase consistency, and he still misses about the same percentage left as he does right.  If HE can't eliminate one side, I sure as hell can't.  

 

... DJ is infinitely a better driver of the ball than the players I am referencing. He is gonna miss left by driving it too far, not getting the slight cut he planned for and did I say driving it too far? He is also not going to miss right very often because his fade rarely turns into a slice. Most better Ams have a repeatable normal flight as well as a normal miss and they will miss one way more than the other. But I agree Dave, if you are gonna be a rules/grammer stickler, you can't eliminate anything in golf let alone one side of the fairway. As my ex playing pard and a lawyer might say "You can mitigate a drive and make one side of the fairway less grievous" and then charge me a drink for a consultation fee.  

[DaveP043]

3 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... DJ is infinitely a better driver of the ball than the players I am referencing. He is gonna miss left by driving it too far, not getting the slight cut he planned for and did I say driving it too far? He is also not going to miss right very often because his fade rarely turns into a slice. Most better Ams have a repeatable normal flight as well as a normal miss and they will miss one way more than the other. But I agree Dave, if you are gonna be a rules/grammer stickler, you can't eliminate anything in golf let alone one side of the fairway. As my ex playing pard and a lawyer might say "You can mitigate a drive and make one side of the fairway less grievous" and then charge me a drink for a consultation fee.  

One of the things I learned reading Every Shot Counts is that, depending on the location of trouble, and the type of trouble (trees, water, OB, wilderness?), sometimes the best place to aim is in the rough.  Not start line, but the spot to try to have the ball end up.  Try to eliminate the Stroke and Distance side, in favor of the woods or water side.

[cnosil]

I personally think this whole eliminate one side if the fairway is a falsehood created by the TV announcers.  Players pick a spot where they want the ball to end up and aim based their ball flight.  All payers have a dispersion pattern that is larger (left/right) the farther they hit the ball.  Given that target half the balls should be left if their target and half should be right you can’t eliminate one side unless you have the wrong target. 

[Shankster]

Man, this is getting deeeeep.  We are talking about the wilderness, I love it.

[RickyBobby_PR]

56 minutes ago, cnosil said:

I personally think this whole eliminate one side if the fairway is a falsehood created by the TV announcers.  Players pick a spot where they want the ball to end up and aim based their ball flight.  All payers have a dispersion pattern that is larger (left/right) the farther they hit the ball.  Given that target half the balls should be left if their target and half should be right you can’t eliminate one side unless you have the wrong target. 

You think it’s a falsehood too when fitters and coaches work with golfers to work on a swing and a club setup that to do that?

Two of the instructors I worked with took that approach with building the swing and switching from a draw to a fade.

Worked with the Ping fitter to help keep that approach later that year. 

[Shankster]

It’s funny that people used to think smoking made you faster at running.  

[chisag]

4 minutes ago, Shankster said:

It’s funny that people used to think smoking made you faster at running.  

 

... When the Earth was flat it might have. 

[cnosil]

10 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

You think it’s a falsehood too when fitters and coaches work with golfers to work on a swing and a club setup that to do that?

Two of the instructors I worked with took that approach with building the swing and switching from a draw to a fade.

Worked with the Ping fitter to help keep that approach later that year.  You are talking ball flight.  Sure you can setup a club to move the ball right to left or left to right more consistently.  You will still have a dispersion pattern that you should center over your target and you

you are talking about ball flight.  Sure you can build a setup that has a more consistent left to right or right to left ball flight.   Every player has a dispersion pattern and with the distance pros hit the ball it is about 60-70 yards wide; amateurs may or may not be narrower since they don’t hit the ball as far . On any given shot a player will hit a ball somewhere in that pattern and when you center your pattern over your target half will be left of that target and half will be right.  It is a falsehood that they eliminate a side if the fairway; what they do is they may aim toward one side of the fairway to account for their ball flight 

[chisag]

14 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Every player has a dispersion pattern and with the distance pros hit the ball it is about 60-70 yards wide; amateurs may or may not be narrower since they don’t hit the ball as far

 

... I mentioned I played with a mini tour player that averaged about 350 off the tee at my home course. He hit 2 shots into the desert that would have not been in the rough, but in the fairway for me. Right down the left side of the fairway and some slope brings it back to the left side or center. But he flew it over the side slope just hitting the downslope and after 320yds he ran out of fairway and ended up in a bush 365 yds from his tees. Played that hole over 1k times and I would have never guessed that bush might be in play from the tee. On several holes when he hit driver his fairway was maybe 25% the size of mine. It was a real eye opener because his margin of error was so much less than mine.

... Not to be left out I play with a guy turning 80 this week and the same thing happens for him. He rarely misses a fairway and when he does it is just in the rough because he hits it about 200 off the tee and his fairway is much wider than mine. 

[cnosil]

2 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... I mentioned I played with a mini tour player that averaged about 350 off the tee at my home course. He hit 2 shots into the desert that would have been in the rough but in the fairway for me. Right down the left side of the fairway and some slope brings it back to the left side or center. But he flew it over the side slope just hitting the downslope and after 320yds he ran out of fairway and ended up in a bush 365 yds from his tees. Played that hole over 1k times and I would have never guessed that bush might be in play from the tee. On several holes when he hit driver his fairway was maybe 25% the size of mine. It was a real eye opener because his margin of error was so much less than mine. Not to be left out I play with a guy turning 80 this week and the same thing happens for him. He rarely misses a fairway and when he does it is just in the rough because he hits it about 200-210 off the tee and his fairway is much wider than mine. 

Amazing how that geometry  thing works;