Why Correct Tee Height Is So Important
4 Reasons Why You Should Pay Close Attention To How High You Tee Up
If you're having trouble in consistently driving the ball and sometimes slice it, hook it or hit the ball too high or too low, maybe it's all because you don't pay enough attention to your tee height. This short article will discuss the effect that different tee heights have on your drive.
First some technical background: Your driver, like all woods, doesn't have a flat club face but is actually curved both horizontally and vertically. The horizontal curving is called 'Bulge', and the vertical curving is called 'Roll'. This curvature has to do with the stability of the club face and prevents it from collapsing upon impact with the ball.
Bulge comes into play when you hit an off-center hit. Let's say you hit the ball with the toe of your driver: the horizontal curvature of the clubface will impart a corrective spin on the ball that will reduce the amount that the ball slices. This is called 'Gear Effect', and it works also if you hit the ball with the heel of the club, thereby reducing the amount the ball will hook. In short, Bulge is your friend.
Roll, as mentioned above, is the vertical curvature of the club face. In contrast to Bulge it is not your friend, and here's why: Suppose you have a 10 degree driver, this loft is only 10 degrees in the center of the club face where the sweet spot is. Let's say you hit the ball just half an inch too high: now you're actually hitting the ball with 12 degrees (or more) loft. This sends the ball high into the air and robs you of distance. Even worse, if you hit the ball just half an inch too low you're hitting an 8 degree (or less) driver. This ball may never get up into the air and will instead just roll along very fast - the so-called 'Worm Burner'.
From these points it becomes quite obvious: if you're teeing up too high you will be hitting the ball above the sweet spot and thus high up into the air; if you're teeing too low you'll hit the ball below the sweet spot and 'burn the worms that stick out of the soil'.
In addition to the points above tee height has also a great influence on slicing or hooking the ball:
If you tee up too low the golf club has to come in at a steep angle in order to hit the ball. This often results in an open club face at impact, which in turn will result in a slice.
In contrast, if the golf ball is teed up too high the club face has to come in at a flat angle. This often results in the clubface being closed on impact causing a hook to the left (for RH players).
As you can see from the above points, a good balance has to be found between the four effects your tee height influences. Spend some time on the driving range and experiment with different tee heights. Once you find the one that results in long and straight fairway shots note down the exact height, and mark all your tees accordingly for a more consistent driving.
Golf Tips
August 16, 2007
July 17, 2007
Golf Tip
Causes and Cures for the Hook
Generally the two types of players we talk about with errant shots are slicers, of course the predominant flaw, and hookers. We use hookers of course for another term that you are familiar with, but I bet you don’t know where that came from. It came from the Civil War where we had a Union General named General Hooker. He was the most organized guy of all the staff, in fact he organized everything so well that he even took the camp followers, the women that followed the soldiers around, he organized them and they called it Hookers Second Army. Well they dropped the Second Army and that is how we got the term hookers. But in golf it is a little different. I am going to attack the idea of hookers in golf because it actually is almost harder to stop than slicing. I am going to give you three ways that I hook the ball and any of those cures for those three ways may help you if you happen to be a hooker of the golf ball. First one is grip; whenever my hands rotate underneath I am closing the face. People think that if they move their hands this way that opens the face, just the opposite, it closes the face. So I am going to make a good swing with a bad grip, it looks something like this. Hands underneath, make a nice golf swing, the ball will go out and have a big turn on it just barely getting over the water and hooking sharply into the rough. Well that is one way you can hook it, with a bad grip. Let’s take a look at a second way, the second way is probably one of the more common ones that people don’t realize why they hook it, it is because of deceleration of the right hand. When the left arm and the left hand stop too soon the clubhead keeps going. This is a lever system, one lever, two lever, and the clubhead keeps going, and when it keeps going the face ends up being closed. So when I make what I think is a good swing with deceleration in my left side, when that side decelerates I will also hit behind it, but I hit behind it and hooked it as well. So that is the second way you can hook it. How do you cure this one, you keep your left arm moving the entire way. You cure the first one with a better grip. You cure the second one by making your left side move better through the ball. Finally, the last one is when we start from the top too early or have a bad position at the top. Let’s take the bad position, at top we let our left wrist fold over, this is harder for men, easier for women, now the face is dead shut. When I come down that ball is going to go low and hook. The other reason is you can go to the top with a good position but start down with your right arm, not even giving your left arm a chance to get in there. You start with the right and you pull hook the ball. Actually four reasons why we hook the ball. All of those can be cured. Flatter writs instead of cupped. More left side instead of decelerating, better grip and starting the swing with your left side, not just the right arm. There you have it.
