Hitting It on the Toe?

I have a question from Allen, an Inner Circle club member. Allen says this: “Using tape on the club face I see that with my driver and woods I strike the ball outside of the sweet spot to the toe consistently, some are draws, some straight, and some slices. With the long irons I move closer to the sweet spot, but still on the toe side. From the 5 iron to wedge I hit more consistently on the sweet spot. What should I be looking for to fix this problem? Thanks, Allen.”

Allen got a response from Ed and Ed says, “I have virtually the same problem but mine seem to hit from the center to the toe on all shots. I set up with the heel behind the ball but still hit the toe. If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.”

Well, I think in both cases it's obvious that if you're hitting it from the center towards the toe, you have, very likely, an outside to in swing. Swinging outside to in is going to bring the club moving from the heel towards the toe. That's going to be causing toe shots.

It could be caused by alignment. Say, if you're a right hander you could be aiming to the right so your brain knows you're aimed right of the target and it has cause the body to move first, start pulling left to clear your arms to swing down the aiming like. That will get an outside in and hitting it toward the toe.

Naturally, if you release the club too soon you can have the face shut towards your aiming line and you can hit the pulls, even though you hit the toe. If you come through pretty much square to your torso, you'll hit the ball relatively straight. If your torso pulls too fast through the ball you can come through worse and even hit it on the toe. I think you have to be looking at those issues.

In could be the fact that you're starting your upper body too soon and moving forward and left, pulling across the ball if you're a right hander. That would be causing all the same things we just described. Lastly, the other big issue could be making too much of a backswing turn, getting into the Sacred Burial Ground, as well as possibly swinging too long.

If you're in the Burial Ground you have to get out, which means you're going to have to pull, with your forward shoulder. It has to start pulling left, pulling very hard left, which is very likely going to move you slightly ahead of the ball. Again, you're back to the situation where you're going from outside to in and, depending on how you line your clubface up to your hands and your body at impact, if the face is left, the ball's going left, if you're a right handed golfer. If you're squared up at impact, you're going to hit it relatively straight. If you're too far forward, and the face is being pulled through open, you're going to hit it right.

So check out those issues. I think that when you find out which one it is, and it's probably one of those three, when you start working on it you'll start getting much more solid, center-faced impacts, which means you're going to hit the ball more solid, straight and longer. That will get you the shots you're looking for and start playing better golf.

The Surge!