Straighter Isn’t Always Better

Jason Carbone
Director of Instruction
Jim McLean Golf School
Goodyear, AZ

More Information

In continuing with the series of answering common questions that are asked by students, one that is particularly interesting is when people come in and ask how they can hit it straight. Typically, my response is, “Why would you want to do that?” Most people think if they can hit it straight, the game would be easy. While that might be true if we were robots, it is not reality.  The odds of us delivering the club head exactly the same for 18 holes is unrealistic, and allows for almost no room for error.
Think of it this way. If we had a 30 yard wide fairway, and tried to hit it straight, we only have 15 yards to miss it right or left. With a driver, that is not much room for error with the clubface. However, if we could work toward predominantly hitting a fade or a draw, we can double our fairway, and take a lot of pressure off our swing. By shaping the ball one way, you can aim either down the left edge or right edge of the fairway and use all 30 yards to land the ball. This way if you are trying to play a fade, and the face comes in square, you’ll end up in the left edge of the fairway. If it comes in slightly open, you’ll be in the middle, and a little more open will put you on the right side of the fairway. That sounds like a much safer way and one that is less demanding on perfect swings. 
Think of your best players: Hogan predominantly faded the ball. He put up an imaginary wall in his mind down the left side of every hole and worked the ball away from it. Same with Mr. Nicklaus, and Sam Snead predominantly went the other way. Trevino played fades, Player more draws, Palmer more draws, and Faldo was always trying to work the ball both ways. If you think back to the great Champions, did anyone hit it straight?
I really enjoy getting questions from the readers. Please email me at wigwam@jimmclean.com with anything that has been confusing or troublesome in your game, and we’ll try and answer it this winter. Have a great time playing and work on finding your predominant shot shape. Draw it or fade it, but having some shape will double the size of your fairway and allow you to play from the short grass more consistently.