Performance ClubWorks Custom Club Fitting Centers

Driver and fairway wood face angle is one of the most effective, if not THE most effective way to reduce a golfer’s misdirection problems with the woods. It is very important that clubfitters tell golfers that a face angle change is done to REDUCE a misdirection tendency and rarely would ever ELIMINATE or REVERSE that misdirection tendency. In other words, the golfer who slices the ball on average 30 yards of curving sideways ball movement will have to understand that after a proper face angle change, he still will see a slicing action to the ball, but it will be less than the 30 yards previous to the face angle change.

In TWGT’s book, Common Sense Clubfitting, Face Angle is evaluated as having a major ‘A’ effect on Accuracy and Shot Consistency. There are two other specifications, Lie and Length, which also have an ‘A’ effect on Accuracy. In addition, specifications including Offset, Head Center of Gravity, MOI about the Shaft Axis, Shaft Weight/Total Weight, Shaft Torque, Grip Size, Swingweight and Set Makeup can also have moderate to minor ‘B’ effects, singly or in combination with each other, on Accuracy.

But at the end of the day, Face Angle stands as the most effective means in clubfitting to reduce a golfer’s misdirection tendency with the woods because it acts as a direct ‘degree for degree’ correction for the swing path and/or face delivery problems that cause the golfer’s predominant misdirection shot tendency in the first place.

The ‘How-To’ of fitting face angle in the woods is best described as a combination of common sense guided by a simple ‘cause and effect’ relationship between the degree change in face angle and the golfer’s potential for distance.

From the standpoint of common sense, for a face angle change to result in a reduction of the golfer’s shot misdirection tendency, the Clubfitter has to:

1) make a judgment of the golfer’s most typical direction for, and amount of, misdirection tendency, 
2) recommend a new face angle that is more corrective than the golfer’s present face angle, 
3) evaluate all of the other fitting factors which also have an effect on accuracy and determine these specifications for the golfer so the face angle can lead the way in gaining the maximum accuracy improvement for the golfer.

Number 1 can be difficult because golfers do not slice or hook the ball the same amount each time. In addition, some golfers do both, so this can make it difficult to determine a predominant misdirection tendency. Number 2 requires the Clubfitter to be able to accurately measure the face angle of any wood. And number 3 requires the Clubfitter to have a full knowledge of fitting to be able to determine in addition to the best face angle for the golfer, the best Lie, Length, Offset, Head Center of Gravity, MOI about the Shaft Axis, Shaft Weight/Total Weight, Shaft Torque, Grip Size, Swingweight and Set Makeup to end up with the maximum amount of accuracy improvement.

Some clubfitters like to think in terms of using a launch monitor to record the golfer’s average swing path and face angle position at impact in degrees, and then try to pick a face angle specification in degrees which would offset the degrees of the path and face angle delivery problems. Sounds good on paper, but this is not realistic in the real world of clubfitting because the interaction of the swing path with the golfer’s delivery of the face to impact is a very complex relationship.

Common sense wise, it is much easier to evaluate the golfer’s average number of yards of misdirection and then consult the simple ‘cause and effect’ relationship between the degree change in face angle and the golfer’s potential for distance.

·             A 1° change in face angle will result in a 4-5 yard sideways movement of the ball at a carry distance of 200 yards, based on all other factors for the swing and the club being the same.

Hence the real common sense approach of face angle fitting basically says if the golfer on average carries the driver 200 yards, has an average slice of 30 yards and is presently playing with a driver with a 0* face angle, a change to a face angle of 3* closed should reduce the slice from 30 yards to about 15 to 18 yards. Determining the best specifications for the golfer for the other fitting factors that affect accuracy may be able to reduce the slice more.

Of the other A and B effect fitting specifications which have an effect on Accuracy, from our experience over many years, for the woods, the most important to stack on top of a proper Face Angle change to have the most positive overall effect on the golfer’s Accuracy would be Length, Offset, Shaft Weight/Total Weight, Grip Size, Swingweight and Set Makeup.

Key Points for Fitting Face Angle

·             A 1° change in face angle will result in a 4-5 yard sideways movement of the ball at a carry distance of 200 yards, based on all other factors for the swing and the club being the same.

·             An offset hosel design on the wood has the potential for some golfers to add to the slice correction of a hook face angle.

·             Face Angle fitting changes will only work if the golfer does not push their hands forward in the address position and allows the wood to sit flat on its sole in the address position to assume its designed face angle position relative to the ball. Some golfers who are not used to seeing a woodhead sitting in the playing position with a different face angle may have a tendency to push the hands forward or move them back to force the face to look as they are more used to seeing it, relative to the target line of the shot.

·             There is no need to worry about the principle of “effective loft” in face angle fitting as long as the golfer has also been fit properly for the best driver loft for their swing speed and angle of attack to achieve their best combination of launch angle, spin rate, carry distance and angle of descent of the shot.

·             Face Angle and Offset together represent the clubfitter’s number one most effective accuracy improvement factor.