My Stupid, Open Clubface

Cold, rainy days mean no driving range, so I’m stuck in my condo tinkering with my swing. Today’s mission? Weight shift and getting my arms down before impact. It’s a new / not so new concept for me so I was just slow-mo-ing a swing with my pitching wedge when I noticed something that I’ve seen a hundred times before—my clubface was way open at impact. Ugh.

If you too have an open clubface at impact you know the pain of hitting right, slicing, and losing yardage. It’s painful when on repeat.

I couldn’t figure out why, in slow motion even, my club face was open like an umbrella in a hurricane. My trail arm was tight to my body, just like everyone says it should be, but something still wasn’t clicking. Frustrated, I went to ChatGPT and explained what was happening. This is what it said:

1. Trail Elbow Position: It mentioned that even if my trail arm is close to my body, it might be too far in front during the downswing. This can keep the clubface open because my forearms don’t have room to rotate properly. The fix? Work on “slotting” my elbow by letting it drop toward my trail hip instead of moving forward.
2. Forearm Rotation: ChatGPT suggested focusing on rotating my trail palm toward the target as I swing down. I gave it a try and that seemed to help.
3. Hip Movement: Finally, I noticed that when I turned my hips more the club face closed some. Golf Fix is always dinging me with lack of kicking and pelvic rotation at impact. So dammit, I should probably start working on that too.
4. Reverse Spine Angle: You should know I’m a repeat offender of this by now. Today I found another reason why it’s a bad thing to do. The more I reversed my spine angle on the backswing, the more open my club was at impact. I wasn’t doing it on purpose, just something I caught in the mirror.

As if I don’t have enough to work on, here are a few more things AI suggested:

1. Trail Palm Rotation Drill:
   • Take slow-motion swings with just my trail hand on the club.
   • Focus on rotating my palm toward the target during the downswing.
2. Wall Drill for Elbow Position:
   • Stand with my trail side a few inches from a wall.
   • Swing to the top, then practice dropping my trail elbow toward my hip without letting it move forward into the wall.
   • This will help me slot the elbow properly.
3. Hip Bump Drill:
   • Start in my setup position with my weight slightly on my lead foot.
   • Practice bumping my hips laterally toward the target as I start the downswing, then rotate them through impact.
   • The goal is to get my lower body more engaged in the swing.
4. Posture Drill to Avoid Reverse Spine Angle:
   • Practice my backswing in front of a mirror, focusing on keeping my spine steady and avoiding leaning toward the target.
   • Incorporate this into my full swing to stay balanced and maintain better clubface control.

So there we go. Just when I thought all I need to do is get my weight shift down and things will be hunky dory, realty smacked me on the butt again. Good thing I like to practice!