Last week, we talked about all things lie angles. Well almost all things…

This week, let’s talk about the ramifications of making a lie angle adjustment, why we do it, and what a player can expect.

First things first. There is no standard lie angle in an iron for any company. if a player is 2* up with his current set, he’s not 2* up for every other set of irons – he’s just 2* up for THAT particular set of irons. Every head and shaft combination CAN produce a different lie angle. In other words, If you have a player who wants to be fit for an Apex Pro, and you think, I’ll start him with +1/2″ (based on wrist to floor), then you do a lie check and he fits 2* up with an Elevate 85 stiff shaft. He’s not 2* up – he’s 2* up with THAT combination. If you land on Dynamic Gold, the Lie angle may very well change.

WHY? Because lie measures the dynamics of how a player swings a golf club. The forces of the players swing, coupled with gravity and the weight of the club head, and changed with the resistance of the movement of the shaft, will ALL factor into the eventual correct lie angle of the perfect fit for that player.

The Center of Gravity of the iron head is just that – it’s in the center(ish) of the clubhead. It’s not an extension of the shaft, so that CoG will try to align itself with the axis the club is swinging on (we call this shaft plane). This means the club shaft will bend downward through the hitting area due to the forces of the swing. Got a headache yet? Haha

Think of it this way. The toe of the club will droop towards the ground as a player comes into the hitting area. This is a primary result of the shafts response to the golf swing. Some shafts will do it more than others. Swing plane, a players height, and the speed of the swing can also influence the lie.

Got it?

So why do we do it? Why do we bend the lie angle? Simple. We want the head to strike the ground squarely at impact. Duh, right? A squarely soled iron will give the intended flight based on how the head was designed. This is good. If the iron is too upright for a player, the ball will start to the left. It will start to the right if it is too flat. The greater the loft, the more of a difference it will make. Think about the last time you hit a pitch shot with the ball way above your feet- the ball started way left, didn’t it? Lifting the iron to hit a shot a knee height will make the club VERY upright, so, you as a player, have to account for that and make a correction to hit is straight. Right? Imagine now that your clubs are too upright for you – you have to make a smaller version of that correction on EVERY swing to hit it straight.

The opposite happens if the clubs are too flat. Too flat means the toe digs. That also means the shot starts to the right. Most players slice the ball. Most players play irons that are too flat. Most players are playing irons that will HELP them slice the ball.

Are you giving a player a lesson to stop a slice? Check the lie angle. Now. Pssst… You don’t even need a lie board – just look at the divots. Use a large, fresh piece of turf, and look at a couple divots. Ideally, they’d be square, but most aren’t. A divot that is longer on the TOE side of the head is too flat for a player. You can even see the pitch of the divot if it is way off. I look at the players divots while he is warming up. I can tell if he’s upright, flat or STD without a lie test because I know what to look for. I do a lie test to show the player, and to tell me exactly how much to move it. If you are working with a player to stop a curve and you don’t check the lie of the irons, you are just making your job harder. Clubs that are too upright or too flat WILL curve more, or cause the player to compensate to stop it from happening.

I hope this helps. A little window into lie angle is useful to know what the tool is actually doing.

 Next week, we’ll talk about using Lie angle to correct for ball flight.

Happy Fitting!!!

Jim Yeager, PGA