Find Your Golf Driver "Hot Spot" (& add Big Distance)

 

by Robert Cotter (About the Author)
Professional Golf Ball Engineer
Director of Golf Swing Instruction, Instant Golf®

A few times a year I get emails from golfers claiming "there's been nothing new in golf for 40 years", or "it's the archer Robert, not the bow and arrows."

This always makes me laugh because these folks are "asleep at the wheel", and are missing huge opportunities to add booming distance to their shots and dramatically lower their scores.

One such revolution has been the Golf Launch Monitor. It has literally turned the industry on its head, and shattered a lot of long held beliefs about ball flight.

As a golf ball engineer, I spent the early part of my career working with some of the first launch monitors as they were being developed.

These monitors used several high speed, sound (impact) activated cameras and a computer algorithym that would calculate club head velocity, ball velocity, back spin, side spin, etc...

However, the test balls had to be fitted with dimple-sized metallic dots, so the cameras could detect the movement of the dimples, which served as the foundation for the final numbers.

Today's monitors used Doppler radar to measure the exact position of a golf ball in flight. It's very similar to the technology used to track missiles by the military. It's incredible, and the hard data and graphics produced are mind blowing.

You have probably heard the names Trackman™, or FlightScope®, and others. You see their technology being used on the weekend television broadcasts. Or perhaps you may have had a club or ball fitting with a monitor.

I could go on for pages about the type of data these monitors produce and how it is used to correct swing flaws like slices/hooks. And a lot of the corrections made with this new knowledge are actually the opposite of what was taught pre-monitors. And that's fine, its just part of the evolution of the game (kind of like advancements in medicine).

But for this report I am going to focus on how Club Face Mapping, with the aid of the monitors, has enabled engineers and club fitters to maximized Driver Distance by simply pinpointing where the ball should impact the face.

I'll then show how you can do this simply with no equipment (other than a marking pen!) and add significant distance to your drives.

I'm sure you know all your clubs have a "Sweet Spot" on the club face, typically in the center. But most driver faces also have what is called a "Hot Spot". And for most drivers, it is not in the same location as the sweet spot.

The hot spot is an area on the face where ball speed and launch conditions can be enhanced for each golfer.

You see, during impact with the driver, the toe of the club is actually moving up to 15% FASTER than the heel.

This is mainly due to the increased radial distance from the golfer, but also because the driver head is rotating around the shaft.

So the worst possible place to impact the driver is low on the heel (see above). That encourages a low launch angle with high spin, and a push or slice flight pattern. What could be worse?!

 

Impacting the club face a bit towards the toe and fractionally higher on the face results in higher launch with reduced spin. In addition, because of the horizontal "gear effect" across the face, there is also a draw tendency.

So a higher (not sky high) launch, low spin, and soft draw is a winning flight pattern, especially for the moderate or lower swing speed golfer. And this simple adjustment can add >10% to your drivers. How's 220+ yards vs. 200 yards sound? And so forth...

Here's how to find the "Hot Spot" on your big headed driver:

If you don't have impact tape, you can simply use a Dry Erase Marker of any color that contrasts with the color of your driver face.

Now, put a circle of ink on your test or range balls. If you need permission at your range, get it, or bring a few of your own shag balls.

Warm up with a few regular balls. Then, tee up a test ball so the ink blotch is facing directly back at your driver face. Now, hit the test ball noting:

1) The quality of the flight (straight, slice, hook, high, low, etc...).

2) Check where the ink transferred on the face.

You may be shocked to see where you make contact with your first ball!

You can now either number that impact (eg - #1), or erase it with a cloth and hit a few more, noting the impact location and the shot quality.

Important: It is critical that you do not change your swing at this pont to improve your impacts. Instead adjust your tee height, stance distance from the ball, etc... Adjust one variable at a time, and be sure to note how you are making the adjustments for future sessions (with or without test balls).

After a series of drives, you'll start to see the correlation between your club face impact point and the quality of your shots.

As you start to find the center of the face, the Sweet Spot, you'll feel the ball jump off the face.

Then you can start to make the adjustment to the Hot Spot, which for most drivers is slightly towards the toe and a tad higher on the face.

Compare your Sweet Spot shot performance to your Hot Spot shot performance.

By running this experiment, you will not only be able to zero in on the Sweet Spot which will increase your driving distance and accuracy immediately, you'll also be able to squeeze extra yards by taking advantage of your driver's Hot Spot (for your swing).

I will add here that most golfers, particularly those with moderate or lower swing speeds, do not use enough loft in their drivers. As mentioned, the optimal launch condition is higher launch with low spin.

I have noted in past reports that even some top Tour players are using 10-11 degrees loft and hitting the ball 300+ yards.

Because golf ball spin rates have come down in the past 5+ years, launch angles must go up for maximum distance. Keep in mind too that if you think you hit the ball high already, it may actually be because the ball is ballooning due to excessive spin. This often occurs when contact is made low on the face.

 

In summary, once you have established Sweet Spot contact, and identified where the Hot Spot is for your driver which will further optimize your launch conditions, the final variable is adding more swing speed.

For every 1 mph you increase your swing speed you'll gain about 2.2 yards of distance.

So if you increase your swing speed by 10 mph you'll gain ~22 yards in distance. If you improve by 15 mph you will gain 33 yards in distance, and so forth.

It's easy to see why club face contact in the correct spot, combined with Your Maximum Swing Speed will explode your drives like you would never believe. Booming drives make your playing partners green with envy, and effectively shorten the course for you which leads to lower scores.

Enjoy your weekend golf,

Robert Cotter