What Is YOUR Driver Face Angle?

All golfers need to know their driver face angle.  For many players, open face angles are not beneficial.

 

The Face Angle of a driver is the direction that the face points when the driver is sitting flat on the ground and the shaft is straight up and down.  Face angles can either be open, closed, or square.  It is possible to exactly measure the face angle of a driver in a Lie/Loft measurement gauge.

 

It used to be that most drivers sold in golf stores had closed face angles.  For many golfers, this is actually a good thing for two reasons: a) present day 460 cc driver heads are not easy to close at impact, closed face angles can help with this; and b) many golfers slice the ball, and a closed face angle can help reduce the amount of the slice.

 

However, it seems like I am seeing more and more drivers with open face angles.  For someone slicing the ball, this can make a bad situation worse.  Why – well if the golfer has an inside to outside swing path, and their face is very open to that path – big slice!!  Why there seem to be more open faced drivers on the market is not something I understand.  But it is not something that helps the general golfer to play better golf.

 

One way or another – you deserve to know if your driver has an Open, Closed, or Square Face Angle.  If you do not have easy access to a club fitter who would be able to make an exact measurement of this for you, here are some options:

 

 1.  Set your driver head flat on the ground in front of you and Be Sure that the shaft is pointing straight up and down.  You should be able to see if the face is open, closed, or square.

 

 2.  Look into a mirror and do the same thing as for #1 – again, you should be able to see visually if the face is open, closed, or very close to square (thanks Hoot!).

 

Everyone deserves to know what the face angle of their driver is.  You may have been playing with an open faced driver for years and never known it – and you if you had a driver with the right face angle for your swing, you would be playing better golf.

 

HOW ABOUT YOU – did you check your driver face angle and find out something you did not know? – if so please comment.

 

The Fit Is IT!!

Tony