Lob Shot – Clubface & Setup Position

Do you know how to set up for a lob shot?

Hi, Robert here. So you find yourself in a situation on the golf course where you need to hit a little bit of a higher shot or a lob shot. Now I’m not gonna go into the technique of a lob shot here, because I’ve got other videos on that, and search on that subject. But there’s just one point I want to cover in this video. When I tell players that they need to open their club face a little for this shot, but not aim to the left. They get a little confused. And I just wanted to clear up the concept of why you can open the club face a little bit for a lob shot, or even a higher pitch shot, and not have to aim your body to the left to get the ball start on line. So let’s have a look at that.

Now, I know you can’t see me, but hopefully you can see the club face. The direction of the club face, highlighted by this little alignment tool, the ball, and the flag stick. So what I want you to see is yes, when I open the club face the sweet spot of the club is now to the right. But when we’re hitting a lob shot, or even a slightly higher pitched shot, it’s preferable to have the shaft at a slightly flatter angle. So the opening of the club brings the club face to the right. But the flattening of the club brings the sweet spot back to the left. So even though the leading edge is pointing to the right, the sweet spot is pointing to the target. That’s why I don’t need to aim to the left or align my body to the left to get the ball to go in the target. I can set my body up parallel to the target line. So you can see I am not in that set up position where the face is a little open, shaft is lower. So even though the leading edge of the club is pointing to the right, the sweet spot of the club is pointing towards the target. This allows to align my body parallel to the target and not having to open up. Anytime we’re not cutting across the ball it’s gonna give us a better chance of contact and distance control. Let’s give this shot a try.

So you can see I was on, parallel to the target line. I had the face open, but the ball didn’t start to the right. Now before anybody says it, yes I could’ve chose a different shot in this situation. But I’m just hitting this shot to try and make my point.

As always, if you have any comments or questions please leave them below. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible. But hopefully this helped clear up a few misconceptions of why you don’t need to aim your body to the left and cut across it when you’ve opened the face.