ALL ABOUT LIES

Today, I shall take you thru the term Lie Angle in your golf clubs on this article. Just a little warning because the writeup is kind of long and can be quite dry but one of the most underrated specifications in your clubs. I regard this as a very important component in the whole Club Fitting Process.

First, let us take a look at what Lie Angle and how it can affect your shots patterns. The Lie angle is Formed by the Centre axis of shaft on the club and the sole resting flat on the ground line.              

Based on the 3 pairs of graphics below, Left is Upright, with the Toe Up, ball likely to start left of Target, Centre is Correct Lie, ball likely to start Straight and the right pair, Lie Angle is Flat with Toe Down, ball likely to start right. Illustrations is for RH golfers and thus opposite direction is true for the LH golfers.

How often when you were told that your Lie Angles were too Upright or too Flat when you place your clubs at address before you take your golf swing.

Your fellow golfer is not wrong, he or she is just making a guess by looking at your club sits on the ground at address based on their personal experience. The fact is address lie angle is never the same as the impact lie angle, yes, even for the single plane swing. First we get on the standard swing. Take a look at the address and impact position of the same clip, using shaft axis in relation to the base of the tall tree behind golfer.

Notice the difference of the hand position vs the impact position?  They are entirely different to just based on posture and hand position. There is still shaft droop during the swing which makes it even flatter. Which makes the difference even for the single plane swing. Essentially, this is because the CG of the head is in front of the shaft and at high speed, that CG will try to get in line with the axis of the golf shaft, thus causing the shaft droop. Before moving onto how to check for your lie angle, I would like to bring your attention to another specification which is used to measure lie angles on the golf club – the Grooves or Scoring lines aka score-lines. Most Golfers would have assumed that the Grooves on their club is parallel to the sole. This only happens in the perfect world likely to be on the drawing board. In face with commercialization, speed and cost had become a very important factor and grinding of the sole no longer require the skills and cost of the expert craftsman. The results became obvious. Even the biggest Tools supplier have conflicting opinions, Relations of score line and face angle. | (ralphmaltby.com) and Measuring-Adjusting Golf Club Angles.pdf (mitchellgolf.com). My personal preference has always been Centre of the Sole in contact with the ground at impact with the clubface squared to the target.

Just an example, if the Grooves are 3° more upright than the sole based on sole measurement and if your angles are adjust based on the grooves, means the toe will be down at impact by 3°, If you’re in the first cut, the toe of your clubhead would be in contact with the grass before impact. You will lalso be loosing energy before impact.

How you determine your lie angles?

Is this the way?

Most likely, you’re getting your address lie angle.

Now we move on to the dynamic lie angle check. 2 Most common way. Marker and Lie board.

Both methods are great with fitter must take into consideration condition of the ball striking surface like Grass Range or Range Matt. Even the thickness of the Lie Board Used.

Both Methods are great when the procedure put into fitting the lies and set out correctly and followed thru by the individual fitter consistently.

Notice anything wrong with the picture?                       

The grooves are not parallel to the marker bar in the loft and lie machine? It’s off by quite a few degrees. You may have the best equipment in the world but if the operator is not trained to do the job right, finished products are never going to be good. Find the correct person that may cost more but does a good job at what he does. Likely, he doesn't want you to come back with the same problem.

Club Assembling, repairs and adjustment must all be done with care and takes time. We can adjust to your requirement but that's not our DNA.