[Yoda]

Originally Posted by Yoda

Originally Posted by Joe Daniels, G.S.E.D. If the grip is taken at Fix then the player can set the clubface to target line to match the hinge action they want to employ. Which means slightly open (horizontal), square (vertical) and slightly open short irons (angled) and slight closed long irons (angled). [Bold by Yoda] ...the Clubface should never be Closed beyond the Square Position...

Above the statement was made that the "Clubface should never be Closed beyond the Square Position." However, MR. KELLEY disagress!!! Please refer to chapter 2-J-1 Impact Alignments: "Angled Hinging gives the clubface a Slice producing uncentered motion so while the Clubface does "Close" during impact, Clubface alignments is slightly "Open" for short shots but for longer shots it must be set up more and more "Closed."

Joe is right on this one.

The basis for my statement was the Angled Hinge Action Component (10-10-C) in the second and third editions of The Golfing Machine. Here, Homer wrote: "Its slice tendency can be compensated by a Square Clubface alignment at Impact Fix." Beginning with the 4th edition, Homer moved the Angled Hinge Clubface alignment reference to 2-J-1, and he modified his 'Square at Fix' Clubface dictum to "slightly Open" for the short shots and "more and more Closed" for the longer shots.

I interpreted the "more and more Closed" to mean that the 'new' slightly Open alignment was progressively Closed until the 'old' Square alignment was reached. However, in researching this important point, I have gone back to the source -- Homer Kelley himself (as I recorded him during my January 1982 Master Class) -- and now believe otherwise. In an extended discussion of the Fix Clubface Alignments for the three Hinge Actions, Homer made the following comments regarding Angled Hinging:

For short shots:

"For all the Hinge Actions, for very 'light' shots -- Putts and short Chips -- you can have the Face Square."



For longer shots:

"You have to close the Clubface quite noticeably for longer shots using Angled Hinging. You can't measure it as well as you can [the Open alignment] with Horizontal Hinging, but it can't be Square, really, at Separation. It should still be a little bit closed. The inclination to Fade is still there.

By experiment, you'll find how much the Clubface alignment will vary for different clubs for full swings. That's the only way you have to teach yourself -- or convince yourself -- that you know how much to close it. And only the Ball can tell you accurately whether or not you were right.

So, if you're going to hit a Ball real hard with Angled Hinging, you [begin by Closing it] 'that' much to compensate for the fact that it will not close as fast as it lays back. You keep closing it until you find out how much each club needs for a full shot.

Using Angled Hinging has got some advantages, but its got a lot of problems. The layback...avoiding the Fade off to the right. But it must be toward the Closed side."