Phil Rodgers, while working with Elkinton on a few things, made a comment about a club’s toe that I kind of already knew in some way but didn’t think about it in his terms. He said, “whenever the toe turns in the toe turns down”, and if memory serves, he also said when that happens the club gets longer through the dirt, and if he didn’t, it does. We were all once familiar with divots heavier, deep, and longer on the toe side, not good.
Not too long ago I was on a phone call with a club in my hand and a ball on the carpet and while talking I was fidgeting with the club without purpose- I was holding the soled club in the trail hand with only thumb and index finger while rotating the club CCW to the shaft axis.
I noticed the clubhead raised up on its toe and made a 3/4 circle around the ball while moving forward and settled back down to earth in a perfectly soled condition, the path routing basically missed the ball completely. Then I placed the club’s leading edge behind a ball real close on the heel side and rotated the shaft like before and damn, the clubhead behaved the exact same way.
That’s when I returned to Rodgers’ words for moment as a possible add on to his thoughts. My take on what I was fidgeting with is when the toe turns in, the toe turns down AND ROTATES THE SWEET SPOT FURTHER AWAY FROM THE BALL. Try it and watch the sweet spot.
It’s a problem looking for a solution, especially for the toe throwers- how to close the toe without closing it. Showed it to a PGA friend today and we had some fun with it.
Something to fidget with while watching the Masters.