Welcome to Gear Questions You’re Afraid to Ask, a GOLF.com series produced in partnership with Cleveland/Srixon Golf. This week we look at the sweet spot on your clubs and help you better understand the best places to miss it.
Where are the best places to miss with each club? — Brett M., California
Great question. In order to know where to miss, let’s first recognize that a miss-hit refers to striking the ball away from the clubhead’s center of percussion — aka the clubhead’s sweet spot, which is the spot on the clubface where the center of gravity is directly behind it, and coincidentally, the point on the clubface where the maximum transfer of energy takes place.
Also, we call it a sweet spot, but in actuality it’s a point, not a spot, where the horizontal and vertical center of gravity intersect behind the clubface. Furthermore, the clubface’s center of flexion, usually in the center of the face, is not always aligned with the spot where you want to make contact with the ball, especially with clubheads that have interchangeable weighting. More on this in a bit.
Equipment manufacturers call the sweet spot a sweet spot because they invest countless hours and dollars in research and development to minimize distance and accuracy loss around it. The newest drivers, woods, hybrids, and even irons show minimal distance and direction loss on slightly off-center strikes. Though the sweet spot becomes less forgiving the further you move from the center, today’s modern clubs are significantly more forgiving than what we used 20 years ago.
Anyway, back to your question. Let’s start with the driver and work our way to the putter:
Cleveland RTX 6 ZipCore Wedge
Some drivers have hotspots
For drivers, some have a hotspot that produces the much desired low-spin/high-launch ballflight that better players prefer. When it’s not in the same location as the sweet spot, this hotspot is usually just above it and in some cases, even a little bit above and towards the toe. To reap the benefits of a hotspot over the sweet spot, it takes not only a proper clubface path but added speed. Faster swingers can hit it hard enough to make the reduction in ballspeed worth it for a higher and lower-spinning launch. Finally, adjusting the weighting of your clubhead will tweak the CG, meaning the sweet spot will move away from the spot where the clubface flexes the most. Otherwise, if you’re going to miss on the face with a driver, most models are more forgiving high in the toe and low towards the heel.
Hybrids require a descending blow
Many amateurs feel the need to lift the ball with a hybrid, but the right play is to descend into the ball and make a divot. This might mean striking the ball a little higher and more towards the center of the clubface. Also, hybrids tend to have relatively small and shallow clubfaces, so there’s not a lot of room to miss high or low on the face. If you’re going to miss, it might be better to nip it a little thin than to hit the ball with the top edge of the crown, causing pops ups and ugly scuffs on the clubhead. There’s also more room towards the toe than the heel to miss, especially when it comes to iron-shaped hybrids.
