By Jaacob Bowden

Thanks to all of the high-speed cameras, launch monitor data, etc., we’ve been able to learn a ton about what it takes to hit the ball as far as possible. There are two main aspects of this that we’re going to look at in this issue…and those are optimizing both your launch angle and also your spin rate.

Launch angle is the angle that the ball takes off after it is hit with your driver. As logically makes sense, if your launch angle is too high, the ball will be in the air a long time but it won’t travel very far forward toward the target. Similarly, if the launch angle is too low, the ball would roll pretty far but it wouldn’t reach maximum distance. Somewhere in between those two points is the optimal point for distance.

Spin rate is how much the ball spins when you hit it. Some spin is good because it helps keep the ball airborne, but too much spin will cause the ball to not carry as far as well as not roll as much when it hits the ground. Likewise, there’s a middle ground that works best.

Both of those things make sense, but what may interest you is that the optimal numbers for each change a bit depending…

Read the rest of what Jaacob has to say about Driver Optimization in the June 2014 Monthly Handicap Improver here:
https://www.swingmangolf.com/register.php