I conducted a little testing myself last week, to see just how much influence impact location on the face of a driver has on the distance.

If you have ever looked closely at the face of your woods, you’ll see that they are not flat. They bulge the curve horizontally from heel to toe and ‘roll’ the curve vertically from top to bottom of the face. This is designed to help the golfer and in this article we’ll look at the vertical ‘roll’.

The roll means that there is less loft on the bottom of the face than on the upper part of the face. When hitting any ball off centre of gravity, the ball has a huge effect on the face, twisting the face towards the location of the strike, the ball then spins in the opposite direction. This is called ‘gear-effect’ — imagine a cog turning clockwise, the other cog turns anti-clockwise.

I sprayed the face with Daktarin Aktive foot spray, before hitting a group of shots deliberately low on the face (picture one). I used Trackman radar to measure the outcome of the shots for launch angle, backspin rate, carry and total distance. I then hit another group of shots striking the ball higher on the face (picture two), and compared the results.

The average club-head speed was almost identical on each group of shots, but that’s where the similarity ended. When the ball strikes low on the face, the club face has less loft, and de-lofts further due to the gear-effect. The ball launches lower and has increased backspin. Conversely, when the ball strikes higher on the face, the clubface has more loft, then increases further and the backspin is reduced.

The secondnd group launched the balls four degrees higher and had 800 rpm less backspin. The difference in strike created, on average 17 yards increase in total distance in favour of the balls which were struck just 15mm higher on the face.

If you want to drive the ball further, make sure you tee your ball the right height and use foot spray to check your impact location, you might be surprised at what you see.

Colin Fisher PGA Advanced Professional www.facebook.com/colinfishergolf @ColinFisherGolf