Tap the green to aim. Keys: ← → aim, ↑ ↓ pace, Enter to putt.
Keys: ← → aim, ↑ ↓ club, Enter or H to hit.
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| Par |
| You |
| Decisions |
| Club | Release starts | Lag at impact | Speed | Attack | Path | Face to path | Launch | Spin | Carry · finishes | Shot |
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Every club gets the same body, hands and timing. Only the rope length, head weight, loft and ball position change. Tap a row to load that club.
A body drives the hands: the shoulders turn about a spine bent 35° toward the ball, and a lead arm of fixed length swings relative to the shoulders. The rope hangs from the hands with gravity and its own momentum, with a little stiffness so it does not fold on itself. Going back, the wrists hold a soft set on the rope. Through the transition they let go, so from the top to impact the rope is free. Every frame you see, backswing included, comes from the simulation. The hips and legs are drawn to match: the hips turn half as far as the shoulders going back and lead them coming down.
The second view is a camera behind the golfer, on a line parallel to the target line at chest height, so it shows the same swing as the view from above. The dashed lines are drawn at address: the shaft plane runs from the ball through the hands, the shoulder plane from the ball through the trail shoulder. Hands that come down between the two lines are on plane. Coming down above the shoulder plane is over the top; dropping well under the shaft plane is coming from too far inside.
At the top the hands sit behind the trail shoulder, at the far end of their arc, not over the head. From there they drop mostly straight down toward the trail hip while the shoulders start to unwind, and the rope keeps loading. Seen from above they move back only a little more before coming round. A rushed transition pulls the arms down early and hard: they peak too soon and are already slowing well before the ball, so the rope unloads early and the low point moves behind the ball.
In a normal sequence the shoulders start unwinding just before the arms finish going back. If the shoulders rush, they open early while the arms are still up. That throws the hands out toward the ball before they drop: swing direction left, steeper attack, and the rope arrives late with the face open to the path. If the arms drop first while the shoulders wait, the hands fall further inside: swing direction right, a shallower attack, a push or push-draw.
An inside takeaway swings the arms flatter, around the body, and fans the rope behind the hands. The body turns early, and the downswing loops back over the top: swing direction left and a steep attack. An outside takeaway lifts the arms on a more upright plane with the rope outside the hands, and the downswing loops under it: swing direction right, a shallow attack and a push.
Square here means feet, hips and shoulders parallel to the target line, not pointed at the flag. GOLFTEC's tour data has shoulders about 7° open and hips about 1° open at address, and Sportsbox measures the chest about 30° open at impact. In the model, the feet and hips set where the whole swing points and the shoulders are set on top of that, while the face stays on the target unless you choose otherwise. Opening only the shoulders sends the arms over the plane: swing direction left and a steeper attack. The same angle costs more metres with a longer club, which is what the map shows.
Your hands tend to return the club close to how you set it, so an open or shut face at address largely survives to impact. Open sends the ball right and adds loft, so it flies higher and spins more. Shut sends it left and takes loft off. Pressing the hands forward (shaft lean) takes loft off, lowers the flight and moves the low point forward. Because of the lie angle it also turns the face slightly open, so set the face after the lean. In the model these act on top of the simulated swing rather than through it.
The setup card builds the address in the order you would on the course: aim the face behind the ball, set the hands (shaft lean and so loft), step in with the ball position and stance for the club and align the feet, then set the shoulders. "Standard for this club" is the setup coaches teach: ball from the centre of the stance with the wedges and short irons, moving forward through the bag to just inside the lead heel with the driver, and hands near the inside of the lead thigh, so the shaft leans about 5° forward with the wedges, 3° with a 7-iron, near vertical with the woods and slightly back with the driver. It follows you when you change clubs. The other recipes (draw, fade, low punch, high soft) are starting points; the card shows the flight they give with your swing. The ticks under the face-on view mark each club's standard ball position. The shaft lean shown includes the lean golfers normally set with each club; the slider adds to it.
The lab opens on the club with a shaft. The original simulation, still one tap away, swings a weighted rope. A rope can only be pulled, so it reaches the ball later than a real club, and the model has to set the ball further forward and the hands behind it to make up for it. "Club with shaft" is built differently. The body, arms and club move through the ten checkpoints of a swing (address, shaft parallel back, lead arm parallel, top, lead arm parallel down, shaft parallel down, impact, shaft parallel through, trail arm parallel, finish) using published tour motion-capture averages: pelvis about 40° and chest about 92° turned at the top, pelvis about 38° and chest about 25° open at impact, the hips sliding about 12 cm toward the target while the chest stays back, and the body standing up into the finish. The lead arm keeps its length, the club is one rigid piece, and the head speeds up smoothly to the ball. Path, attack angle and face then come from where on that arc the ball sits, the way a launch monitor sees them: moving the ball back makes the path more in-to-out, the attack steeper and the face more open. The setup and move controls tilt and turn that arc and change the release. Shaft flex shows as the shaft bowing under load and as a little more or less loft and face closure. The rope stays available so you can compare the two.
Nine holes, each built around a decision: bunkers that pinch the driving zone, a creek to lay up short of, a green guarded by water with the wind blowing toward it, a fairway that tilts toward a pond, an uphill approach. The lie changes the strike: the first cut takes a little spin off, rough takes more and makes the ball fly and run, deep rough grabs the hosel and shuts the face, a fairway bunker costs distance. Slopes act as they do on a real course: uphill adds loft, downhill takes it off, a ball above your feet points the face left and draws, below your feet it fades. Elevation changes how far the ball flies to the green, and firm ground lets it run.
For every club, shot shape and swing length, and every aim line across the hole, the caddie flies the shot your simulated swing produces in today's conditions, spreads it the way a player of your chosen level spreads it (direction, distance and the odd mishit), lets every landing spot roll out, and scores where each one finishes by the average strokes to hole out from there. Those averages come from the PGA Tour strokes-gained baseline published by Mark Broadie, scaled up for higher handicaps. The plan with the lowest average is best. It is the method tour strategists use: aim where the misses are cheapest, not always at the flag.
The strike sets the launch. Dynamic loft is the club's loft less the forward shaft lean, launch sits a little below it, spin grows with spin loft (dynamic loft minus attack angle) and with ball speed, and the spin axis tilts with face to path, which is what curves the ball. Ball speed is head speed times a smash factor for each club, from 1.47 for the driver to 1.24 for the PW, and drops for heel, toe, fat and thin contact. The ball is then flown in three dimensions with drag and lift that were fitted so tour launch numbers give tour carries and heights within about 5%, and it rolls out further the flatter it lands.
Swing direction is where the base of the swing plane points, fitted to the head's path through impact. Club path is the head's direction at the ball. They only match at the low point. An iron meets the ball before the low point while the head is still coming down and out, so the path sits right of the swing direction. A teed driver meets it after the low point, so the path sits left. The gap is about the attack angle divided by the tangent of the plane angle.
Every club gets the same body motion, with longer clubs swung faster (the driver about 20% faster), as golfers do. Longer ropes are also a little stiffer, so a driver acts like a long club rather than a flail. Each club has its own ball position and a small face setting at address so a neutral swing starts close to the line. The golfer is assumed to stand where the head arrives, so only hand distance moves the strike toward heel or toe. A rope arrives later than a real shaft, so the model's ball positions sit a few centimetres further forward than a coach would set them. It is a teaching model: trust the trends more than the exact numbers.