[ChrisNZ]

Recently I’ve been wondering about the possibility of a reverse angled hinge (to coin a phrase).

Firstly, in thinking about the action of centrifugal force to square the clubface in a pure swinging motion, it seems to me that as the shaft rotates around the sweetspot and not vice versa, a hinge pin may be seen to run from the left shoulder to the sweetspot, with the whole primary lever assembly rotating anti-clockwise (from the golfer’s viewpoint) around this hinge. Such a hinge would be neither horizontal nor vertical, nor would it be ‘angled’ in the sense of being perpendicular to the inclined plane – instead it would be closer to parallel to the inclined plane. Such a ‘reverse angled’ hinge would give a closing action (but greater closing than a horizontal hinge) and a hooding action.

The other thing that leads me to this way of thinking is this: an example of a horizontal hinge is a door. The angle it is closed = the angle it is closed in relation to the horizontal plane (eg the ground) (compare with an angled hinge at 45 degrees, where the angle it is closed is halved in relation to the ground eg 45 degrees of closing on the angled plane = 22.5 degrees in relation to the horizontal plane (I think!!!)). So, if a golfer uses a horizontal hinge, one would expect past impact to see a clubface closed (in relation to the ground) about the same amount as the angle the club shaft is at (viewed from directly above) – for example shaft 45 degrees past left shoulder, clubface closed about 45 degrees. But looking at actual pics of pros swinging drivers (for example) – I don’t see that at all. I see the toe almost pointing down the line at this point. This is another reason I have been wondering about reverse angled hinging.

Any thoughts?

Chris