Mac Boucher, an incredible shaper of the golf ball as detailed by his instagram and master club fitter Ian Fraser of Tour Experience Golf got into what it takes to shape the ball in all four directions, the draw, the fade, the low ball, and high ball.
SHOT SHAPING 101 WITH MAC BOUCHER // How To Work The Ball & Hit Different Shots
Mac initially got into shaping the ball after realizing it was just easier for him. Hours spent on the range trying to perfect the straight ball were not working for him. He found that when he shaped the ball, he could better understand where his miss was going to be. As Tiger always says, "Golf is a game of misses" and "who can miss the best". Tiger Woods Iron play, and the 9 Window Drill have had a huge impact on Mac and his desire to shape the golf ball with his irons.
The fundamentals of the shot shape have to do with the face of the club, and the path of the club. So when Mac is setting up for a shot, he is thinking about how he can get his club going on a path and face angle that will generate the shot shape he is looking for. The setup is everything to Mac.
Mac gets the draw going by closing his body off and facing away from the target, and his swing path is down his foot line, in to out, while closing the club face relative to the path, and compressing the ball. To help create the in to out path, the ball is placed slight back in the stance. He can hit a 9 iron draw as far as a 6 iron cut because when he delivers the club at impact, he is significantly de-lofting the club and compressing the ball, almost "slinging it" out there. He is hitting down on the ball a decent amount more than a standard straight ball.
The cut starts with an extremely open to the target stance. The swing path is down the footline, out to in. The ball is placed slightly forward in the stance to create that out to in path. The club at delivery is open relative to the path, which delivers additional loft, almost hitting a little more up on ball than a standard iron shot. The open face relative to the path lofts the club, which is why Mac needs to hit a 6 iron to get the same distance on a cut that he gets out of 9 iron draw.
Keeping the ball down is done by moving the ball back in the stance and finishing with low hands. The low ball generally a little bit easier to hit with a draw.
Adding height is achieved by moving the ball up in the stance, and finishing with high hands. Generally the high ball is easier to hit with a fade.
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