So, over almost the last year I have methodically worked through Tom's programme, making good progress and many times going back over some points til they sink in. Over the last couple of months while trying a number of approaches to getting my irons, especially short irons, where I want in response to a lot of left misses, I've found that by having the face open at address, I've found true crispiness, contact and straightness like i never before achieved. Is the consensus that it's okay to accept this quirk as it works, or fix whatever is wrong that requires my swing to have to do this face open kind of address. With a square face at address my driver produces a nice draw which I compensate for by aiming for the right side of the fairway. Interested to hear your views, thanks.
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@CJL - Seems to me that you have made excellent progress. Nicely done! Based on your description and your satisfaction with your impact and ball flight, I don't think there's much to offer beyond some minor tweaking of ball position to see how that affects curvature. If your irons are flying straight and you would prefer a predictable push-draw curve as @Ronald Burkholder suggests in his excellent replies, then try moving the ball back in your stance in small increments to see how that changes the shot shape.
The Stack & Tilt book prescribes a stock ball position that is in the middle of the stance for short irons, two balls inside the lead heel for middle irons, and incrementally more forward for the longer clubs - the farthest forward being even with the inside of the lead heel for the driver (with the stance width increasing as we move from shorter to longer clubs). From these baselines we can then make those incremental tweaks to see how different positions affect impact quality and shot shape. (For example, my personal preference for the shorter clubs tends to be a position that is slightly forward of prescribed.) By the way, I strongly suggest using alignment sticks when monitoring ball position - one on the foot line, a second one parallel to the first to mark the target line, and a third perpendicular to these to show ball position – as our side-on view from above tends to skew our perspective of the actual location of the ball relative to our stance.
As for letting the club "freewheel" through the zone, that's exactly where I want you to be! Give up control to gain control... 😎
Tom‘s setup produces a push draw. But the push component comes from setting up with a club face that is slightly open to the target line. The draw comes from the swing path being a few degrees to the right (right handed swing) of the club face angle at impact. So the ball starts right (due to club face) and curves left (due to swing path). So, stick with the open club face at setup. I think Tom addressed this in a video, but can’t point you to it right now.