These answers are correct if you want to follow the old ball flight laws. The diagram at above shows how the ball comes off the clubface if the clubhead is not moving in the same direction that it is facing. Here are the basics of what happens: * The ball will take a direction (red arrow) somewhere between the direction the clubface is pointing and the direction the clubhead is moving. * The ball's path will be closer to the clubface direction than to the swing path. * Most references show this as between 80:20 and 70:30. That is, the ball is 80% of the way from the swing path to the clubface direction. The other obvious consequence of the clubface direction being different from the swing path is spin. The conditions in the diagram will result in clockwise spin on the ball, resulting in a fade or slice. How does this relate to the "usual" diagram shown above. Well, it would relate very well -- if only the direction of the ball were well aligned to the swing path. But it's not; instead, the direction of the ball is closely aligned to the clubface direction. This fact is not reflected in the "usual" diagram. When we take this inconvenient fact into account, we get a somewhat different set of ball flights on our diagram. Below are two diagrams. Each has nine trajectories on it, corresponding to the nine ballflights that Ed asked about. In the diagrams: * Red arrows correspond to an outside-to-in swing for a right-handed golfer -- that is, a swing path to the left. * Green arrows correspond to a down-the-line swingpath, straight at the target. * Blue arrows correspond to an inside-to-out swing for a right-handed golfer -- that is, a swing path to the right. This graphic shows ball flights where the clubface direction is referenced to the target line. That is, instead of using the ambiguous term "open", we say the clubface points right of the target line. The different kinds of arrows mean: * Solid arrow: clubface points at the target. * Dashed arrow: clubface points right of the target. * Dotted arrow: clubface points left of the target. This graphic shows ball flights where the clubface direction is referenced to the swing path. That is, instead of using the ambiguous term "open", we say the clubface points right of the swing path. The different kinds of arrows mean: * Solid arrow: clubface points the same direction as the clubhead travels. * Dashed arrow: clubface points right of the swing path. * Dotted arrow: clubface points left of the swing path. A discussion on the Wishon Golf web forum criticized these findings. In particular, Bill (a professional clubfitter from Santa Barbara) argued that "ball flight rules" said that the ball started in the direction of the swing path and curved toward the direction of the clubface. Simple -- but wrong. (H.L. Mencken once said, "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.") Here are my responses to his arguments: 1. As a rebuttal to Bill's version of the "ball flight rules", I pointed out that, whatever they are, they must work in the vertical direction as well as horizontal. If they were as Bill proposes, a wedge shot should start out horizontal and climb in trajectory only due to spin. But we have all seen personally that wedge shots take off on a rather high trajectory, closer to the loft angle than to horizontal. So it is just wrong to say the ball starts off in the direction of the clubhead path; we're just arguing about how close the ball starts to the clubface angle. Which brings us to... 2. Bill pointed out that 19ยบ is a huge amount to be off, either clubface angle or swing path. And so it is for "misses"; it might not be for a deliberate hook or slice. But sorry, Bill; for smaller angles, the results are pretty similar -- but more so. That is, instead of the direction of the ball being 70-80% in the direction of the clubface, it will be more like 90%. http://www.tutelman.com/golf/clubs/ballflight.php?ref=