To be a Lefty or Not to be a Lefty

Admiral

I've a 5 month old son and I'm obviously very excited about being a Dad hence my ridiculously early ask of this question...

Early signs show that he's gonna be a Lefty (like me). Obviously I will be forcing him against his will or not to play the great game.
My conundrum is this...

I'm a lefty playing right handed,
My Dad's a lefty playing right handed,
His Dad was a lefty playing right handed,
And my golfing partners a lefty playing right handed.

It's the old case of picking up a set up right handed clubs at a young age and playing on with them. This was the same for me, my golfing partner, my Dad and my Granddad. My Granddad was a good golfer playing off 3, my Dad's a mid 20's Handicapper, and I myself play off 11.

The question is asking is this...
Did we all go wrong playing with right handed clubs. Should I introduce my son to the game with a set of left handed clubs? Think that maybe we could have been better if we had of picked up the correct clubs?


Comments are very welcome.

Thanks

PhilipMarlowe

Give him a hurley and encourage him to hit from both sides... It should become obvious to you which side he is 'better' off...
I have a 6 year old and the biggest issue with him is he like to grip the hurl like a golf club and he grips a golf club like a hurl
I'm a right-handed person who play's golf lefty by the way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvFRKcchcFI

Mister Sifter

2,500 left handed people die every year using right handed products. If you love him... :-)

arg

Have a brother who's right handed and playing lefty - he went that way cause he started playing hurling off the left (years before playing golf). Very good golfer (and hurler). Don't think it matters too much which side your son goes for and I think anyone could switch sides and develop a good swing (earlier the better though). I've heard of a guy in my club who switched to left after reaching about a 7 handicap playing righty; he now plays +1!

Incidently, my mam is thinking of taking up the game (at 73!) - she's still trying to work out whether she's a lefty or a righty!

PhilipMarlowe

The guy in the video above is an excellent teacher and plays with a half set of each.. every second club is right and left so he'll have a right driver, left 3 wood etc. or vice-versa... and a scratch handicap both ways!
Set your targets high for your son, after all, it's an easy game

stockdam

Licksy wrote: »

The guy in the video above is an excellent teacher

I thought that was you Licksy!


Playing the "wrong" way is possibly better in the long run as you have to have a nice smooth swing. Your dominate side can't hit at the ball.

I tried leftie recently and nearly took my shins off with the ball!!!!


I've noticed that there are quite a lot of cack handed golfers "down here". I rarely have seen any in the North but have seen quite a few around Dublin. I asked one guy why he played that way and he said it was the way he played Hurling. I can't help feeling though that it must be very restrictive playing cack handed.

Niall09

I'm left sided in everything, but in golf, I'm right handed. My dad is right sided, but plays golf left handed.

The one thing I find better is my putting stroke. For some reason, my left handed putting stroke is much better than my normal stroke.

PhilipMarlowe

If you want to see lots of lefty golfers, come to Kilkenny! It has to have something to do with hurling. In our club, half the barton cup team are lefties...

The end of the video above explains the 'feel' and how it differs depending on which side is dominant.... my left side feels like a passenger in my (left-handed) swing because my right side is dominant. It doesn't feel restrictive to me - I couldn't hardly hit the ball off my right side playing hurling though a lot of that was down to lack of practice. I think that in modern hurling teaching, kids are encouraged to strike off both sides much more - it's built into their training.
With this in mind, I have both right and left sided clubs for the kids and will encourage them to use both until I can see clearly which side they default to. It isn't clear yet with my 6 year old but a friend has a 3 year old that he can tell is a right-handed golfer (and a left-handed child).

fullstop

Niall09 wrote: »

I'm left sided in everything, but in golf, I'm right handed. My dad is right sided, but plays golf left handed.

The one thing I find better is my putting stroke. For some reason, my left handed putting stroke is much better than my normal stroke.

i'm the same as you

neckedit

there has been many top golfers who are left handed and play right and the flip side is also true, Mickleson is naturally right handed yet plays left handed, apparently due to copying his fathers swing face to face. Most childeren will, when you hand them a club, hold it left below right/cack handed it the most natural way to hold a club, your subconscience will tell you, to hit a ball of a level surface, your shoulders must be level, cack handed premotes level shoulders, hence why a lot of top players have switched to cack handed putting.:p