The Golf club lie angle refers to a plane formed between the top of the golf club and the ball when the shafts are parallel to the surface, and the clubhead is at precisely 90 degrees to this plane. If the shaft is bent or twisted in any way while making the impact, the lie angle will be different from what would be expected. The best way to judge the angle of a particular club is to imagine that the shaft is being straightened at high speed. The resultant angle of the shaft as it impacts the ball is what we would expect if the shaft were perfectly straight. The other important measure of the lie angle of a golf club is the amount of spin on the ball has while hitting a golf ball at impact.

Let us first look at how the lie angle relates to wedges. The most extreme loft angle of a wedge is about fourteen degrees. This is where the face of the clubhead is about two degrees above the ball’s surface when it is struck. This is the ideal loft angle for a wedge since the resulting launch angle is very high. This results in a high drive distance.

A less extreme lie angle is about ten degrees. It is the ideal position for a wedge to hit a reasonable distance shot without much backspin, and it is suitable for shots over water. This is the reason why drivers with high lie angles are so effective, and they have high backspin and a long flight. The ball flies straight and short with a low lie angle but will probably slice or hook up.

The reason why the face of your club-face must point straight up is to get more energy into the shot. Some handy aids on the market can help you achieve this, but a straight loft angle is more useful in reality. The problem lies with some “experts” who want to sell you clubs with overly-angulated loft angles. Their advice is that you will swing the ball better if you swing with an overly-angulated loft angle.

The main thing to remember is that golfers with a flat loft angle typically hit balls with lesser degrees of ball flight. The opposite is true for those with an excessively high Golf club lie angle. The problem comes when their loft angles are so high that the ball flight is so severe that it is impossible to maintain a decent swing speed. On a golf course, a ball flight occurs every couple inches, not every stroke. Therefore, unless you are a great driver, it simply is not possible for you to keep up such speeds without practicing very hard.