Interesting… I guess I’m behind on the times! Probably a good thing to build a data set on in the simulator this winter!
So, knowing that, where do you aim on the teebox? down the right side, with a target of drawing it to the middle? or down the middle, knowing a draw will end up on the left side of the fairway?
On most holes right down the middle. I’m not playing for the draw. Sometimes I’ll hit it straight, sometimes I’ll block it, sometimes I’ll pull/hook it 
The only time I’ll adjust is if there is big trouble I’m looking to play away from.
Interesting… I’ll have to get on the simulator and figure out my dispersion and best point of aim…
I feel like aiming left for my normal shot to land in the middle is the best course of action… it doesn’t eliminate the left miss, but should put my dispersion in the middle of the fairway.
That is entirely possible it’s something you need to play around with. Also tracking your shots during your rounds will help you understand where your tendencies are.
Small sample size when I was driving the ball well, but this was focused on left of center as a target.
Also, the long balls were in Idaho with a good wind! (Still proud of them!)
I play a draw. These are my driving stats for 2020 (yes, I need to hit more fairways).
Interestingly, for the most part, the right miss punishes me more than the left miss. Probably because I’m already aiming down the right side of the fairway and if I hit the big right one, it goes way right.
I believe Scott’s whole thing on this topic is “get rid of the double cross” not “eliminate one half of the course”.
In DJs case this mean he can hit a hot pull (face square to path) but not a hook.
For @jon he can hit a big push (again square to path) but not a right wipe.
Double crossing your pattern is what leads to big misses, ob, penalty etc.
I unfortunately have an OTP move that shifts my path left and causes me to hit a little pull fade or hot left duck hook. I play my best golf when consistently swinging to the right and playing a big push right as the miss
I did not say a one way miss isn’t a thing. I said you don’t eliminate one side of the course. Massive difference. Great players eliminate the double cross and it is the most important thing in ball striking.
The best drivers (**on average and a few other disclaimers since this is a hard topic to talk about genetically) miss roughly the same amount left as they do right regardless of shape or anything. This is because over the course of a season the penalty areas will average out approximately evenly on both sides of the fairway.
The No Laying Up point of “ DJ eliminates the left side of the course” is nothing more than somebody attempting to sound golf smart. You’ll hear many
I’ve got Covid right now so I doubt I’ll respond again, but I did not say anything about a one way miss.
Get better soon, amigo.
Right. I think this is semantics. For DJ playing a fade, it really means he can point his body left of where he’s aiming and be confident he won’t miss it further left. The catastrophe is aiming left playing for a fade and then hitting a hook. But if you’re missing one side more than the other you’re aiming in the wrong place. It’s really as simple as that.
I have a inside out path and with irons I always hook. This takes the right side of the course out of play unless I shank it. In an effort to drive better by manipulating the face to avoid a hook I miss both ways with the driver.
Thanks Scott! Hope you are recovering, and appreciate the clarification.
wow, it took a case of Covid for you to show up on the forum!
He should show up here more often. Way less stressful than the Twitter machine.
I think this is the key takeaway… Eliminate a big miss in one direction. This is something I’ve been working on and definitely helped my scoring last season.
What I do want to test on a simulator is my dispersion vs my aim… basically, if I’m planning on fading the ball, I aim down the left side of the fairway… does my dispersion include misses left of my target, and how far left? I think there are going to be obvious outliers, but I’m curious what my 80% shot pattern looks like.
Hopefully my back is fully healed by the time the simulators are in, and I’ll post my data.
I’m late to the party, but I’ll chime in anyway. I’d agree that every single player will miss sometimes to the left of his intended target, and sometimes to the right. But for most of us, eliminating a two-way curvature is a good thing. If I know I’m (almost) certain to hit a draw, I can safely aim at the right-center or right edge of a fairway. I’m certainly going to start a few to the right of my intended start line, I’m certainly going to hit a few unintentional straight shots, so I can’t completely eliminate a right miss. What I’ve done is to (nearly) eliminate shot that starts right and curves further right. And the opposite will happen, I’ll start some left of my intended start line, I’ll over-cook the draw, so I’ll hit some shots left too.
The “one way miss” and “eliminate the left side” stuff is more of the older dogma that’s being increasingly phased out by more modern statistically based evaluations
Edit: I missed Scott’s reply.
Yep.
I have the driver going both ways right now and it just makes it so hard to play the game aggressively. Same thing with hybrid and 3w which has driven a lot of my posts/thinking on the second par 5 shot.
I’m at a spot where I can keep my swing together with duck tape and chewing gum for a round and shoot mid 76-80 while hitting draws and little pull cuts but I have to improve technique to develop a more consistent pattern to take the next step
I think quantifying your pattern on sim and then playing challenge games with one side (the double cross side) being “dead” is a great way to practice.
I think it may have been Jack Nicklaus (??) that started to popularize the one-way miss idea of play to “your” shot off the tee.
Me? I believe everyone should have a chance, so … I’m an equal-opportunity misser 
It always seemed kind of backward to me, the way “eliminating one side of the course” is often discussed, historically. For example, people often think of a fader when talking about eliminating the left side of the course. But aiming left seems like it brings the left side of the course into play, unless you can absolutely guarantee a cut. It seems to me like the best way to “eliminate” the left side of a hole, as in almost completely take left trouble out of play, would be to aim up the right side of the hole. In my head, that calls for a draw or hook up the right side.
