I went down the “wanting to shape my shots either way on command” rabbit hole a few years back. Growing up I had an extreme in-to-out path (think like 12-15 degrees), a hooded club face, and flippy hands through impact. When I was playing a lot, I had a very reliable HUGE snap hook that I had to start about 30-50 yards right of the fairway to get it to end up in the fairway. That was fine for the wide open courses of Wyoming, not so much for the tree lined courses back east where I went to college. I could reliably shoot 74-78 with that swing and ball flight, but I was never going to shoot 65, or even 69, really. Once I realized I could never go lower, I was ahem like Tiger, and realized I needed to completely reconstruct my swing. The next twenty years I spent trying to figure out how to neutralize my path to hit a straighter ball. Imagine my excitement when I actually started to be able to fade the ball somewhat! It was so foreign to my eye, but I eventually started to like it, and I believed the path to the next level of golf was to be able to work it both ways on command…
And it may be. But I don’t have the time to perfect it. For me, now, I am seeing almost every shot as straight, maybe a slight cut with driver and 3w, and slight draws with irons. But not much movement. There are very few holes where a straight shot won’t work to some degree. Misses are little pulls and pushes, not huge blocks and duck hooks. I find it just as exhilarating (if not more so) to hit a flat, straight, laser bomb or arrow as it is to shape one on to the fairway or the hole. In fact, the only person I can think of right now who shapes his ball all different directions is Tiger (and Bubba), who came of age in an era of a spinnier ball. And it is pure joy to watch him work the ball around the golf course. Most other tour pros shot shapes tracers are just laser arrows for the most part. I still like it and find it extremely enjoyable.