Clubface Closure in Golf - Different Variations Explained

Clubface Closure – How to Square Up for an Effortless Swing

The golf swing can in its raw form be described as a challenge of balancing power output and clubface closure. Failing to conquer this challenge lies behind most swing faults in golf.

I’ll walk through different styles of closing down the clubface in an attempt to explain that most do something different than the best golfers.

For reader context: this article is a part of the Forgotten Master Moves Swing Page (my system for teaching the great’s core movements). I recommend that you start here instead.

Clubface Closure – In a Common Non Functional Technique

The first failed solution is the most “non-functional” and most common. The golfer aims directly at the ball with all their intentions and ends up with an open blade way too late in the downswing (the direct path toward the ball eliminates the space for natural face closure). This often coexists with an out-to-in path toward the ball.

Either the golfer has insufficient blade-closing skills, which leads to a slice, or they’ve adapted a stronger lead-hand grip, which often results in some last-second face closure, causing pulls, pull-hooks, and pull-fades with little power. In the worst-case scenario (and quite commonly), this leads to a complete shutdown of the body, resulting in early extension and wrist collapse, which actually closes the blade. Unfortunately, many of these golfers quit golf after a few years and move on to something else.

“Normal Swing” Backswing where Clubface matches Spine Angle

The second version involves closing the blade in the backswing and then pushing the hands through the shot. This method is still used by many tour players today and can provide excellent results, but it requires intense skill and physical training. Essentially, you’re determining the quality of the shot based on the trail arm extension through the ball. Extend the arm too early, and you get a big hook; extend it too late, and you end up with a push fade. While this isn’t the worst outcome, it’s not my favorite motion. Tommy Fleetwood perfects it with amazing results.

MORAD later protocols (with a rehinge tweak) utilize this style, and it can be found on nearly every YouTube channel. My issue with it? There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it doesn’t align with my view of what the greats did. It doesn’t fully utilize the downswing arc potential and often forces a lean to the right to create neutral impact conditions.

Baseball / Slingshot Swing – Delayed Clubface Closure

The third version, and definitely not a personal favorite, is the baseball delayed closing style which basically means that you delay the clubs natural power release (and replace this power with slingshot power) and use body rotation to close down the blade. This definitely works but needs a top shelf athleticism golfer.

The typical player doing this would be Dustin Johnson or Victor Hovland. The style of player where the lead wrist increases in bow (that’s the delay together with the trail wrist cup) from the mid backswing all the way to downswing shaft parallel (before impact).

The Big Arc Swing (Nicklaus, Woods etc) early Clubface Closure

My absolute favorite way of squaring up the clubface is by harnessing the power of the golf club and its natural motions. If you allow the club to work, it will naturally begin closing down after shaft parallel in the downswing. This allows you to release the club freely while still creating the potential for square impact conditions, resulting in an effortless feel.

Clubface closure is one of the most complex aspects of golf, so I completely understand the reasoning behind “taking it out of the equation,” as techniques like the intended trail arm extension and the sling-shot baseball method attempt to do. The extreme delayed release of the modern swing style removes arm closure entirely, while the more modest trail arm extension eliminates forearm closure.

Personally, I like to use both full arm closure (through the humerus bone) and forearm closure to my advantage. It took me many years to understand that clubface closure is deeply connected to what Nicklaus said—”I release as early as possible”—and that “what you see isn’t what is being intended.” These two articles about golf swing timing and the right elbow touch on what I believe to be the holy grail of golf.

The trick is to let the “club closing beast free” by allowing the club to release. This creates a highly rotating clubhead, which will undoubtedly “solve the clubface dilemma.” However, it also generates such a high rate of closure at impact that it makes the swing difficult to control. The solution isn’t to “control” the release—doing so would kill the power. Instead, the key is to guide it in a way that maintains power while managing the clubface effectively.

A bit of a mouthful? I get that. It’s actually what I teach in my Big Arc Swinger Pattern. Check out the FMM Swing Academy here.

The Backside Releaser – Closing down the other way around?

The most unintuitive way to close down the clubface is to open it more. Makes zero sense right? Well it’s an interplay between delaying the release and allowing centrifugal force spin the lead wrist to your assistance. This sounds like almost impossible to do manually but it’s actually very achievable if you understand which intentions to use.

It’s different than the big swings of e.g. Nicklaus and Watson since it’s not really driven by the arms and shoulders but it’s more of a wrist release delay that you can intensify with active body usage. Or you can go the Trevino and Thompson route and just push to the target. This horizontality in my experience provides closure automatically and is paired with a slight distance loss but mostly an accuracy gain (if it fits you). This style of push forward backwards entry release is also shown with “kneeling” through the shot to accomodate hitting the ball properly.

Closing through Verticality – Trail Arm Power Hitter style

The third style that I teach is about how you can optimize the usage of forearm rerotation, wrist uncock, wrist hinge and trail arm extension to trap the ball in a base draw pattern. Maybe the easiest form to play golf (if you fit). Here the clubface closure is pretty much a byproduct of your athletic task to act vertically towards the strike.

I find that this would be the core of early MORAD and players like Woosnam, Stadler, Price etc.

The common denominator between my teaching patterns when it comes to clubface closure is that it’s handled from an open blade backswing position since it inherently leads to loads of mechanical downswing advantages.

Understand your clubface closure and you will very soon be on top of your game.

Best of luck.

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