What is the D-Plane ? I will quote from Dr. Theo Jorgensen’s book “Physics of Golf” – Euclid, the famous geometer, says something to the effect that two intersecting lines determine a plane. The normal to the clubface and the line along which the clubhead is moving at impact intersect at the ball and therefore determine a plane. The line along which the ball leaves the clubhead also lies in this plane. We shall call this plane the D Plane because it is descriptive of the collision between the clubhead and ball.
How does this help you ? It depends who you are and what you want to know, but to begin with, it tells you why the ball flies through the air the way that it does. Every player has hit a shot where they look up and watch their ball fly in the opposite direction… and wonder how did that happen. Some try to fix the clubface, some try to fix the path. This goes for players and teachers. With the D Plane, both have better information on how to correct it and avoid it from reoccuring as often.
How can we measure it? We can understand that in order for the ball to curve, the clubface has to be anything other than square to the path, but to be precise, we have to use a measuring device, like the Golf Industry’s leader in launch monitor and ball detection, FlightScope.
Here are some videos of the D-Plane in Action
Here is James Leitz, a PGA Professional discussing the D-Plane.
