The Vertical Face Squareness Drill

Set the pathpal to 90 degrees — fully vertical — and position it directly on your target line a few feet in front of your ball position. The vertical rod now acts as a precision target: hitting it requires the clubface to be square to the target line at impact. A ball that misses right means the face was open. A ball that misses left means the face was closed. A ball that hits the stick means the face was perfectly square. Brad describes this as "point-and-shoot" accuracy training — the pathpal is the target line made physical.

Path and face both contribute to ball flight — the D-Plane model shows that the ball starts roughly where the face points and curves away from the path. But among amateur golfers, face angle at impact accounts for approximately 75–85% of the starting direction of the shot, while path accounts for the remainder. A golfer who has a correct path but an open face will still push or slice every shot. Conversely, a square face with a slightly imperfect path produces a manageable ball flight. Brad's drill targets the higher-leverage variable directly: if the face is square, the ball starts on line.

Consistently hitting the 90-degree rod requires the golfer to deliver the clubface perpendicular to the target line at impact — which in turn requires the correct wrist angles, forearm rotation, and grip position to all converge at the same moment. Rather than training each of those components separately, the drill trains the outcome — face square at impact — and lets the nervous system find whatever combination of inputs produces it. Over repeated successful contacts with the rod, the motor system encodes the wrist and forearm positions that produce a square face automatically, without the golfer having to consciously manage each variable.

The vertical rod provides an instant miss diagnosis on every shot. A ball that starts right of the rod indicates an open face — the most common fault among amateur golfers, producing pushes and slices. A ball that starts left indicates a closed face — producing pulls and hooks. A ball that hits or nearly hits the rod confirms the face was square. Over a session of 20–30 shots, the pattern of misses — consistently right, consistently left, or scattered — tells the golfer and instructor exactly which face angle fault is dominant and how severe it is. This turns every ball-striking rep into both a skill development exercise and a self-diagnostic tool.

Brad's two pathpal drills address different phases of the same problem chain. The Kneecap Setup Drill ensures the posture and spine angle are correct before the swing begins — creating the geometric foundation for an on-plane, face-square delivery. The Vertical Face Squareness Drill verifies whether that delivery actually produced a square face at impact. Janean Murphy's Brick Wall Impact Drill addresses the body position that allows the face to square — by keeping the upper body behind the ball, the release is possible. Together the three drills form a complete pre-swing, body position, and outcome verification chain.