Golf Drill Tip: Stop pulling - Correct alignment (Video) - Lesson 3 by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Golf Drill Tip: Stop pulling - Correct alignment (Video) - Lesson 3 by PGA Pro Pete Styles

If you’ve noticed a problem out on the golf course or the practice ground where you have actually started to see your golf ball pulling to the left hand side for the right-handed golfer, here is a nice little series of videos that is going to try and straighten these shots out for you. Now first we have to identify exactly what a pull shot is, we sometimes misdiagnose. So a pull by definition is a golf ball that will start left, this is all for the right-handed golfer, a ball that would start left of target and stay left of target but flying a relatively straight line left of target. Now that's going to be caused by a swing path that is swinging left of target and a face that is square to the path. So it puts very little spin on the ball, because whatever the path is doing the face is copying and it just hits the ball with very little spin in a straight line but not to your intended target.

So the first thing we can consider is are you hitting the pull shot because you are simply aiming in the wrong position, so down the line of the mat that's my intended line for the straight shot, but if I get into a bad habit of setting my feet up left of target, setting my shoulder up left of target, then swinging left of target, with the club face that is also square to my alignment and therefore left of target, I would generally see this golf ball follow those two yellow lines straight left of my intended target line and I could have actually made a very good swing, I could have swung in exactly the intended path in relation to my feet and my body, I could have had the club face in exactly the same position as my intended swing path but because I simply wasn’t aiming in the right direction first I am going to end up with a shot that looks like a pull, I could then go through complicated swing changes trying to correct it, when simply all I would need to work on is better alignment in my pre-shot routine, so line everything up square and straight, make the same swing, produce a ball flight that finishes on target.

So if that's the issue and you are pulling the ball because of alignment go through some alignment exercises, make sure you are pointing in the right direction making sure you picked an accurate spot to aim over the top ball, set yourself up, lined up exactly over the top, follow through exactly over the spot and see if better alignment will cure your pull shots.

 2013-03-25

If you’ve noticed a problem out on the golf course or the practice ground where you have actually started to see your golf ball pulling to the left hand side for the right-handed golfer, here is a nice little series of videos that is going to try and straighten these shots out for you. Now first we have to identify exactly what a pull shot is, we sometimes misdiagnose. So a pull by definition is a golf ball that will start left, this is all for the right-handed golfer, a ball that would start left of target and stay left of target but flying a relatively straight line left of target. Now that's going to be caused by a swing path that is swinging left of target and a face that is square to the path. So it puts very little spin on the ball, because whatever the path is doing the face is copying and it just hits the ball with very little spin in a straight line but not to your intended target.

So the first thing we can consider is are you hitting the pull shot because you are simply aiming in the wrong position, so down the line of the mat that's my intended line for the straight shot, but if I get into a bad habit of setting my feet up left of target, setting my shoulder up left of target, then swinging left of target, with the club face that is also square to my alignment and therefore left of target, I would generally see this golf ball follow those two yellow lines straight left of my intended target line and I could have actually made a very good swing, I could have swung in exactly the intended path in relation to my feet and my body, I could have had the club face in exactly the same position as my intended swing path but because I simply wasn’t aiming in the right direction first I am going to end up with a shot that looks like a pull, I could then go through complicated swing changes trying to correct it, when simply all I would need to work on is better alignment in my pre-shot routine, so line everything up square and straight, make the same swing, produce a ball flight that finishes on target.

So if that's the issue and you are pulling the ball because of alignment go through some alignment exercises, make sure you are pointing in the right direction making sure you picked an accurate spot to aim over the top ball, set yourself up, lined up exactly over the top, follow through exactly over the spot and see if better alignment will cure your pull shots.