Golf Tip: Use Intermediate Spot For Better Alignment (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Tip: Use Intermediate Spot For Better Alignment (Video) - by Pete Styles Now I mean the golf ball is quite a fundamental part of getting a good setup to produce a good shot. I see an awful lot of golfers, as they're addressing the golf ball in that setup position, they're taking a lot of care over some of the fundamentals, but they're actually in building and mistaking their swing to start with, because they're not getting the alignment right. So all the best swings that could happen from here are going to produce bad shots because the alignment is wrong, you're actually building in a floor already. So getting good ball to target alignment and then standing parallel or square to that is really important. And we're going to talk about a little way of helping you out with that by actually picking an intermediary point between your golf ball and your target, which for this instance is down the camera line. We're going to try and aim over the top of this tee peg. So, as part of a pre-shot routine, we could stand at the back of the ball and look down the target line towards the flag and pick a spot that's about two, three feet in front of you. I'm going to use this tee peg right here as my spot. On the golf course, that might be a divot or a broken tee but it could even be just a blade of grass, picking the intermediary points. You'll see someone like Justin Rose, he holds his golf club up like this in quite a strange fashion and a lot of what he's doing now, why has he got the club in the air, he's actually just lining this end up with the flag, this end up with his golf ball and then a little point here where he can pick his blade of grass, so now I've got my tee peg in line with my golf ball and my target, I know that my job would be to stand square and parallel to that line. Now it has to be much easier to line up with that spot than it would be to line up with something that's 200 yards away, also because to see that spot, I don't really need to turn my head or lift out of it, I can actually just see it in my peripheral vision and I can see my feet in my peripheral vision, so I can check that everything is nicely lined up. As soon as I start tilting my head to look at something along my way because my eyes now aren't level, I've got this tilt, it's very difficult to line up with something. And that's actually where a lot of people get their alignment wrong. So next time you're out on the practice ground, if you're on a mat like I am here, shuffle the mat around so it's aiming where you want it to aim. Then pick your ball in an intermediary point even if you have to place another ball on the front of the mat that you can now aim your shot over the top ball, so this now lines up with this ball, lines up with my target. And then practice hitting your ball over the top of that target line to keep your swing nicely on line and improve your shot shape, and when you're out on the golf course, use your pre shot routine to stand behind the ball, line up nice and square over the top of it. If you want to do the Justin Rose, line the club thing as well and then when you set up the golf ball, you should be able to aim over the top of that point and that will improve your alignment and ultimately the direction of your shots. 2012-05-29

Now I mean the golf ball is quite a fundamental part of getting a good setup to produce a good shot. I see an awful lot of golfers, as they're addressing the golf ball in that setup position, they're taking a lot of care over some of the fundamentals, but they're actually in building and mistaking their swing to start with, because they're not getting the alignment right.

So all the best swings that could happen from here are going to produce bad shots because the alignment is wrong, you're actually building in a floor already. So getting good ball to target alignment and then standing parallel or square to that is really important. And we're going to talk about a little way of helping you out with that by actually picking an intermediary point between your golf ball and your target, which for this instance is down the camera line. We're going to try and aim over the top of this tee peg.

So, as part of a pre-shot routine, we could stand at the back of the ball and look down the target line towards the flag and pick a spot that's about two, three feet in front of you. I'm going to use this tee peg right here as my spot. On the golf course, that might be a divot or a broken tee but it could even be just a blade of grass, picking the intermediary points.

You'll see someone like Justin Rose, he holds his golf club up like this in quite a strange fashion and a lot of what he's doing now, why has he got the club in the air, he's actually just lining this end up with the flag, this end up with his golf ball and then a little point here where he can pick his blade of grass, so now I've got my tee peg in line with my golf ball and my target, I know that my job would be to stand square and parallel to that line.

Now it has to be much easier to line up with that spot than it would be to line up with something that's 200 yards away, also because to see that spot, I don't really need to turn my head or lift out of it, I can actually just see it in my peripheral vision and I can see my feet in my peripheral vision, so I can check that everything is nicely lined up. As soon as I start tilting my head to look at something along my way because my eyes now aren't level, I've got this tilt, it's very difficult to line up with something. And that's actually where a lot of people get their alignment wrong.

So next time you're out on the practice ground, if you're on a mat like I am here, shuffle the mat around so it's aiming where you want it to aim. Then pick your ball in an intermediary point even if you have to place another ball on the front of the mat that you can now aim your shot over the top ball, so this now lines up with this ball, lines up with my target.

And then practice hitting your ball over the top of that target line to keep your swing nicely on line and improve your shot shape, and when you're out on the golf course, use your pre shot routine to stand behind the ball, line up nice and square over the top of it. If you want to do the Justin Rose, line the club thing as well and then when you set up the golf ball, you should be able to aim over the top of that point and that will improve your alignment and ultimately the direction of your shots.