Everything Is Based On Your Golf Target Line (Video) - by Pete Styles
Everything Is Based On Your Golf Target Line (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the first things I ask a golfer to do in a golf lesson is to make sure we know what they’re aiming for. There’s nothing worse than hitting what you think a quality golf shots and then realizing that actually you weren’t aiming at the same direction as the golf ball has been going. And I think the same is true when you go out in the golf course, every shot you hit you should know where you're aiming. And sometimes the aim is not the most obvious thing. The most obvious thing on the golf course is aim at the hole, aim at the flag. That’s ultimately what we're aiming for at the end of each hole. We want the golf ball to go in the hole. But let’s say we're playing a tee shot on a hole that doglegs around the lake, clearly we’re not going to aim at the hole with our tee shot unless we think we can carry all the way to the green. So at that point, we need to take our mind off the flag, maybe even off the green and sometimes even off the fairway and aim for something that’s going to be a little bit safer. So if we have this hole that dogleg around to the right with a pond all the way down the right-hand side and the wind moving from left to right, blowing it into the dangerous water hazard, we need to pick a different target.

Therefore, we need to aim our golf club and our body and our feet away from the actual flag but onto a new target line. And you determine the target line, not the golf course. So you would stand back behind the golf ball looking down the line here using all of your course management skills to work out where your best target line is. And again, this target line is yours. You don’t have to aim where I would aim, you don’t have to aim where you're playing partners would aim. If you’re scared of the water and you have a slice that might go in the water, your target line could be even further left to play for safety. If your playing partners draw the golf, [indiscernible] [0:01:48] pick something that’s near to the water and draw the ball away. So your target line is individual to you but you would stand back, you would pick something out in a distance, you would then ensure that you can see the intended target line down here. Now, I’ve put a cane down to illustrate that but you could just have a blade of grass or a piece of mud in front of you that you're aiming towards, you then set your toes, your knees, your hips and your shoulders all perfectly parallel to the target line. Again, the body doesn’t aim the target, the body aims parallel to the target line. Everything lined up nice and parallel, then once I’m happy in that position, I can go ahead and commit to my swing of hitting down my intended target line watching the ball fly towards the intended target, which remember, doesn’t always have to be the flag. So make sure you build your body alignment around your intended target line. 2016-05-12

One of the first things I ask a golfer to do in a golf lesson is to make sure we know what they’re aiming for. There’s nothing worse than hitting what you think a quality golf shots and then realizing that actually you weren’t aiming at the same direction as the golf ball has been going. And I think the same is true when you go out in the golf course, every shot you hit you should know where you're aiming. And sometimes the aim is not the most obvious thing. The most obvious thing on the golf course is aim at the hole, aim at the flag. That’s ultimately what we're aiming for at the end of each hole. We want the golf ball to go in the hole. But let’s say we're playing a tee shot on a hole that doglegs around the lake, clearly we’re not going to aim at the hole with our tee shot unless we think we can carry all the way to the green. So at that point, we need to take our mind off the flag, maybe even off the green and sometimes even off the fairway and aim for something that’s going to be a little bit safer. So if we have this hole that dogleg around to the right with a pond all the way down the right-hand side and the wind moving from left to right, blowing it into the dangerous water hazard, we need to pick a different target.

Therefore, we need to aim our golf club and our body and our feet away from the actual flag but onto a new target line. And you determine the target line, not the golf course. So you would stand back behind the golf ball looking down the line here using all of your course management skills to work out where your best target line is. And again, this target line is yours. You don’t have to aim where I would aim, you don’t have to aim where you're playing partners would aim. If you’re scared of the water and you have a slice that might go in the water, your target line could be even further left to play for safety. If your playing partners draw the golf, [indiscernible] [0:01:48] pick something that’s near to the water and draw the ball away. So your target line is individual to you but you would stand back, you would pick something out in a distance, you would then ensure that you can see the intended target line down here.

Now, I’ve put a cane down to illustrate that but you could just have a blade of grass or a piece of mud in front of you that you're aiming towards, you then set your toes, your knees, your hips and your shoulders all perfectly parallel to the target line. Again, the body doesn’t aim the target, the body aims parallel to the target line. Everything lined up nice and parallel, then once I’m happy in that position, I can go ahead and commit to my swing of hitting down my intended target line watching the ball fly towards the intended target, which remember, doesn’t always have to be the flag. So make sure you build your body alignment around your intended target line.