Use Golf Ball Flight On The Course (Video) - by Pete Styles
Use Golf Ball Flight On The Course (Video) - by Pete Styles

So there’s a couple of ways we can actually use your ball flight on the golf course to try and improve your course management and your shot making, and therefore your scores. Now the first thing I would consider doing with your ball flight is actually never aiming at trouble. You know if you are a drawer of the golf ball, and you like to shake the ball from right to left. And you are playing into a green and there’s a pond on the right-hand side, you might consider that you need to aim at the pond to draw it away from the pond and turn it on to the middle of the green.

But I would be very, very conscious of aiming at trouble, you know aiming over the middle of a pond, and then asking the ball to draw is quite risky. Because occasionally that ball is just going to go straight on, be it due to a swing mistake or a wind direction. You hit this perfect arrow straight golf shot that lands straight in the middle of a pond or a bunker or a tree or whatever it might be. So let's have a little golden rule that we never aim at trouble. The next thing I'd like to consider is always kind of fall back to your go-to shot. A lot of golfers have got that go-to, that stock shot you might call it. That shot that you would make in a sort of an unconscious effort and an unconscious swing. And again if my stock shot is going to be a draw, I’m going to find it more difficult to efficiently hit a fade on the golf course. To try and stand there and fight against my natural shot -- my natural shot selection is going to be quite tricky. So in a general sense, consensus, I would always fall back to your go-to, your stock shot, the one that you make when you're not really thinking about it. And if it's a draw, stick to a draw. If it's a fade, stick to a fade. Don't try and fight it too much. The next thing I would like you to consider doing, particularly if you are trying to attack the golf course, if you trying to really sort of go with a golf course and get aggressive when you're playing for pins or for fairways is aim at the center and then turn it away from the center. So let's imagine here that we've got a pin that's in the left hand half of the green, the left-hand side of the green. Maybe it's protected on the left hand side. That shot would look better to me as a straight shot down the middle of the green and then turning it into the flag, so effectively a draw shot. So I aim at the center and I turn it in as a right-to-left flight. For a right-handed golfer, that would be a draw. If the flag is tucked here on the left-hand side of the green, a fade that goes down the left-hand side over the trouble, over the bunkers, off the green and then tries to cut into the flag at the last minute is going to be a little bit trickier. So let's work on the general principle that we're going to aim at the center of the green or at the center of the fairway, and then draw it or fade it away from the center. But aim down the middle, curve it to the sides rather than aiming down the sides and curving it back into the middle. And I think that's a better way of using your shot shape to improve your shot making, and ultimately your scores. 2016-07-08

So there’s a couple of ways we can actually use your ball flight on the golf course to try and improve your course management and your shot making, and therefore your scores. Now the first thing I would consider doing with your ball flight is actually never aiming at trouble. You know if you are a drawer of the golf ball, and you like to shake the ball from right to left. And you are playing into a green and there’s a pond on the right-hand side, you might consider that you need to aim at the pond to draw it away from the pond and turn it on to the middle of the green.

But I would be very, very conscious of aiming at trouble, you know aiming over the middle of a pond, and then asking the ball to draw is quite risky. Because occasionally that ball is just going to go straight on, be it due to a swing mistake or a wind direction. You hit this perfect arrow straight golf shot that lands straight in the middle of a pond or a bunker or a tree or whatever it might be. So let's have a little golden rule that we never aim at trouble. The next thing I'd like to consider is always kind of fall back to your go-to shot. A lot of golfers have got that go-to, that stock shot you might call it.

That shot that you would make in a sort of an unconscious effort and an unconscious swing. And again if my stock shot is going to be a draw, I’m going to find it more difficult to efficiently hit a fade on the golf course. To try and stand there and fight against my natural shot — my natural shot selection is going to be quite tricky. So in a general sense, consensus, I would always fall back to your go-to, your stock shot, the one that you make when you're not really thinking about it. And if it's a draw, stick to a draw. If it's a fade, stick to a fade.

Don't try and fight it too much. The next thing I would like you to consider doing, particularly if you are trying to attack the golf course, if you trying to really sort of go with a golf course and get aggressive when you're playing for pins or for fairways is aim at the center and then turn it away from the center. So let's imagine here that we've got a pin that's in the left hand half of the green, the left-hand side of the green. Maybe it's protected on the left hand side. That shot would look better to me as a straight shot down the middle of the green and then turning it into the flag, so effectively a draw shot.

So I aim at the center and I turn it in as a right-to-left flight. For a right-handed golfer, that would be a draw. If the flag is tucked here on the left-hand side of the green, a fade that goes down the left-hand side over the trouble, over the bunkers, off the green and then tries to cut into the flag at the last minute is going to be a little bit trickier. So let's work on the general principle that we're going to aim at the center of the green or at the center of the fairway, and then draw it or fade it away from the center.

But aim down the middle, curve it to the sides rather than aiming down the sides and curving it back into the middle. And I think that's a better way of using your shot shape to improve your shot making, and ultimately your scores.