Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
So often on the golf course, I see golfers make what is a relatively simple mistake and it really clouds their judgment over whether they’ve hit a good shot or not? And for some golfers this habit, this issue can go on for years and years, so I’m going to set up now. I’ve got myself an 8-Iron; I’m aiming for the red flag down there. I’m going to set up like this, I’m then going to hit a shot and that ball’s gone about 30 yards left of the red flag that I was allegedly aiming at. And for those eagle eyed viewers that saw you will appreciate that actually I hit that ball dead straight but dead straight with my alignment not dead straight to my intended target.
Now, a golfer might do that shot, feel like they stroke it well, its flown the right distance, it sounded and felt really good and they start blaming their swing. They start tinkering with their swing, “oh it must have come over the top, it must have closed the face, it must have a strong grip.” But actually the alignment was the problem, I was simply aiming too far down the left hand side and the ball went exactly where my feet were pointing. But you might spend months on driving range, having lessons, improving your technique, but actually the alignment was the issue. So let’s make sure if you are making some mistakes on the golf course, that we check the basics, the fundamentals first. So one of the key elements to this setup for a shot like that is just to make sure you are aiming in the correct direction, because by aiming so far off line I make a big difference to where my clubface and particularly my swing path are heading. Generally my swing path will follow quite tightly towards my alignment, so if I’m aiming so far down the left hand side, the club is swinging quite a long way down the left hand side which is going to cause real problems to the golf shot. Now, on that occasion my clubface which is also influential in terms of where the ball goes, the clubface was aiming in the same direction as my feet, so my face was to the left, my path of swing was to the left and guess what? The ball just went straight down the left hand side. So in this next little miniseries we are going to investigate the alignment of the feet and the body and how important that is to hitting good golf shots. 2016-09-27 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
So often on the golf course, I see golfers make what is a relatively simple mistake and it really clouds their judgment over whether they’ve hit a good shot or not? And for some golfers this habit, this issue can go on for years and years, so I’m going to set up now. I’ve got myself an 8-Iron; I’m aiming for the red flag down there. I’m going to set up like this, I’m then going to hit a shot and that ball’s gone about 30 yards left of the red flag that I was allegedly aiming at. And for those eagle eyed viewers that saw you will appreciate that actually I hit that ball dead straight but dead straight with my alignment not dead straight to my intended target.
Now, a golfer might do that shot, feel like they stroke it well, its flown the right distance, it sounded and felt really good and they start blaming their swing. They start tinkering with their swing, “oh it must have come over the top, it must have closed the face, it must have a strong grip.” But actually the alignment was the problem, I was simply aiming too far down the left hand side and the ball went exactly where my feet were pointing. But you might spend months on driving range, having lessons, improving your technique, but actually the alignment was the issue. So let’s make sure if you are making some mistakes on the golf course, that we check the basics, the fundamentals first.
So one of the key elements to this setup for a shot like that is just to make sure you are aiming in the correct direction, because by aiming so far off line I make a big difference to where my clubface and particularly my swing path are heading. Generally my swing path will follow quite tightly towards my alignment, so if I’m aiming so far down the left hand side, the club is swinging quite a long way down the left hand side which is going to cause real problems to the golf shot. Now, on that occasion my clubface which is also influential in terms of where the ball goes, the clubface was aiming in the same direction as my feet, so my face was to the left, my path of swing was to the left and guess what? The ball just went straight down the left hand side. So in this next little miniseries we are going to investigate the alignment of the feet and the body and how important that is to hitting good golf shots.
