Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
The legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus talked about how the fact that he he never really tried to hit the golf ball straight and that sounds a bit odd. This guy was arguably the best golfer we have ever had on the planet yet he never tried to hit the golf ball straight and you walk down the driving range at the local practice area and you ask every golfer what they're trying to do but trying to hit the golf ball straight up they we're all trying to hit the golf ball as straight as we possibly can and maybe we shouldn't be trying to do that and particularly noticeable on very straight holes sometimes when a golfer stands on a straight hole I think it's dead easy to just aim straight down there and they miss it to the left. So they reload they put another one down at the try and it straight down and miss it to the right and with those two shots they've really kind of appeared to me is the issue here that hitting the golf ball dead straight is incredibly difficult to do to Nicklaus took the approach of the always tried to have a curve on the ball and more recently in modern times we see Bubba Watson in the same approach he never tries to hit straight shots he'll hit draws or he'll hit fade sometimes he hit a hoax and slices deliberately but it's always a non straight shot the principal been certainly Nicklaus talked a lot about the fact that if he tried to hit a fade it he knew he wouldn't hit a hook.
So we always tried to set up slightly left of target and just hit a little shot shape that curve from left to right and without respect he would generally hit it either straight a curve or slightly bigger curve but it never curve the wrong way. So trying to hit a fade and hit the hawk is a very difficult thing to do and Nicklaus thought that he aimed for a faded never hear hook. So the same approach might apply to yourself that if you have a natural shot shape and most golfers have a degree of curve that if that's your natural shot shape you can allow for that shot shape even on straight holes so if we've got a fair way that's cutting exactly down towards this tree in the distance and that's where I'm aiming if I aimed for the tree and tried to hit a perfectly straight shot. That might be difficult particularly if my natural want is to draw fade the ball generally on a draw of the golf ball. So even on a straight hole I'd be aiming the right third of the fairway and be aiming down that right third thinking if I draw it it comes to the tree in the middle if I hit it dead straight it just stays on the right third which hopefully is still in play and not in trouble and if I overdraw it I turn it slightly more down the left hand side but actually aiming for a dead straight golfer is difficult to do the only caveat upon all of this is I don't want your shot shape to be so extreme that you have to aim at danger. Now if my draw became a bit of a hook I'd have to aim so far right that I could be aiming at the trees I then try and hook it off the back of those trees and if I don't need to hook it I knock it straight into the tree. So that would become a problem but if you have a natural shot shape that's quite playable and doesn't get you in trouble even on dead straight holes allow that shot shape to happen aim left if you were fade aim right if you were draw and follow Jack Nicklaus's principle of not necessarily trying to hit the ball dead straight.
2018-08-23 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
The legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus talked about how the fact that he he never really tried to hit the golf ball straight and that sounds a bit odd. This guy was arguably the best golfer we have ever had on the planet yet he never tried to hit the golf ball straight and you walk down the driving range at the local practice area and you ask every golfer what they're trying to do but trying to hit the golf ball straight up they we're all trying to hit the golf ball as straight as we possibly can and maybe we shouldn't be trying to do that and particularly noticeable on very straight holes sometimes when a golfer stands on a straight hole I think it's dead easy to just aim straight down there and they miss it to the left. So they reload they put another one down at the try and it straight down and miss it to the right and with those two shots they've really kind of appeared to me is the issue here that hitting the golf ball dead straight is incredibly difficult to do to Nicklaus took the approach of the always tried to have a curve on the ball and more recently in modern times we see Bubba Watson in the same approach he never tries to hit straight shots he'll hit draws or he'll hit fade sometimes he hit a hoax and slices deliberately but it's always a non straight shot the principal been certainly Nicklaus talked a lot about the fact that if he tried to hit a fade it he knew he wouldn't hit a hook.
So we always tried to set up slightly left of target and just hit a little shot shape that curve from left to right and without respect he would generally hit it either straight a curve or slightly bigger curve but it never curve the wrong way. So trying to hit a fade and hit the hawk is a very difficult thing to do and Nicklaus thought that he aimed for a faded never hear hook. So the same approach might apply to yourself that if you have a natural shot shape and most golfers have a degree of curve that if that's your natural shot shape you can allow for that shot shape even on straight holes so if we've got a fair way that's cutting exactly down towards this tree in the distance and that's where I'm aiming if I aimed for the tree and tried to hit a perfectly straight shot. That might be difficult particularly if my natural want is to draw fade the ball generally on a draw of the golf ball. So even on a straight hole I'd be aiming the right third of the fairway and be aiming down that right third thinking if I draw it it comes to the tree in the middle if I hit it dead straight it just stays on the right third which hopefully is still in play and not in trouble and if I overdraw it I turn it slightly more down the left hand side but actually aiming for a dead straight golfer is difficult to do the only caveat upon all of this is I don't want your shot shape to be so extreme that you have to aim at danger. Now if my draw became a bit of a hook I'd have to aim so far right that I could be aiming at the trees I then try and hook it off the back of those trees and if I don't need to hook it I knock it straight into the tree. So that would become a problem but if you have a natural shot shape that's quite playable and doesn't get you in trouble even on dead straight holes allow that shot shape to happen aim left if you were fade aim right if you were draw and follow Jack Nicklaus's principle of not necessarily trying to hit the ball dead straight.
