- Take at least one extra club and plan to make an easier swing than normal. From here, the ball will fly a little higher and land more softly due to the open clubface.
- Sink your weight into your heels to make sure you don’t lurch forward during the swing. Otherwise, you’ll risk shanking the ball.
- Bend as much as possible at the knees, not the waist or hips, to reach the ball.
- Aim left of your target. How much depends on the amount of slope. The steeper the pitch, the farther right the ball will go.
- Focus extra hard on staying down through the shot. It’s easy to come up and out with the head and shoulders, so concentrate on driving your right side through to the finish.
So you’ve found the fairway with your tee shot and done your silent happy dance.
Then you arrive at the ball to find it poised on the side of a hill, several inches below the level of your feet. Ugh.
If you’ve studied Golf 101, you’ll know that any shot from this lie will likely shoot to the right off the club and veer even farther right in the air. You may also know that from here, hitting a straight shot or one that draws (right-to-left) is best left to highly skilled golfers. As in pros.
But all’s not lost. Take these simple steps and sidehill lies won’t seem so bad:
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is, once you get the fundamentals down pat.
