Golf Yardage, Adjust to Deal With Elevation Changes (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Golf Yardage, Adjust to Deal With Elevation Changes (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Now as you improve as a golfer, one of the things you should start to see is that each of your clubs goes a nice consistent distance. And it's really important that you understand how far each club goes. There's no point it hitting in a great seven iron that goes sailing straight over the back in the green into a pond. Or a good nine that lands in the front bunker. So when you know your yardages, then that's going to make you much more consistent on a flat line. Now what happens if this now has an elevation change on the shot? It's quite important you understand how much the elevation change will affect the distance of your shot and therefore which club to use. Now generally speaking, we see most club golfers will under hit their shots anyway. So take that into account as well that you want to try and make sure you're getting the ball right up to the middle of the green or even beyond the middle of the green. Because most of the trouble is at the front of the green. Now when you're playing uphill, you need to add a little bit of yardage feel shot because the ball will hit the ground before it's reached the bottom of its flight. But it's important that you make a nice club change but you don’t actually change the way you're swinging the club. Quite often we see a lot of people when they've got a nice uphill shot in front of the, they change their swing particularly leaning back to trying to help the ball go up the hill. That will often result in a fast shot, a heavy shot, hitting the ground before the golf ball. Meaning you've doffed it and it comes up short anyway.

So this uphill, take one club, if it's a long way uphill, maybe take two more clubs. But make the same normal, consistent stroke. And hopefully the club change will give you the right distance. But likewise, downhill shots, we often see downhill shots, people pulling up out of the shot to see why the ball went a bit too early causing a top shot. So in a downhill shot, take the less club, one or two less clubs and then make a nice smooth swing hitting down on a ball. That makes the ball go up into the air. It's not your job to change the height of the shot when it's going uphill or downhill. Don’t alter your swing, alter your clubs.

 2012-04-30

Now as you improve as a golfer, one of the things you should start to see is that each of your clubs goes a nice consistent distance. And it's really important that you understand how far each club goes. There's no point it hitting in a great seven iron that goes sailing straight over the back in the green into a pond. Or a good nine that lands in the front bunker. So when you know your yardages, then that's going to make you much more consistent on a flat line. Now what happens if this now has an elevation change on the shot? It's quite important you understand how much the elevation change will affect the distance of your shot and therefore which club to use. Now generally speaking, we see most club golfers will under hit their shots anyway. So take that into account as well that you want to try and make sure you're getting the ball right up to the middle of the green or even beyond the middle of the green. Because most of the trouble is at the front of the green. Now when you're playing uphill, you need to add a little bit of yardage feel shot because the ball will hit the ground before it's reached the bottom of its flight. But it's important that you make a nice club change but you don’t actually change the way you're swinging the club. Quite often we see a lot of people when they've got a nice uphill shot in front of the, they change their swing particularly leaning back to trying to help the ball go up the hill. That will often result in a fast shot, a heavy shot, hitting the ground before the golf ball. Meaning you've doffed it and it comes up short anyway.

So this uphill, take one club, if it's a long way uphill, maybe take two more clubs. But make the same normal, consistent stroke. And hopefully the club change will give you the right distance. But likewise, downhill shots, we often see downhill shots, people pulling up out of the shot to see why the ball went a bit too early causing a top shot. So in a downhill shot, take the less club, one or two less clubs and then make a nice smooth swing hitting down on a ball. That makes the ball go up into the air. It's not your job to change the height of the shot when it's going uphill or downhill. Don’t alter your swing, alter your clubs.