Aiming Your Golf Tee Shots Correctly (Video) - by Pete Styles
Aiming Your Golf Tee Shots Correctly (Video) - by Pete Styles

So probably one of the most important shots that we want to line up correctly is going to be our tee shot. It’s the shot with the biggest club in the bag, it’s going to go the furthest and it sets us up for the rest of the hole. So it’s really important that we align and aim this shot correctly. And if a golf course designer has done his job correctly, he’s going to put some hazards out here that’s going to make his think a little bit about the direction and the position that we can aim our shot.

So first considerations are when you’re lining up a tee shot, where’s the penalties, where’s the danger, is it out of balance or water or beaches? That’s going to cause you more of a problem than anything else. So let’s deal with that problem first and then consider where you need to aim to stay a safe margin away from those penalties, those hazards. They’re considered the biggest dangers. The next danger might be where the heavy roof is or where the bunkers are. So if there’s no penalty shots but there’s a big set of bunkers and long grass, I could consider whether I want to aim away from there as well. So picking a spot that’s going to keep me a bit safe a margin of error again away from the hazards. And the last and final consideration would be if I could go and place a golf ball down that to give myself the best shot of a shot into a green with my next or pro shot, where will that be? And that – for that, you might actually need to look further ahead to the green or even further ahead to the flight placement on the green. If the green is at an angle and there’s a big bunker in the corner and the flag’s tucked in behind the bunker, which angle of fairway shot do I want to have onto that green to approach it? And if I can weigh all of those things up, what angle of approach do I want, where the bunkers are, the fairway bunkers particularly and where the penalty shots are, I should be able to then compute in my head where my best tee shot alignment would be to maximize my chance of staying out of the outbounds on the problems, staying out to the bunkers and give my best chance to align myself best into a green. Now, when you get good at doing this, all of that information is processed in your head inside five seconds. One look down the fairway, bunkers, trees, flag, there – there’s my alignment. It doesn’t take that long to do. It takes a bit of practice to get it right but when you do it, well, you’d be great at it. Pick your target line and then go ahead and commit to hitting it straight down that line. And if you can do that, you should be aligning and aiming much more confidently with your driver. 2016-04-20

So probably one of the most important shots that we want to line up correctly is going to be our tee shot. It’s the shot with the biggest club in the bag, it’s going to go the furthest and it sets us up for the rest of the hole. So it’s really important that we align and aim this shot correctly. And if a golf course designer has done his job correctly, he’s going to put some hazards out here that’s going to make his think a little bit about the direction and the position that we can aim our shot.

So first considerations are when you’re lining up a tee shot, where’s the penalties, where’s the danger, is it out of balance or water or beaches? That’s going to cause you more of a problem than anything else. So let’s deal with that problem first and then consider where you need to aim to stay a safe margin away from those penalties, those hazards. They’re considered the biggest dangers.

The next danger might be where the heavy roof is or where the bunkers are. So if there’s no penalty shots but there’s a big set of bunkers and long grass, I could consider whether I want to aim away from there as well. So picking a spot that’s going to keep me a bit safe a margin of error again away from the hazards.

And the last and final consideration would be if I could go and place a golf ball down that to give myself the best shot of a shot into a green with my next or pro shot, where will that be? And that – for that, you might actually need to look further ahead to the green or even further ahead to the flight placement on the green. If the green is at an angle and there’s a big bunker in the corner and the flag’s tucked in behind the bunker, which angle of fairway shot do I want to have onto that green to approach it?

And if I can weigh all of those things up, what angle of approach do I want, where the bunkers are, the fairway bunkers particularly and where the penalty shots are, I should be able to then compute in my head where my best tee shot alignment would be to maximize my chance of staying out of the outbounds on the problems, staying out to the bunkers and give my best chance to align myself best into a green. Now, when you get good at doing this, all of that information is processed in your head inside five seconds. One look down the fairway, bunkers, trees, flag, there – there’s my alignment. It doesn’t take that long to do. It takes a bit of practice to get it right but when you do it, well, you’d be great at it. Pick your target line and then go ahead and commit to hitting it straight down that line. And if you can do that, you should be aligning and aiming much more confidently with your driver.