Having the club face square as you strike the golf ball is one of the real fundamentals to hitting a ball straight, so we want to set that club face up exactly square our target, really make sure we take a dead aim with the club face to start with. Now it’s easier to do that if you’ve got a little way or a little of check points of making sure because here on the mat I can use the square edges and check that the face is straight and square but out on the golf course I really don’t have anything with a firm edge like that that I could use. So I’ve got my Thomas Golf Hybrid club here and the hybrid clubs actually have the lines over the top which is really good alignment feature also on the Thomas golf irons they have a little alignment of the same, similar to a putter really. Now we’re only used to seeing our putters with the lines on top but here I’ve got a golf club with the line on top which is really useful.

An alternative way if you’ve got irons would be to lift the club up and the check that the leading edge of the iron is vertical. So if the leading edge of the iron is vertical and I’m standing square to target when I bring that club down that club will now be horizontal to target or perpendicular to target, should I say pointing straight down the target line. That’s a really nice way of making sure that the club face is square when you start taking dead aim. Then during the swing we’d like to concentrate on bringing the club back down to a square position as straight as we can when we hit the golf ball. A nice set of way of checking that would just be to stand on the back of your arrangement here, make a little dummy practice swing and feel how as the club comes down it hits into the side of the mat here aiming dead straight. Alternatively you could go and get yourself an impact bag, big solid plastic bags that you stuff with towels or blankets and sheets and then you can hit into the side of those as training aids to try to generate a bit more power but also a really good training aid to see whether the club face is square as you strike the golf ball.

So two things, make sure the club face is square to start with, either get yourself some clubs with the alignment aids on the top or check that club face is vertical therefore it will be parallel to your target line there, then make sure that during your swing you work hard to bring the club head back down still pointing straight. If I see that my hands are under rotated or over rotated I’m going to have problems in my impact position and problems with the direction of the golf ball. With a little training aid, stand on the side of the mat, no power but tap the side of the mat there and make sure it’s square and straight. A square club face would result in straighter golf shots.