Golf Drill Tip: Downhill lie – Compensations (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Drill Tip: Downhill lie – Compensations (Video) - by Pete Styles

So now putting the ball flight and the swing together from the down slope we are now going to look at the compensation that we need to apply to get the ball to finish where I wanted to. So as I set up here, we know the ball is going to come out lower, we know it has a tendency to cut. We understand that the swing might feel a little bit off balance, so here is a couple of corrections that you can do to make the ball fly straighter. As I setup I actually wanted to drop my left shoulder and try and get the feeling that my shoulders are perpendicular to the hill or parallel to hill should I say as much as possibly my spine angle will be perpendicular to the hill. So rather than leaning back and trying to scoop the ball up in the air which is a very common feeling from this position I want to go against that, I want to get my left shoulder down, get my spine angle tilted toward target, perpendicular to the hill, shoulder is parallel, a lot of body weight on the left side is setup, and I have a tendency to drop the ball back into my stumps a little bit to try and get a better cleaner contact on the ball. So I am going to drop my left shoulder play the ball a little bit back into my stance, that again creates a lower ball flight. The hill is always going to hit the ball low, I have taken the ball low, further back in my stance again lower ball flight. So I need to really compensate aggressively by taking the loft, at least two if not three clubs higher. So this ball is generally going to come out low, so I am taking a much more lofted club. I am not taking a 9 iron and if you want to hit a long 9 iron, this is the lie to do it from. This 9 iron could go a 150 or 160 yards because I am in this position, the 9 iron actually strikes the ball looking much more like a 7 or even a 6 iron. We also suggested that from this position the ball would come out a little bit left to right and cutting or blocking because my body weight would get thrown in front of the golf ball, my hands would struggle to rotate and release. So now I am going to go ahead and set with my 9 iron, aiming 10 yards left having the ball back in my stumps, having my shoulders tilted, I am just trying to maintain my balance and hit a smooth balanced golf swing. I am not trying to hit it too hard and I am definitely not going to try and scoop it up in the air. The loft on the golf club will give me the height, I don't need to worry about that. So I set the ball back, I set my shoulders … left shoulder down aiming left, and just try and hit this one nice and hard. The ball flight pops back up a little bit higher, it sets off down the left hand side, it didn’t cut back in massively, it didn’t really swing back in but then again there is a slight cross wind. If that ball comes out a little bit lower than you would expect it to, it goes further than you would expect it to and it would generally have a little bit of a cut shape to it, the priority from this lie is use plenty of loft, maintain balance and stay focused down on the golf ball to get a good strike.

 2013-03-27

So now putting the ball flight and the swing together from the down slope we are now going to look at the compensation that we need to apply to get the ball to finish where I wanted to. So as I set up here, we know the ball is going to come out lower, we know it has a tendency to cut. We understand that the swing might feel a little bit off balance, so here is a couple of corrections that you can do to make the ball fly straighter. As I setup I actually wanted to drop my left shoulder and try and get the feeling that my shoulders are perpendicular to the hill or parallel to hill should I say as much as possibly my spine angle will be perpendicular to the hill. So rather than leaning back and trying to scoop the ball up in the air which is a very common feeling from this position I want to go against that, I want to get my left shoulder down, get my spine angle tilted toward target, perpendicular to the hill, shoulder is parallel, a lot of body weight on the left side is setup, and I have a tendency to drop the ball back into my stumps a little bit to try and get a better cleaner contact on the ball. So I am going to drop my left shoulder play the ball a little bit back into my stance, that again creates a lower ball flight. The hill is always going to hit the ball low, I have taken the ball low, further back in my stance again lower ball flight. So I need to really compensate aggressively by taking the loft, at least two if not three clubs higher. So this ball is generally going to come out low, so I am taking a much more lofted club. I am not taking a 9 iron and if you want to hit a long 9 iron, this is the lie to do it from. This 9 iron could go a 150 or 160 yards because I am in this position, the 9 iron actually strikes the ball looking much more like a 7 or even a 6 iron. We also suggested that from this position the ball would come out a little bit left to right and cutting or blocking because my body weight would get thrown in front of the golf ball, my hands would struggle to rotate and release. So now I am going to go ahead and set with my 9 iron, aiming 10 yards left having the ball back in my stumps, having my shoulders tilted, I am just trying to maintain my balance and hit a smooth balanced golf swing. I am not trying to hit it too hard and I am definitely not going to try and scoop it up in the air. The loft on the golf club will give me the height, I don't need to worry about that. So I set the ball back, I set my shoulders … left shoulder down aiming left, and just try and hit this one nice and hard. The ball flight pops back up a little bit higher, it sets off down the left hand side, it didn’t cut back in massively, it didn’t really swing back in but then again there is a slight cross wind. If that ball comes out a little bit lower than you would expect it to, it goes further than you would expect it to and it would generally have a little bit of a cut shape to it, the priority from this lie is use plenty of loft, maintain balance and stay focused down on the golf ball to get a good strike.