How to Hit A Golf Ball That's Below Your Feet (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Hit A Golf Ball That's Below Your Feet (Video) - by Pete Styles

So now let's look at the opposite shot where we've got the ball below the feet. So imagine I'm standing up a little bit higher than the golf ball, the golf ball is down below me, again, very tough shot this one, probably one of the most difficult shots you'll find on the golf course.

Again, two things are going to happen here. The heel is going to make me react and then the heel is going to make the golf ball react as well. Now, making me react is going to try and pull me on to my tip toes. It's going to try and drag me forwards. It's also because the ball is lower than I am, I'm going to have to swing lower, otherwise I'm on the top of the golf ball. And often the bad shot here is a topped and a thin and a slice to the right hand side for the right-handed golfer.

So I can try and do a couple of things to compensate for that. Now if I'm already gripping the golf club at full length, that's great. But because the ball is below me, I'm going to have a tough shot unless I react. Now what I'm going to do here is bend my knees quite alot and I actually sit on the golf ball. So from this angle, I actually drop my knees down more than I would do normally.

That will actually position a little bit more body weight on my heels as well. You can see my toes can lift here. I'm sitting on my heels and that's great because that's going to stop me rocking forwards. So by bending at the knees, pushing the weight at the heels and I not only lower myself down, I stop myself getting pulled on to my tip toes. So next time you've got a ball below your feet, try that in your set up, loads of knee flex sitting on your heels a little bit.

Now it comes to how the heel is going to affect the way the ball flies. It would generally make it fly left to right, so I have to compensate for this in my alignment. I'm going to want to aim down the left hand side, expecting the ball to come out with a slice or a cut. Now again, weigh that with what you normally do anyway because if you already sliced the golf ball, then you have a slicing lie, it could be a really aggressive slice, likewise if you normally draw the ball and you're on a slicing lie, you might actually produce a straight golf shot.

So way up, what you'd normally do and what the heel does, put the two together and you should get a little bit of a left to right shape from here, but take into a consideration what you normally do. The other thing from this is it's difficult to hit this full power so you might go with this 90% of full power just to make sure your balance is a little bit better because the ball is going to cut, it might come up a bit short. So again, consider your club selection, maybe taking one extra golf club to account for how the lie will make your ball react.

So have a little practice now of the ball below the feet and the ball above the feet exercises and see if you can get a nice, consistent ball flight and strike from those awkward [lies].

 2012-05-30

So now let's look at the opposite shot where we've got the ball below the feet. So imagine I'm standing up a little bit higher than the golf ball, the golf ball is down below me, again, very tough shot this one, probably one of the most difficult shots you'll find on the golf course.

Again, two things are going to happen here. The heel is going to make me react and then the heel is going to make the golf ball react as well. Now, making me react is going to try and pull me on to my tip toes. It's going to try and drag me forwards. It's also because the ball is lower than I am, I'm going to have to swing lower, otherwise I'm on the top of the golf ball. And often the bad shot here is a topped and a thin and a slice to the right hand side for the right-handed golfer.

So I can try and do a couple of things to compensate for that. Now if I'm already gripping the golf club at full length, that's great. But because the ball is below me, I'm going to have a tough shot unless I react. Now what I'm going to do here is bend my knees quite alot and I actually sit on the golf ball. So from this angle, I actually drop my knees down more than I would do normally.

That will actually position a little bit more body weight on my heels as well. You can see my toes can lift here. I'm sitting on my heels and that's great because that's going to stop me rocking forwards. So by bending at the knees, pushing the weight at the heels and I not only lower myself down, I stop myself getting pulled on to my tip toes. So next time you've got a ball below your feet, try that in your set up, loads of knee flex sitting on your heels a little bit.

Now it comes to how the heel is going to affect the way the ball flies. It would generally make it fly left to right, so I have to compensate for this in my alignment. I'm going to want to aim down the left hand side, expecting the ball to come out with a slice or a cut. Now again, weigh that with what you normally do anyway because if you already sliced the golf ball, then you have a slicing lie, it could be a really aggressive slice, likewise if you normally draw the ball and you're on a slicing lie, you might actually produce a straight golf shot.

So way up, what you'd normally do and what the heel does, put the two together and you should get a little bit of a left to right shape from here, but take into a consideration what you normally do. The other thing from this is it's difficult to hit this full power so you might go with this 90% of full power just to make sure your balance is a little bit better because the ball is going to cut, it might come up a bit short. So again, consider your club selection, maybe taking one extra golf club to account for how the lie will make your ball react.

So have a little practice now of the ball below the feet and the ball above the feet exercises and see if you can get a nice, consistent ball flight and strike from those awkward [lies].