Hi I'm Tom Stickney Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor and today I want to talk to you about lie analysis. All too often when I see people taking 3 wood they're hitting a free 3 wood at any lie that they have this ball that sitting down as you can see right here is going to be awfully hard for me to get up in the air with my 3 wood. The best case scenario for this down lie that I have is to maybe get a low burning maybe a left or right type of shot that's what usually happens when the ball is going to sit down a little bit.

If the balls perched up a little bit more and the 3 wood sits down behind it a little bit more effectively then I can go and hit it. So remember when you're using your 3 wood or your 4 or 5 wood take a look at lie analysis there plenty of lies like this ball that sit down right here that I face up with the 3 wood and I just can't hit it because it's just not going to come out effectively. I wish I could get my 3 wood but I just can't that's why you have other clubs in your bag. So remember if you don't take the time to look at lie analysis with your longer woods you're going to have a lot of trouble if you do choose to hitt this ball out of this tight lie remember you're probably not going to get this ball in the air it is probably going to go low and to the right is these shots tend to go remember and plan accordingly.