Because golf is a target related game, getting the body and the alignment set up in the preshow routine is a fundamental part of hitting good straight shots. So as we set up to a ball, there are a couple of key things that we need to make sure are lined up correctly. We would like to make sure the clubface is lined up pointing at the target line. So we are looking for the leading edge to be square at a target and then we can build our stance around that, the feet are pointing down the ball to target line and the shoulders are pointing down the ball to target line.

Now I do stress that we are not actually aiming exactly for the target, if are being pedantic, we don’t aim our body exactly at the target, we aim our body parallel to the ball to target line. So ball to target line is here, I'm standing two and half feet away from it that should now look like two train lines that run up together and never merge and never meet. So the ball is aiming straight at the camera, the body is aiming two and a half feet left of the camera. So I don’t actually aim that straight to the camera. Now over a long shot, 152, 100 yards that makes very — very little difference, it only makes a bit of difference from shorter shots, but just to be pedantic we are going to talk about being parallel to the ball to target line, not actually aiming at the target.

So the clubs are aiming at the target, that’s fine; the body aims parallel to it. And the key things within the body, first we are going to be checking feet. So when we take our address position, I just got a cane here, so it shows up nicely. Take my address position, take the cane, lay it down across my toes and stand back and I can see that’s pointing just two and a half feet left of the flag that the ball is pointing at. Another thing is worth checking that a lot of people probably misunderstand, is they need to check shoulder alignment. Just setting up to the golf ball is so well and good, your feet being square, what if your shoulders are offline? Your shoulders are going to control the swing path, the swing plane a little bit more, so getting your shoulders on line is very important.

So you take your address position here, lift the cane up and place it over your shoulders look down that line, check one eye and just check that you’re pointing parallel left at what you intended target line. So from this angle, I'm a square here, everything looks good, my shoulders are pointing down the left side of the cameras there, which is good. If my shoulders were across the line or across the line that would cause problems, I could also check my knees and my shoulders as well, just to make sure they are always square. Particularly relevant to check your shoulder alignment, when you take a driver, you take a drive the ball is going to sit a lot more forward in your stance right up against that left instant. So when I take my set up, I want to make sure that I don’t aim at the tee and therefore put my shoulders offline. So that looks like this; here the ball is in the center of my feet which is good the shoulders are nice and square, as my ball moves forward, as I turn to look at it and now my shoulders are way down the left hand side, I swing down the left hand side and that would probably produce a slicing or a pulling golf shot. So ideally speaking for most golf shots, we want the feet, the knees, the hips, the shoulders, and the clubface all square to the ball to target line. Improve your alignments to improve your accuracy.