Taking Your Open Golf Stance To The Golf Course (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Taking Your Open Golf Stance To The Golf Course (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Once you’ve started to ingrain this open stance, this Freddy Couples open stance you're starting to ingrain that on the driving range first. Once that started to become a little bit more comfortable, a bit more natural, a bit more normal your next step would be to take out on to the golf course and try it. Now it would impress on you that you shouldn’t rush that process. You should make sure you're really happy with on the range; maybe two, three different practice sessions on the range and then head on to the golf course.

Now this is one when it can get a bit sketchy because if you go out on the golf course and you play really badly in that first round your expectations are going to drop and then you start feeling; well, maybe I don’t want to make this change. Maybe I should go back to my normal stance and then you get stuck in that middle ground where you might aiming straight for one shot, left for another shot, straight for the next shot and that get really awkward. So the key to this really is commitment. Commit to the change you’re going to make. If your goal was to change the way you're playing commit to that change when you go out on the golf course and ideally when you go and play don’t have a score cut in your hand for the first time. Temper your expectations in that first round. Don’t expect to play brilliantly and don’t put yourself in a situation where you're going to feel the pressure if you play badly. So nice, relaxed evening, couple of night or even just go out on your own and then just be careful that you're going to try and incorporate this alignment left and you're not really going to worry about your expectations or your score. Then as you actually step up to the ball, the one key thing you really got to focus on is a quality pre-shot routine because every time you step up to the ball if you are not changing your stance and you're arriving down the left you're going to get this setup; it's going to be a bit fidgety, a bit twitchy. You're going to look up and you're not going to feel comfortable straight away. You're going to feel like you’re aiming too far left, not enough left, aiming to the right target also some nasty things that are going to jump into your brain. So actually a good quality pre-shot routine, one way maybe you start your pre-shot routine from behind the ball, you're looking down your target line, if you would identify your target line you also identified where you want to aim your body and your swing path to get that setup correct. Maybe you pick out an object on the ground, pick out object for your feet to point along, take a little bit of extra time in this alignment process, feet are here, target is over there, club face slightly right to feet. When you're comfortable and you’re happy then you go and commit to making your swing, then you watch your ball flight and then you diagnose and you get a big of feedback from that ball flight. Well is my stance right, was my club face positioned right? How did the ball curve and fly? Would Fred Couples have been proud of the way I hit that golf shot and if the answer is yes then you are well on to making a good quality change in your swing.
2016-08-17

Once you’ve started to ingrain this open stance, this Freddy Couples open stance you're starting to ingrain that on the driving range first. Once that started to become a little bit more comfortable, a bit more natural, a bit more normal your next step would be to take out on to the golf course and try it. Now it would impress on you that you shouldn’t rush that process. You should make sure you're really happy with on the range; maybe two, three different practice sessions on the range and then head on to the golf course.

Now this is one when it can get a bit sketchy because if you go out on the golf course and you play really badly in that first round your expectations are going to drop and then you start feeling; well, maybe I don’t want to make this change. Maybe I should go back to my normal stance and then you get stuck in that middle ground where you might aiming straight for one shot, left for another shot, straight for the next shot and that get really awkward.

So the key to this really is commitment. Commit to the change you’re going to make. If your goal was to change the way you're playing commit to that change when you go out on the golf course and ideally when you go and play don’t have a score cut in your hand for the first time. Temper your expectations in that first round. Don’t expect to play brilliantly and don’t put yourself in a situation where you're going to feel the pressure if you play badly.

So nice, relaxed evening, couple of night or even just go out on your own and then just be careful that you're going to try and incorporate this alignment left and you're not really going to worry about your expectations or your score. Then as you actually step up to the ball, the one key thing you really got to focus on is a quality pre-shot routine because every time you step up to the ball if you are not changing your stance and you're arriving down the left you're going to get this setup; it's going to be a bit fidgety, a bit twitchy. You're going to look up and you're not going to feel comfortable straight away. You're going to feel like you’re aiming too far left, not enough left, aiming to the right target also some nasty things that are going to jump into your brain.

So actually a good quality pre-shot routine, one way maybe you start your pre-shot routine from behind the ball, you're looking down your target line, if you would identify your target line you also identified where you want to aim your body and your swing path to get that setup correct. Maybe you pick out an object on the ground, pick out object for your feet to point along, take a little bit of extra time in this alignment process, feet are here, target is over there, club face slightly right to feet.

When you're comfortable and you’re happy then you go and commit to making your swing, then you watch your ball flight and then you diagnose and you get a big of feedback from that ball flight. Well is my stance right, was my club face positioned right? How did the ball curve and fly? Would Fred Couples have been proud of the way I hit that golf shot and if the answer is yes then you are well on to making a good quality change in your swing.