Tips for Handling Downhill Golf Lies (Video) - by Pete Styles
Tips for Handling Downhill Golf Lies (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you find yourself in a situation on the golf course where you’ve landed your golf ball onto a downslope and it’s running down the hill and then it stayed on the hill, you’ve got to approach this ball in a few different ways. So, try and make sure that you can get good contact on the golf ball and to judge how high and how far the ball is going to fly to get it back upon to the green.

Let’s look at playing a full shot, not a chip shot from a slope, but a full shot from a slope. But the slope is this way, right side which is higher than my left because I’m playing down the hill. The hardest thing to get right here is a good quality strike. All the people from this position, we ground the club out and hit the ground along way before the golf ball effectively hitting the ball fat.

We have to account for that by making a couple of changes. The other thing is the ball flight will come out quite low. Now, if it’s coming out quite low, it might mean that it will roll a long way. I might have to consider a club change to lift the ball up a little bit high, if I’ve got to go over some thing. But alternatively the ball flight coming out low will land sooner and roll a bit further and actually probably go about the same as it’s normal distance.

As I set up to the golf ball here, I’m going to imagine I’m on a slope. The biggest thing I’ve got to get right here is I’ve got to get my shoulders and my spine angle tilted as if there’s no hill. It will actually help my left shoulder down, my right shoulder up and my spine angle tilted to follow the slope.

It might feel that that’s counter intuitive. It might feel on the down slope, you’re going to want lean back just trying to hit the ball back up into the air. That’s the one that results in the fat shot. So, next time you’re on a slope, tilt your shoulders so you feel leveled with the hill. That’s allows your golf swing to stroke down the slope trying to alleviate the problem of hitting the ball fat. You’ll notice as you do that, you’ll hit the ball very low because you de-lofting the golf club, that will bring the ball down sooner but rolling further, so hopefully that will work out to be at the right slope of distance for you.

The other thing I would encourage you to do is just play the ball back a little bit in your stance so you can play the ball a little bit near at your right side, again encouraging you to get a good contact. If you have the ball too far forward to your front foot and there is a slope here, you’re more likely going to hit the ground before you get to the ball.

Next time you’re on a down slope, think about the distance in the club selection that you need to use. You can aim a little bit down the left hand side for the shot because it would generally slice or fade slightly for the right handed golfer. You play the ball back in your stance. You lean into your left hand side, tilt your shoulders with the hill, so you don’t feel like you’re fighting the hill and then stroke down the hill, trying to really chase the ball forwards. It’s really important you stay down and force the ball forwards rather than trying to lean and scoop it back up into the air. It’s a difficult shot, so have some practice on this one, because it’s not an easy shot to play. If you get a good strike from this position, you’ve done really well.

 2012-05-31

If you find yourself in a situation on the golf course where you’ve landed your golf ball onto a downslope and it’s running down the hill and then it stayed on the hill, you’ve got to approach this ball in a few different ways. So, try and make sure that you can get good contact on the golf ball and to judge how high and how far the ball is going to fly to get it back upon to the green.

Let’s look at playing a full shot, not a chip shot from a slope, but a full shot from a slope. But the slope is this way, right side which is higher than my left because I’m playing down the hill. The hardest thing to get right here is a good quality strike. All the people from this position, we ground the club out and hit the ground along way before the golf ball effectively hitting the ball fat.

We have to account for that by making a couple of changes. The other thing is the ball flight will come out quite low. Now, if it’s coming out quite low, it might mean that it will roll a long way. I might have to consider a club change to lift the ball up a little bit high, if I’ve got to go over some thing. But alternatively the ball flight coming out low will land sooner and roll a bit further and actually probably go about the same as it’s normal distance.

As I set up to the golf ball here, I’m going to imagine I’m on a slope. The biggest thing I’ve got to get right here is I’ve got to get my shoulders and my spine angle tilted as if there’s no hill. It will actually help my left shoulder down, my right shoulder up and my spine angle tilted to follow the slope.

It might feel that that’s counter intuitive. It might feel on the down slope, you’re going to want lean back just trying to hit the ball back up into the air. That’s the one that results in the fat shot. So, next time you’re on a slope, tilt your shoulders so you feel leveled with the hill. That’s allows your golf swing to stroke down the slope trying to alleviate the problem of hitting the ball fat. You’ll notice as you do that, you’ll hit the ball very low because you de-lofting the golf club, that will bring the ball down sooner but rolling further, so hopefully that will work out to be at the right slope of distance for you.

The other thing I would encourage you to do is just play the ball back a little bit in your stance so you can play the ball a little bit near at your right side, again encouraging you to get a good contact. If you have the ball too far forward to your front foot and there is a slope here, you’re more likely going to hit the ground before you get to the ball.

Next time you’re on a down slope, think about the distance in the club selection that you need to use. You can aim a little bit down the left hand side for the shot because it would generally slice or fade slightly for the right handed golfer. You play the ball back in your stance. You lean into your left hand side, tilt your shoulders with the hill, so you don’t feel like you’re fighting the hill and then stroke down the hill, trying to really chase the ball forwards. It’s really important you stay down and force the ball forwards rather than trying to lean and scoop it back up into the air. It’s a difficult shot, so have some practice on this one, because it’s not an easy shot to play. If you get a good strike from this position, you’ve done really well.