- Practice swing. Assess the lie you have and then find a spot near your ball that has similar conditions to make some practice swings.
- Ball position. Determine the ball position in your stance based on where the clubhead bottomed out in the swing on your practice strokes.
- More club. Be sure to club up on this sidehill lie. ...
- Aim left. As noted above, the ball will drift right with this lie. To compensate, flex your knees a bit more and aim to the left.
- Maintain knee flex. You’ll want to make sure you maintain your posture through impact to make solid contact. ...
- Practice swing. Assess the lie you have and then find a spot near your ball that has similar conditions to make some practice swings. ...
- Ball position. ...
- More club. ...
- Aim left. ...
- Maintain knee flex.
How to hit a golf ball on a hill?
Using more club is needed as swinging with the hill tends to add loft. Posture: Ball above your feet means the ball is closer to you. You will need to stand a little taller with less knee flex, and choking down on your club is good to help hit it solid. Ball below your feet means the ball is farther from you.
How to play a sidehill lie on the golf course?
Be sure to club up on this sidehill lie. With the ball below your feet, it will tend to leak to the right which will lose some distance. Take a bit more club to compensate for this power loss. 4. Aim left
How do you hit a side hill lie?
Final Thought: The main key to successfully hit any side hill lie is that once you are set in your posture, you must maintain you knee flex and spine angle. Changing either or both of them is fatal.
How do you hit the ball when lying on a slope?
It’s critical to make ball-first contact from this lie, so play the ball in the middle of your stance (or at least slightly farther back than normal) and shift about 75 percent of your weight to your front, or downhill, foot. This will encourage your body to move in the direction of the slope, rather than hang back.
Why is it so hard to shoot an uneven lie?
How to determine ball position in stance?
How to compensate for a drifting ball?
Can you practice hitting the ball below your feet?
Does Golf.com make a fee?
Do you have to have a lie on every shot?
See more
About this website
What is side hill lie?
Side hill lies come in two varieties. Right to left (with the ball above or higher than your feet), and left to right ( with the ball below or lower than your feet). Each lie causes a different ball flight and needs some different setup adjustment to successfully hit a good shot.
What is the secret to the ball above feet lying?
The secret for the ball above feet lie is to cut it or even try to fade or slice it. The swing to hit this shot contradicts the slope, thus negates it and the left ball flight. You just aim straight at the target. A successful shot will fly straight as a bullet. This takes away the fear and problem of hanging it right or pulling it too far left. Straight is great, right down the fairway or on the green.
How to hit a straight shot?
Ball Position: You can adjust the ball position to help reduce the expected curve to hit a straighter shot. On the ball above feet, move it a little back. Hitting it sooner will help reduce pulling it left. With the clubface likely closing down, the flight will be lower and the ball will likely run out more. Using less club is a good decision. Conversely, on the ball below feet, move the ball a little forward. Hitting it a smidge later helps the face square up to reduce blocking or slicing it. Using more club is needed as swinging with the hill tends to add loft.
How to tell if a ball is going to curve left or right?
Stand behind the ball, looking at your target. Now, look at the slope of the hill your ball is on. The direction or curve of the slope is the direction or shape of your ball flight. A slope is going to cause your ball to curve left if a slope is curving to the right.
What does it mean when a golf ball is above your feet?
Posture: Ball above your feet means the ball is closer to you. You will need to stand a little taller with less knee flex, and choking down on your club is good to help hit it solid. Ball below your feet means the ball is farther from you. You will need to stand closer and have more flex in your knees.
What direction does a ball fly?
Ball above feet: ball flies right to left . Ball below feet: ball flies left to right. I guess you just figured it out The ball curves the same as the last direction mentioned. But in the event that that still may be confusing, I have a sure, can't miss, never make a mistake direction determiner: your compass to the ball flight predictor.
What is the problem with playing for the ball above feet shot to pull or hook?
The problem in playing for the ball above feet shot to pull or hook is that no matter how well you execute it, you can never accurately judge and trust that you will get just the amount you played for. Get too little left and you are bunkered right. Way too much, over cook it as it is called, and you can be off the planet left.
How to hit side hill golf shots?
Successfully hitting side hill golf shots when the ball is above your feet is easy when you make a few adjustments at address. When the ball is above your feet it is necessary to choke down on the club effectively making it shorter. This “shorter” club will eliminate hitting the club into the ground behind the ball….popularly known as hitting a “fat” shot. How much you choke down on the club depends upon the severity of the side hill lie. With a side hill lie of 45 degrees or more it will be necessary to choke down to the bottom of the grip. You will have to experiment a little to learn what is appropriate for each situation.#N#The second adjustment is alignment. When the ball is above your feet it is necessary to line up to the right of your target. This is necessary because whenever the toe of the club is in an upright position at impact it pulls the ball to the left, for a right handed golfer. The more severe the side hill lies the more the toe is upright and the further the ball will be pulled to the left. Simply line up your stance and club to the right similar to the way you would line up for a breaking putt. It will take some practice to determine how much you should line up to the right. Using these two simple adjustments at address will make hitting golf shots from a side hill lie easy.
What is the second adjustment in golf?
The second adjustment is alignment. When the ball is above your feet it is necessary to line up to the right of your target. This is necessary because whenever the toe of the club is in an upright position at impact it pulls the ball to the left, for a right handed golfer.
How to hit a golf shot?
As far as setup goes, there are a few things that we can do in this situation. I suggest widening your stance slightly and bending your knees a little more than normal. This will help you get down a little bit closer to the ball’s level. I would suggest taking an extra club and swinging smoothly, rather than trying to hit the shot as hard as you can. Swing level, meaning without extra raising and lowering of your body throughout the swing to help make solid contact with the ball. Focus on maintaining good posture and stability throughout your swing, as it is easy to lose your balance on uneven surfaces.
Why do golf balls go to the left?
The reasons shots go to the left when the ball is above your feet is that we are forced to set up with the toe of the club higher than the heel. This does not hold true in the converse. When the ball is below our feet, we generally adjust our stance and body position, but do not tilt the club itself much from the normal playing position.
What is the misconception about sidehill lies?
In summary, there is a substantial misconception about sidehill lies when the ball is sitting below your feet.
How to get your body closer to the ball?
In more severe circumstances, widen your stance and bend your knees to get your body down closer to the ball. It may be a good idea to take an extra club and swing under control, helping you maintain level posture and balance in these awkward swings. September 19, 2016. /. by Casey Bourque.
What position is the head of a golf club?
In these circumstances, the club is normally positioned with the heel of the club against the hill and the toe of the club slightly raised, but overall, the head of the club remains in a standard horizontal position.
When the ball is sitting above your feet, what will your shots be?
In summary, when the ball is sitting above your feet, your shots will tend to start left and hook. You need to practice these shots and learn to make necessary adjustments in your setup and alignment. The amount of hook you can expect depends on the severity of the slope and the amount of loft on the club you are using.
Why do shots run out more when hitting the ground?
As an added concern, because shots tend to hook, they will also typically run out more when they hit the ground. You’ll need to consider these variables when planning your shot. As for set up and stance, because the ball is above your feet, you are effectively closer to the ball.
How to tell if a club is soled on the ground?
With the club soled level on the ground, the club face is directed down the target line. As the toe of the club comes up in the air, which it would in a sidehill situation, the club face itself points more and more to the left of the target. Practice and experience from different situations will help you determine how far to the left shots will tend to go. Clubs with more loft tend to go further to the left, while clubs with less loft tend to require less compensation in this regard.
What is the difference between a club with more loft and a club with less loft?
Clubs with more loft will send the ball more to the left, while clubs with less loft will tend to require less compensation.
SET SHOULDERS PARALLEL
Your normal iron setup won’t work for this lie—the clubhead will bottom out too soon and you’ll make contact with the ground behind the ball. Instead, hold your club across your shoulders and tilt your spine toward the target until the shaft matches the slope of the hill. Once your shoulders are parallel to the slope, move on to step 2.
MOVE YOUR WEIGHT TO YOUR DOWNHILL FOOT
It’s critical to make ball-first contact from this lie, so play the ball in the middle of your stance (or at least slightly farther back than normal) and shift about 75 percent of your weight to your front, or downhill, foot. This will encourage your body to move in the direction of the slope, rather than hang back.
TRACE THE SLOPE
Last, extend your arms through impact so that the clubhead travels as low to the slope as possible. By swinging on the same plane as the hill, you’ll ensure ball-first contact and a smooth, full finish— and maybe even a birdie opportunity.
Why is it so hard to shoot an uneven lie?
Worse yet, it can be a tough shot to practice because your local driving range is unlikely to have uneven lies.
How to determine ball position in stance?
Determine the ball position in your stance based on where the clubhead bottomed out in the swing on your practice strokes. This will be key for solid contact as you’ll need to be precise to hit the ball properly.
How to compensate for a drifting ball?
As noted above, the ball will drift right with this lie. To compensate, flex your knees a bit more and aim to the left.
Can you practice hitting the ball below your feet?
But even though you can’t practice with the ball below your feet on just any range doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to hit the shot. On today’s episode of How to Hit Every Shot, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lou Guzzi gives us five tips for solid contact when the ball is below your feet.
Does Golf.com make a fee?
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Do you have to have a lie on every shot?
While it would be nice to have a level lie for every shot on the course, that is rarely the case. Even when you hit the ball in the fairway you will sometimes have an uneven lie that forces you to adjust your approach to hit a proper shot.
