Say hello to my uneven lie station. I love this thing! How many level lies do you get on the golf course? Well, at White Manor, maybe 2 shots from the fairway will be on level lies. All the others will be uphill, downhill or sidehill. You just can’t get enough repetitions on these varied lies on the course, so I had to make one of these babies. Here, my student is working on shots below her feet: 1. That’s probably the toughest lie for the wide majority of golfers. 2. She tends to top a lot of shots generally, so I’ve put her on a lie where topping the ball is far easier to do than hitting it solid. I know, you’re thinking, “what a rotten coach.” What I’m really trying to do here is get her to strike the ball more solidly and more consistently on all shots by using this lie to accentuate and help her learn the correct motion.
The difference in these two swing is very subtle, but huge! Look closely at her left shoulder and her face. On the right, both are tilted more down toward the ground than on the left. This was the point of the exercise. Her big error is that she lifts her left shoulder and head slightly on the backswing in what’s ca lled a “Flat Shoulder Turn.” The flat turn literally takes her up and away from the ball. Hello topped shot! I had her bend down toward the ball more at address and then try to turn her left shoulder as far down toward the ground and under her chin as she could on her backswing. The trick worked. She struck the ball more solidly on a wide variety of shots that I had her hit after this part of her training. The moral of the story: If you’d like to fix a problem, you might want to put yourself in a situation where you have to do the right move in a slightly exaggerated fashion to achieve success. Then you will have to solve the problem completely. You will also develop a new found feel of what’s really important to your swing that helps you master the new move. I love that!
Hit ‘em Great!