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Learn simple adjustments for varied lies. Here are some suggestions:
- Downhill - widen stance, slide lower body forward and lean upper body forward into front thigh so pelvis and torso match the slope. Choke up if needed, and take more lofted club.
- Uphill - normal width stance. Slide lower body forward, but keep your upper body in the middle of your stance. Take less lofted club.
- Ball above stance - choke up. Stand slightly more vertical by bending knees instead of hips. Aim right to account for the change in face angle.
- Ball below stance - squat down and aim more left than normal. Your swing will be slightly steeper because of the lower body restriction from the squat position. The "catch" part of the "throw and catch" will be more dificult
- Athletes applying rotary upper body force from the top
Tags: Poor Contact, Chip, Beginner
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In this drill video, we're going to look at adjusting for slopes around the green.
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So the simple thing is, whenever you're trying to hit shots and the slope is changing,
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you're going to use your body to try to recreate a flat, but basically the same impact
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conditions that you would have on the ground.
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So essentially, if the ground is wet, well below my feet and the club would be sitting
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like this, I'm going to do everything I can in my, you know, basically everything I can
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was set up in swing in order to get the club to still strike the ground the same way.
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Conversely, if the ball is way above my feet, this is a tough shot to do, so I'm going
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to do everything I can with my set up in swing in order to make the club work properly.
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So there's four possible combinations.
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I could have the ball below my feet, ball above my feet, uphill shot, or downhill shot, and any
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combination of the two.
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Well, the simple thing is your legs work as great shock absorbers.
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So if you can make use your legs to essentially create the same alignment you had as if it were
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a flat shot, that's the easiest way to hit these shots.
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So here I have the ball below my feet, right?
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So the ball below my feet, if I were to just set up normal, well, I'm above the golf wall.
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So I have to get down in one way or another.
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There's a couple, there's a couple easy ways to do it.
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First one I like is if I widen my stance a little bit and kind of sit into that front leg,
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now that brings me back pretty much into the same alignment that I just had.
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So now all I have to do is make sure that I have my reference frame in my brain is based
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on this wide stance that of my normal narrow stance.
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So I'm still going to get open.
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I'm still a little ahead of the ball.
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I'm not going to use my lower body very much during the shot and I can execute my good
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finesse wedge.
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So now I'll turn and face you and now we've got the ball above my stance.
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So here I can obviously get a little bit closer to the golf wall.
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I can, or sorry, you can stand a little bit further away to get the club, uh, soling a
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little bit better or you can get closer if the ball's sitting up enough and you can kind
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of take some of it out of it and do more of your block and hold style chip shot.
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The other thing is you need to be aware that because the club is going to be angled
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this way, it's going to affect where this face is pointing more so than the downhill shot.
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So when you're hitting the shot in the ball, I'll get it on to more of the slope.
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So when you're hitting the shot and the ball is above your feet, just know that if you
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came through normal, this club face is going to be pointing more left.
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So typically you'll have to open it up just a little bit more to counteract that, which
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means the ball's going to go a little higher, which means you probably have to take either
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less loft, like a less lofted club or make it slightly bigger swing.
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Our other options would be uphill and downhill.
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So downhill, I'm going to make the major adjustments with my lower body.
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I'm going to take a wider stance because that gets me a little closer to the ground and
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that gives me some room to lean into this lead foot.
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So now my pelvis, because I'm leaning into this left leg, is going to be level with the
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slope and now I'm just going to keep my lower body quiet as I make my normal finesse wedge
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swing like so.
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There's not much I can do.
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The ball is going to come out low, but because I'm leaning so much forward, I'm going
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to have a pretty steep angle of attack and it's going to have a fair amount of spin.
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You can open the club face and you can narrow, you can kind of choke up just a little
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bit and that will help counteract if you need to hit a shot that has a little bit more
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height to it.
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The big thing for this downhill line is you want to make sure that you go wide.
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The biggest mistake I see is players getting narrow like so and then they'll kind of fall
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backward and end up bleeding the shot or chunking it.
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So then the last one would be the uphill shot.
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Now I'll have to turn my back to you when we go through this.
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But the tendency here is to kind of hang back on the slope or the tendency here is to stick
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the club into the slope like so.
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I'll demonstrate that.
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So if I'm you'll either fall backward on that back foot and hit it too high too short
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or you will because the slope is straight up like so you'll just stick the club in the
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ground often just stuffing the shot.
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So the easiest way I think to work on these uphill shots is to take less loft and do
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more of kind of the dead hands type swing and just make sure to put your lower body
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sort of insument.
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So you're going to basically shift slightly forward.
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Still get your upper body open.
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That's one of the other things is anytime that it causes you to tilt back you'll want
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to close your upper body which brings the bottom of the swing back behind the golf ball.
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So uphill stance still slightly open.
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Lower body doesn't really do anything and you'll just do a little bit more of kind
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of more power source from that arms which kind of matches the finesse wedge so.
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So those are the four basic ways to adjust for uphill downhill slope with short game.
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It's all about creativity.
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So get used to using different clubs, play from different lies, play from different shots
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and it will help you tremendously when you're facing one of these shots on the course.