Aim From Sidehill Lies

Video Transcript

Well if you have played much golf you have found out that the world is not flat, because on golf courses we get a lot of uneven lies. How do you adjust to that? Let’s give you the principle first. If I had a putt straight ahead of me and the putter was perfectly flat, no loft in the face, most of them are about four degrees, and I lined it up like this and I putted it is going to go straight to the target. Now if I raised that in the air because of a sidehill lie it would still go straight to the target because there is no loft, you see it is exactly right angles again. But if you put a lofted club in your hand that is aiming at the target and you raised it in the air now it is looking over here, the face of the club is looking in an entirely different position. The more loft the more that is affected. So a lot of times when you chip a ball off a sidehill lie and it goes way to the left it is not because you pulled it but because your face was aiming over there. Let’s show you how to adjust to that. This is a magnetic lie tool, one of Golf Around The World’s products that help you to play the game better. It is going to show you how much that tilt is going to effect the face angle position. See how I am aiming at that green right there, now I am going to get down to where the ball is above my feet and you can see the angle goes way to the left. The way I do that on the golf course to fix this is that I model the loft of the pitching wedge with my hand, same loft right there. Then I hold that loft position and I raise it from flat with the ground up to the tilt that the ball is on. Then I put a club in my hand at a right angle to my hand and I look where it is pointed. Wow, this one is pointed all the way at the left bunker, so I turn my body until the club points at the center of the green. My aim is really about fifteen yards to the right with this pitching wedge. I take my normal swing and the ball is going to come right to the center of the green, which it did. And that is how you handle the ball when it is above your feet.

Gary Wiren
Trump International Golf Club
3505 Summit Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL. 33406
Tel: 800-FOR-GARY
Tel: 800-367-4267

Dr. Gary Wiren was the PGA Teacher of the Year in 1987 and is also author of the PGA Teaching Manual. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #12 instructor in the world.

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