Hitting on a DownSlope (Water on the Right)

OK, so I played a round with my buddy Saturday. After it was all over with and I was adding up my score, I noticed a trend. My scores on holes that bordered water on the right were far worse than holes that had no water at all or water on the left. Thinking back, I contribute some of my 'duffed' shots to the downward slope. Most of the time I would either hit the ball fat, taking too much of a divot, and the ball would only go about 15 yards. On the other hand, sometimes I would hit it thin and the ball would go scooting across the fairway rolling about 30 yards. On shots where I struck the ball nicely, or so I thought, but the ball's trajectory ended up with a nasty fade, sometimes severe enough to go right into the water hazard. Thus the reason for my terrible scores... it takes an extra shot (or two if I have to drop) to get it on the green.

So, before I tell you how I hit it when I'm faced with an approach shot on a downlope... tell me what you think is the proper swing set up. Obviously I'm doing it wrong and I don't want this thread to be about critiquing my swing... I just want to know what you guys think. Do you choke up, put the ball in the middle of your stance, bend your knees more, aim left, etc? What's the right way to do it? Unfortunately this kind of shot is very difficult to practice because most driving ranges are flat.

To clarify, by 'downslope' I mean the ball is lower than my feet. I am not referring to a 'downhill' shot where my right foot is higher than my left.

when the ball is below your feet, you're likely to hit a slice or hit the ball to the right because the slope more or less opens the clubface up at impact. So when you say you struggle on holes with water on the right and you have the ball below your feet, that's pretty natural. And there's a good chance that the designer designed the course for that.

So the key is to bend your knees a little more than normal at address because the ball is further away from you. And then you want to aim to the left in order to play for the left to right shot. And you really have to stay down in order to hit this shot.




3JACK

Widen your stance a bit, and choke up on the club, Keeping the same grip as a flat shot will probably have you end up hit way behind the ball, you loose great control doing this. Choking up gives more control of the shot. Bend your spine a little bit as well to make sure your right over the ball.

Generally from this kind of lie, the ball will tend to fly lower than normal and move left to right. The more severely below your feet the ball is the lower it'll go and the more it'll move left to right. Just as important as technique when you have the ball below your feet is deciding where you don't want the ball to finish up and letting that dictate what you try to do with it.

In your example with water on the right, the water is where you don't want the ball to finish so aim left of the green. If the shot does as you'd expect and moves left to right, you are on the left edge of the green. If it moves more than you expected, you are on the right edge and putting. If you pull the ball or hit it straight, you aren't in the water and can still make par.

If however you had the water on the left, aim for the middle of the green. If you cut it a lot you miss right and can make par, hit it straight and you are putting.

As for technique, I'll always take a club or two more and make a shorter swing so as to help maintain my balance.

Like chingali mentioned from a technique standpoint when the ball is below your feet it is a good idea to try to maintain your balance. Setup with good balance, and maintain your knee flex (and posture). If you loose your knee flex (either rising up, or dipping down) you'll make poor contact, loose distance, and likely spray the shot offline.

Why in the world would you choke up on the club when the ball is below your feet?

All you need to do is stand a tad closer to the ball than usual, aim left (if you're playing longer irons, your ball will fly left to right more than if it's a wedge, so just keep that in mind) and take your normal swing.

That's a tip I just read in some random magazine this past weekend.

Ball on an upslope, you choke down and aim right. Ball on a downslope, you stand closer to the ball and aim left.

Most of these suggestions seem reasonable. I play at a course where the first 9 holes slope from left to right, so I've got some experience with this kind of shot. Plus, I'm 6'3 and tend to stand tall to the ball, which means when I first started hitting these, I topped just about every one of them. I found the key is to bend from the knees more. Keep you spine angle at what it would normally be, but squat down with your knees to get lower to the ball. You don't want a lot of vertical leg action in the swing with this shot. Just make the normal hip opening move, but strive to maintain your spine angle and knee flex. You'll almost never miss right with this technique. The reason is, the toe will sit higher than the heel because of the slope. The hosel will hit the ground first causing the club to close during impact which tends to send the ball to the left. If you bend forward more from the waist in an effort to sole the club, you can run into balance problems because your weight is too far forward. This is exactly what your natural instincts dont want to do when facing a downslope. This also aims the club right, and steepens your swing, both of which tend to cause a push fade.

Also, visualizing and committing to this shot, because of the water on the right, is probably as important as any tip someone might give you.

When the ball is below my feet and I know that the ball is going right, I close the face of my club as much as I think the ball is going right to conpensate for the slope, I do the same for balls above my feet and open the club face. What I get is a straight ball, I have to remember to keep my hand distance from my body the same in the regular set up and be aware of my knee bend for making solid contact.

If water comes into play you have to play the percentage and aim more away from the water for safety.