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Stop Aiming Right!


iacas

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Stop lining way to the right. This seems to affect about 90% of the golfers out there, maybe more. Alignment is not a commonality - not every good player aligns exactly the same - but none of them align WAY THE HECK RIGHT like many amateurs do.

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Yes it looks like he hits a pull. He also says Sam Snead did this. Like the blog post here, I see rightward aim in golfers I play with  every week. Most are more than Moe Norman, but Moe is pretty far right. 

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Yes it looks like he hits a pull. He also says Sam Snead did this. Like the blog post here, I see rightward aim in golfers I play with  every week. Most are more than Moe Norman, but Moe is pretty far right. 

I'm working to eliminate it, so I'm a little sensitive to this topic.

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Take a look at this video and tell me if you think this constitutes lining up "way right," or whether this is an acceptable amount given your concept of a good golf swing. Go to the 1:00 mark in the video to see how the body or at least the toe line is aimed right of the direction the ball flies. 

Yes from the video it does look like he's pulling it. Obviously his A5-6 shaft/sweetspot alignments are much different than the average guy who aims right and pulls it. Sweetspot is inside the hands here. The older swings seem to have less of a pull.

Screen_Shot_2015-10-27_at_12.38.22_PM.th

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Take a look at this video and tell me if you think this constitutes lining up "way right," or whether this is an acceptable amount given your concept of a good golf swing. Go to the 1:00 mark in the video to see how the body or at least the toe line is aimed right of the direction the ball flies. 

Yeah, it's Moe Norman… so if you want to swing like Moe Norman, go for it. And "stop aiming right" is not applicable to all golfers. Sam Snead aimed right and played a baby pull (it also often drew a little) for a long time. But I get golfers, and see golfers, aiming WAY right, which then screws up their mechanics because they sense and know the target is "over that-a-way" (left), so they swing "that-a-way" to make the ball go to the target. Bam! Instant pulls and slices.

Also re: Moe, I've heard - from people he was actually friends with (as much as Moe could be "friends" with anyone, i.e. he trusted them at least a little) - that he did that more later in his life to turn a bit more because he was getting really short. And he's hitting a driver in that video, too, which if he's hitting up will mean he's swinging left of the baseline of his plane, which is another reason to aim a bit more right.

Here he his at an older age hitting it pretty much where his feet are pointing:

Also, the camera angles do play some tricks there. If the camera is between the ball and the toe line, the toes will appear right of where they are, and the ball will appear to go left a bit. I'm not saying it's so screwy that it's not a pull, but I don't think it's nearly as big of a pull as it appears to be.

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On the course today, I made a point of finding an intermediate point a couple feet in front of my ball that was in line with my target. By doing that, I felt like I was aiming left all day. Maybe not by an earth shattering amount, but I clearly "felt" aligned left, but I wasn't.

Overall, I feel like I pushed fewer to the right during the day, but that's an anecdotal feel of the round- no stats to prove it. My guess is that for mid-irons, I was previously setting up about 10 yards or so right without using this technique, more for the driver obviously. 

It definitely gave me a sense of confidence to have an intermediate point picked out, and I'm kicking myself for thinking I had it under control before.

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33 minutes ago, RandallT said:

On the course today, I made a point of finding an intermediate point a couple feet in front of my ball that was in line with my target. By doing that, I felt like I was aiming left all day. Maybe not by an earth shattering amount, but I clearly "felt" aligned left, but I wasn't.

Overall, I feel like I pushed fewer to the right during the day, but that's an anecdotal feel of the round- no stats to prove it. My guess is that for mid-irons, I was previously setting up about 10 yards or so right without using this technique, more for the driver obviously. 

It definitely gave me a sense of confidence to have an intermediate point picked out, and I'm kicking myself for thinking I had it under control before.

Nice!

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I have been misaligned too far to the right for a while now. I am right handed and right eye dominant. At address I genuinely feel that I aimed properly, but the alignment stick on the ground on my target line does not lie. Stepping back 10 feet from that stick it’s obvious that I am off by 10-20 degrees to the right (its dramatic). This whole time I have been hitting pull fades I believe, cutting across the ball to get to the target.

Today at that range I did the following:
1) Stepped back 10 feet from the ball.
2) Established target line from ball to target.
3) Picked an aim point on that target line a few feet from the ball (very close). The aim point was a thick blade of grass sticking out or patch of dirt..
4) Stepped up to the ball and set up aimed to the aim point (not the target).
5) Dropped an alignment stick down along my target line in front of me.
6) Stepped back 10 feet from the ball again to check alignment stick.

The stick was much much closer to the actual target line. Still a tad right, but significant improvement. Just sharing in case anyone is going through the same thing.

 

 

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16 hours ago, baw1 said:

I have been misaligned too far to the right for a while now. I am right handed and right eye dominant. At address I genuinely feel that I aimed properly, but the alignment stick on the ground on my target line does not lie. Stepping back 10 feet from that stick it’s obvious that I am off by 10-20 degrees to the right (its dramatic). 

Today at that range I did the following:
1) Stepped back 10 feet from the ball.
5) Dropped an alignment stick down along my target line in front of me.
6) Stepped back 10 feet from the ball again to check alignment stick.

 

 

Also right hand right eye dominant. Glad I stumbled onto this thread. I am doing the same thing. I felt like I was consistently pushing (not slicing) my irons and when I checked my alignment with the rods I couldn't believe it, but I have been aiming right. It's very unnatural and hard to resist the temptation to aim right. Even as I set up properly, I feel my body subconsciously being to cheat to the right. 

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19 minutes ago, Kalnoky said:

It's very unnatural and hard to resist the temptation to aim right. Even as I set up properly, I feel my body subconsciously being to cheat to the right. 

For sure. That's why I think folks like us have to pick an intermediate (much closer) target and trust it. I am going to be focusing hard on this.

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Interesting. I saw an instructor on-line who held a golf school that attracted a dozen students. He remarked that they were "12 for 12". In other words, all 12 students aimed right!

I don't know what causes this, but I know my buddy does this religiously. He'll aim his feet at a grove of trees 30 yards right of where he wants to hit it, throw the clubhead OTT, and somehow square the clubface and yank the shot into the fairway! And he usually hits it a decent distance! I can't watch him swing anymore.

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See it all the time, guys at the range aiming right with OTT swings and divots from right to left. Most have arm swings and a weird stand up follow through. I like to feel like I am aimed at the target and swinging towards first base.

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34 minutes ago, Dave2512 said:

See it all the time, guys at the range aiming right with OTT swings and divots from right to left. Most have arm swings and a weird stand up follow through.

Not sure about my follow through, but everything else you describe sounds like what I "was" doing.

For the past week I have been focused hard on aim and alignment both at the range and on the course. Now that I am actually aiming more towards my target I am missing it quite a bit (pulls to the left usually) since my by mechanics and muscle memory "were" programmed to do so.

However, I am seeing successful shots as well. I believe this really forces you to execute proper hip pivot and rotation and use the body vs arms to power the shot.

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My pre-shot routine consists of standing behind my ball, either in the fairway or at the tee, holding up my club and closing one eye so there is a clear line between my ball and the target, and then I pick out a mark of some sort that is right on line with the shaft of my club; a mark maybe 5 or 10 feet in front of my ball.   An old divot, dark piece of grass, whatever.   So as I address the ball I only have to look slightly to my left to get my alignment.  

It seems to help.  Now, if I could just execute the shot, everything would be great.  But at least I don't have any doubt in my mind about my alignment. 

 

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To reiterate my earlier post, I played this past Thursday with my buddy and his Son. On one hole his Son lines up dead right, swings OTT, and hits it right with a slice, deep into the tall and uncut!

Sometimes he will ask me to check his alignment, but he didn't this time so I kept my mouth shut. After the shot I told him he he started it right where he was aiming. He then told me that sometimes he likes to aim right so that he can "pull" the ball back into the fairway!

HUH???!!!

I wanted to tell him that this was a horrible idea, but we were in the middle of a round, and it was no time to bring that up.

I need to get this kid (40 years old) on the range with some alignment sticks. He thinks his problem is that he's not getting his hands "through" the ball. His problem is aiming right and coming OTT!

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