A tip when it comes to aiming

[Zeph]

I've struggled with my aiming for a long time, so recently I decided to give aim more focus than before. It worked out very well for me, my shots are now much more heading in the direction I want them to.

I've made a quick drawing in Paint to illustrate this. On the tee box is the best place to get your aiming right. First you look at the course and find a spot where you want to land. Next you find how you want to get the ball there. If you normally draw or fade the ball by aiming body and clubhead different you can also find the line where you want the ball to start.

I play my shots straight, or at least that's what I try. So I align my body and clubhead square to the target. If I need a fade or draw to get around something I will aim my body slightly off.

Now, before you put the ball and tee in the ground, look at the tee area and find a suitable item or patch on the ground to aim through. It can be a tee, divot, leaf, nut, anything. Position yourself behind this item and aim through it to where you want to land the ball. Now put your tee down on a straight line through the item and through the spot you want the ball to land or start.

Place down the tee and ball, step back and check that you are on line and then take your adress. I don't like aiming with my club since it is so easy to deteriate from the line when moving around the club. You are holding the club and moving the body at the same time, chances are good the club won't aim where it originally did. The longer the shot, the more off it will be if you aim wrong.

So, you've got your target, your ball and the item you aim through. Now take your place next to the ball, find the item on the ground and draw an imaginary line through the item and the ball. Position your feet and body parallell to this line (if you are hitting it straight). Once you are in position, take your grip and check that the clubhead also aim in the right direction. From there you just let it rip.

The advantage with the tee area is that you choose yourself where the ball is going to be placed. There are normally more than enough items or marks on the ground to aim through on the whole tee area if you want to position yourself at either side. Remember that your feet can be outside the box, only the ball needs to be inside.

On the fairway you can't place the ball where you want, so you may not find a patch directly on the line. Still, step behind the ball and look for something to aim through. If there is nothing directly on line, perhaps there is a patch one ball size off, so you aim one ball size inside or outside this patch. If your line is between two patches, aim between them. The important factor is to have a reference point you want to aim through. On some occasions there is nothing to aim through, so you'll just have to use a spot on the grass. Look for a longer straw of grass or something like that.

This can also be used on the green, especially for the long putts. I have struggled with aiming on long putts. I find my line from behind the ball, but when I stand up I don't trust it and aim way to the right. Which means I will have to hit the ball to the left to get to the hole. Find the line you want the ball to start at and try to find a spot close to the ball to hit through. From there on it's the same procedure. Many players use a line on the ball to aim, also useful. It's better than not aiming at all.

Try this at the practice green at first, or a casual round. If you have aiming problems it will take some time to get used to it. You may have to change the putting stroke if you are compensating for bad aiming, but I believe you will quickly find how useful it can be. I often think too much about the line when putting and forget about the speed. I want to find my line, aim at it and from there on just ignore it and trust my aim is right, or even better, know my line is right. From there on I only want to focus on speed and a good putting stroke. If I start thinking about the line when I putt, it's doomed to come up short or be way too long.

I only recently started aiming like I mentioned and played some of my best golf ever. I hit lots of fairways and greens in regulation. My misses were usually because of swinging over the top or open clubface, sometimes a combination. But when I got the swing plane and clubhead square, the ball went exactly where I wanted. Working on aiming is very important and this method is very useful for everyone. If you aim left of the green, how do you expect to get the ball on the green? I've gotten comments from playing partners that I aim to the right and swing to the left, creating a big fat slice.

Helluva long post this, I'm a person of many words once I get started, hope this was useful, let me know what you think.

[shortstop20]

I aim in pretty much the same fashion and assuming I put a good swing on it the ball goes dead straight.