Aiming?

[bocbass]

I've taken a couple lessons and with some work at the range, I have gotten a decently consistant swing down. With a 7 iron I am consistantly hitting the ball straight, about 135 yards with a nice flight. Hands forward at address, left arm straight and right shoulder tucked in the backswing. However....

Straight doesn't often = where I want the ball to go. I am usually about 10-15 yards off, both right and left with right happening more often.

My question is how do you aim at the target? I know that the club face should be facing the target, and feet and shoulders should belined at the target. Is it all about squaring your shoulders and hips at impact? I am still working on getting my hips to really get involved in the swing.

What would be somethings you would recommend to look at while at the range to help with hitting the ball to the target?

Thanks!

[Leftygolfer]

Use a club or stick when you practice along your feet line. The key is you want it to be like a railroad track to your intended target as a standard aim. To me I feel like I am almost facing the target since I used to be a big puller of the ball and aimed way closed. But this will at least take one of the variables out so you know where your feet are pointed.

But there are alot of great players who aim open or closed. I'd say open is preferred to closed as a pushed shot goes higher than a pulled. So if you aim closed you will not hit it as high so you will lose distance or compensate by using a higher lofted driver.

Hope this helps.

[muggs]

From what you're describing, it doesn't sound like an aiming problem is what is causing you to miss left and right. I'm guessing you're just coming through impact with an inconsistent clubface, it's closed when you miss left, open when you miss right.

But, to answer your question, in order to aim myself properly I 1) Stand behind the ball and find something about 10 feet in front of the ball that is in line with my target. That can be a broken tee, a certain divot, even a blade of grass that stands out. 2) Then I lie the club on it's sole and square it to the broken tee, or whatever I picked out. 3) Then I get into position and square by body to the clubface that I already know is square to the target.

It's a good system and works for me, everyone is differnt though so you have to find something you like.

[boogielicious]

Have a friend stand behind you a see what your ball flight really is. Sometimes it may not curve (i.e. straight) but it flies in a direction not parallel to how your target line is set up, where your feet/shoulders are aiming.

If it goes right of the target line with no curve, it is a straight push caused by an open face at impact where the face is also square to the swing path. You had an inside out swing path but the face did not close enough before impact to cause a draw.

If it goes left of the target line and straight, it is a straight pull caused by a closed face at impact with an outside in swing path and the club face square with the swing path. If your face was open, it would have curved right.

If it flies straight down the line, then that is awsome and you just need to work on your aim.

I practice aiming with clubs on the ground or long sticks. I put one next to the ball aiming down to the target and one near my feet. The sticks are parallel. After a few attempts, I take away the one by my feet. Then the one by the ball.

On the course, I pick a spot a few feet in front of the ball that is in direct line to my target. Then I draw an imaginary line from the spot through the ball and stand parallel to that line. This is how Jack Nicholas described his aiming method.

[zeg]

Second (third?) the aim sticks. Go to Home Depot, OSH, Lowe's, or your local hardware store, and pick up a pair of the 3-foot long driveway marker sticks and put them in your bag. When you're practicing, aim them at your target (well, technically a foot left of the target, parallel to your target line, but if you can see an offset of a foot at 100 yards, I'll be impressed). Make sure you set your feet up parallel to that line every time. Your shoulders at setup should also be parallel, and your takeaway should be along that line when your club is pointing straight back on the way up.

For me, this feels really closed to the target, so I still struggle with it a bit. It's mitigated a bit by my tendency to fade, so even a miss left is usually a good shot, but I still need to learn to aim correctly. Finding an intermediate target doesn't really work for me, my brain apparently doesn't work that way. I find it best, both for putting and for full swings, to stand behind the ball and pick my target, give it a good look, and then set up and check. My brain does a better job subconsciously picking out the target than I do trying to find (and keep track of) a blemish on the turf or whatever.

Also, while some golfers do set up open or closed, unless you know why you're doing that, I think you'd be well advised to set up square to the target until you have a good reason to do otherwise.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I think using a consistent grip is very important. I was reading recently that the club face being open or closed is by far the most significant factor in which direction the ball starts after impact. i.e. More significant than the direction the club head is travelling (the swing). So a perfect swing with a slightly open or slightly closed club face would actually be further off target than a slightly flawed swing with a perfectly square club face.

Having a perfectly square club face is obviously far easier said than done, and any number of problems can result in not getting it right. But first, you need your grip to be consistent (strong, weak, or neutral), in order to have consistent results at impact. After that, I'm told having "quiet hands" helps to make sure the club face comes through square, but I'm no expert on how to actually do it consistently.

-Andrew