Lining up your shot...

[Goodfella]

For some reason my past few rounds I've been lining up all of my shots to the right. I noticed everything was going right, then I laid a club down at my feet after I set up my shot and took a step back and saw that everything was way right.

So my question is, what do you do to make sure you have the right line for your shot? I used to never line up that far right but the past few rounds something changed and now I am. And even when I approach the ball now and try to line up left its still right lol. I've never really had a set way of lining up besides looking where I wanted to go and addressing the ball. Any tips would be appreciated.

[ghalfaire]

I personally use the method of standing behind the ball and looking for a small landmark 2-4 feet in front of the ball along my desired line.  It can be anything that you can see like a broken tee, discolored blade of grass, a weed, etc. to give short target to line up on.  I have a good friend that marks a straight line on his ball and puts in on the tee such that the line is in the direction of his intended target (like you see people do when putting).  Hope that helps.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

For some reason my past few rounds I've been lining up all of my shots to the right. I noticed everything was going right, then I laid a club down at my feet after I set up my shot and took a step back and saw that everything was way right.

So my question is, what do you do to make sure you have the right line for your shot? I used to never line up that far right but the past few rounds something changed and now I am. And even when I approach the ball now and try to line up left its still right lol. I've never really had a set way of lining up besides looking where I wanted to go and addressing the ball. Any tips would be appreciated.

Stand behind the ball and sight down your intended line.  Pick a spot on that line about 3-4 feet in front of the ball.  Keep your eye on that spot while taking your stance.  Set up with the clubface square to that line, so that the ball will pass over that spot when you hit it.  It's the best way I know of to get aimed where you want to be.

[Goodfella]

Thanks for the replies! I do that with my putts but never did that with my other shots, I'll give that a shot tomorrow and hopefully that will get my lined up better. I gave away an easy 6 shots the last 2 rounds each because I was hitting right, into a tree or a sand trap. Im usually good out of the sand trap but the last 2 rounds I have had a mental block and cant get out to save my life lol.

[Zeph]

I use the intermediate target method for every shot. When standing over the ball, I visualize a line going through the intermediate target and the ball, then imagine a parallel line by fy feet which I line up to. I flare my feet out, so I make sure to align the feet first, then flare out. Used to struggle with aiming right myself, but the intermediate target method fixed the problem. I occasionally lay down a club at my heels after lining up to check if I'm in the right place.

[Motley01]

Originally Posted by Zeph

I use the intermediate target method for every shot. When standing over the ball, I visualize a line going through the intermediate target and the ball, then imagine a parallel line by fy feet which I line up to.

I flare my feet out, so I make sure to align the feet first, then flare out. Used to struggle with aiming right myself, but the intermediate target method fixed the problem. I occasionally lay down a club at my heels after lining up to check if I'm in the right place.

I flare my feet out also. Thanks for the great tip, on aligning the feet first, then flaring out. I'm gonna try that next round.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

For some reason my past few rounds I've been lining up all of my shots to the right. I noticed everything was going right, then I laid a club down at my feet after I set up my shot and took a step back and saw that everything was way right.

So my question is, what do you do to make sure you have the right line for your shot? I used to never line up that far right but the past few rounds something changed and now I am. And even when I approach the ball now and try to line up left its still right lol. I've never really had a set way of lining up besides looking where I wanted to go and addressing the ball. Any tips would be appreciated.

Might do a "swing thoughts" post on this.  When analyzing your shot, we need to ask,

- where was the face?

- where was the path?

So if the ball started right, the face was aimed right.  We know that The ball's initial direction is about 70-85% due to where the clubface is pointing at impact. If there wasn't much curve the face was close to matching the path.  If the ball started right and drew back, the the face was aimed right and closed to the path.  If the ball started right then curved further right, the face was aimed right and was open to the path.

So in your case I'd start by making sure you weren't aiming the face too far to the right at address.