Do you find that certain spots on certain ranges screw with your aim?

[nevets88]

There's a range with a back fence with 20 foot posts. The posts should serve as perfectly fine aiming points, but if I hit from the far right, I tend to swing to the right even though the stall points me left, relatively.

Is this psychosomatic or something about the background that makes me want to swing right? I think this may happen to me on certain holes as well.

TL;DR, do certain backgrounds screw with your aim?

[WUTiger]

I don't like to hit drivers or woods out of a stall. It's just a personal thing.

Can holes cause aiming problems? Yes. Most courses have a couple of holes where the vector of the tee-box rectangle will point you into the treeline, or into the lake on the left rather than the fairway.

Sometimes this done by accident, sometimes on purpose, according to golf course design articles. Some architects think it's cruel, others think it's a clever deception that makes the player think before hitting.

St. Louis has the 9-hole TripleA-Highlands course in Forest Park. Hole No. 3 is a 350-yd. par 4, slight dogleg right. When I played it last summer, and my partner and I both clipped the right edge of the treeline with our drives. Before we went forward, I placed my driver down in the center of the tee box. The driver pointed about three yards deep into the treeline. So, you would need to aim at a 45-degree angle left on the tee box to hit the fairway.

Don't get hung up in psychosomatic unless you're going to turn pro - you'll get so tight worrying about things you can't swing. Just find what works, and go with it.

[Crusher47]

I don't think it's just at the range....the course where I play has some wide open fairways, but most of the time I still hit the ball into the woods....one hole in particular has a tree line with a short, stubby tree at the very end....I would have to hit a wicked slice for my ball to land there and guess what....every. damn. time.  my ball lands into that damn tree.  everytime!

[Hoganwoods]

I'm alot more comfortable from the left side of the range (all the targets are in the middle). When I go to the right and try to aim at the targets, I always feel closed and it gives me fits.  I wonder if eye dominance plays a factor here.  I'm right eye dominant and on the left side of the range my right eye sees the target perfectly, but from the right side I feel I have to make a conscious effort to turn my body left to get a better look and then fight this during my whole routine.

[Dave2512]

For me all about the condition of available ground and how close the next person is. That's why I use alignment rods. If I just stand there and scoot balls around to the patch of ground with the best grass I can't tell if I'm actually hitting it towards the target. Could be several degrees off in an attempt to be considerate of those around me. I wish we had stalls and I wouldn't care if it was mats all year. Our range is chopped to bits, a couple of busy days and it's bare ground before they move the ropes again. There will be people in tight trying to hit on what grass is left. Some days I walk right by it and just work from the bunker and chip.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by nevets88

There's a range with a back fence with 20 foot posts. The posts should serve as perfectly fine aiming points, but if I hit from the far right, I tend to swing to the right even though the stall points me left, relatively.

Is this psychosomatic or something about the background that makes me want to swing right? I think this may happen to me on certain holes as well.

TL;DR, do certain backgrounds screw with your aim?

Pretty sure that 2 paragraphs doesn't qualify as too long. ;)

I scoffed at this idea sometime last year when I read somebody else post something like this, however, the egg is on my face, because, yes, I have a similar problem sometimes.  It's not really the background, though, but rather the direction the tiny, square mat that I am standing on is pointing.

I always try to use the left side of this range, because when I'm on the right, I'm either aiming at the fence, or I'm standing at an angle to the square mat, which I'm afraid might be screwing with my head a little.

[VinnieL]

I have the same problem the mats at my local range really screw with my mind they are not in line with the range they are off and this really throws me off.

[trackster]

I find this to be a huge problem with where tee markers are aimed.  For some reason my course really likes to point tee markers pointing to out of bounds spots instread of down the fairway.  I have found my self a few times lining up parallel to them and aiming right for the center of a forest.