Aiming and perspective - stand further back - target looks more left

[nevets88]

If you stand right behind your ball straight on and note the target/pin, then walk back, say 5 yards, the pin looks more to the left. At some point, it stops.

Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?

[EverythingGolf]

Just make sure you are aiming your feet parallel left of the target line.

[MS256]

Just make sure you are aiming your feet parallel left of the target line.

Yeah I really don't "see" what the OP asked about, but I see plenty of people trying to align their toe line at the target.

There are a couple of guys in our group that are constantly "helping" each other with different things. They always have the other one get behind them and look down the toe line to see if they are aligned correctly.

Funny thing is that neither of them have any idea what parallel left is or looks like and they end up aligning each other way right of parallel left and missing what should have been very good shots to the right. Then next thing you know they are rolling over the hands early to try to compensate and here come the duck hooks.

One day I even tried to give them a hint by bringing up the topic to another guy that always has very good alignment (and is the best player at the course) while they were listening. We talked about it for a few minutes but it never seemed to register with the other guys, and they didn't get the hint.

[iacas]

Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?

I don't know what you're talking about.

I see plenty of people trying to align their toe line at the target.

I don't think that's a bit deal. What's the angle from being a yard left versus at the target from 150 yards? A degree? Less?

sin(x) = 1/150

sin(x) = 0.00666666666667

x = 0.39°

Furthermore, very few pros are perfectly parallel left of the target line. Did Jack Nicklaus have "poor alignment" because he aimed left? Heck, what about Lee Trevino?

Alignment is like many things in the golf swing - many alignments work, and if it's in conjunction with the rest of your swing, good for you.

[Golfingdad]

If you stand right behind your ball straight on and note the target/pin, then walk back, say 5 yards, the pin looks more to the left. At some point, it stops.

Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?

Sorry, I'm as confused as the others.

Pretty sure if I stood directly behind the ball then backed up 5 yards and the target had moved, I'd figure it was a result of me not backing straight up.  How would you know the difference?

[mdl]

If you stand right behind your ball straight on and note the target/pin, then walk back, say 5 yards, the pin looks more to the left. At some point, it stops.

Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?

This is literally impossible unless you have some sort of neurological disorder or you don't know how to walk straight back.

[Phil McGleno]

This only happens to me after about five or six beers.[quote name="nevets88" url="/t/72087/aiming-and-perspective-stand-further-back-target-looks-more-left#post_941321"]If you stand right behind your ball straight on and note the target/pin, then walk back, say 5 yards, the pin looks more to the left. At some point, it stops. Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?  [/quote]

[Taigolf]

Do you have any way to make sure you align parallel to the target?  I have no problem except on t shot with the driver.  I place the driver head first with a target in front of the ball with feet together, ball in front of the left foot.  Once I open my leg, usually end up close to the target, even worse sometimes the ball is too far back and the ball go straight right.

My friend use to put the driver accross the shoulder to confirm the parallel left alignment, any other method?

[Pave]

If you stand right behind your ball straight on and note the target/pin, then walk back, say 5 yards, the pin looks more to the left. At some point, it stops.

Is this just me or something everyone "sees"?

Most people have a dominant eye, by standing right behind the ball, it would be fair to assume the ball is not in your field of vision and therefore not a reference point, move back 5 yds and the ball is now in your field of view, it becomes a reference point and if your right eye is dominant, the brain will interpret the flag/target is left of where you originally thought. The fact that you noticed this would tend to indicate that your preshot visualisation is not as pin-point focussed as it could be.

[nevets88]

Most people have a dominant eye, by standing right behind the ball, it would be fair to assume the ball is not in your field of vision and therefore not a reference point, move back 5 yds and the ball is now in your field of view, it becomes a reference point and if your right eye is dominant, the brain will interpret the flag/target is left of where you originally thought. The fact that you noticed this would tend to indicate that your preshot visualisation is not as pin-point focussed as it could be.

Interesting point. I'll play around with my setup routine w/respect to ball in view.