- Well welcome back to sunny Naples Florida,
Adam Bazalgette here,
Two-Time PGA Teacher of The Year award winner.
Sunny Naples, we're gonna talk about how to hit a golf ball,
off a downhill lie, a very tough shot.
And we're gonna show you a moderate situation,
which is pretty common and then maybe how to handle
a really severe situation, stay tuned.
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So hitting a shot off a downhill lie,
to me that's the toughest of all situations,
it works against most peoples tendencies as I'll show you.
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let's get started.
So here we are on the downslope, if it's very slight
I wouldn't bother with adjustments,
but this certainly is enough,
you're gonna have to take a few things into account.
Two problems with this shot people face is,
balance, number one, when they're on any kind of a slope,
and of course number two,
in this case because the hill's up here,
it's hitting the hill before the ball,
or bottoming out to early, can't quite trap the ball enough.
Most people struggle enough with this on a level lie,
that's why this is so challenging.
Let's have a look at it in slow motion.
So I'm hitting a seven iron off this downslope,
there's the angle of the slope,
and you'll notice that my setup is perpendicular
to that angle, in other words I'm leaning with the hill,
you've doubtless heard that before.
Now I'm hitting a seven iron here, a couple of thoughts,
I'm gonna hit this well within normal swing speed,
if you swing to hard when you're on a side hill,
you'll probably get a little bit of a miss hit,
it is not worth it.
And secondly the ball's gonna come off a lot lower
than I would normally have it, which may not make it
fly a lot further as though I had a less lofted club,
but it will definitely make it rollout more,
so you have to plan for that when you go to the green.
I'm gonna play the ball a little further back in my stance
than normal, for me that's further back than I would,
play a seven iron, for you maybe further back than that.
It's just a little added insurance,
of hitting the ball before the hill.
And in the swing, there's about a three quarter backswing,
the things I emphasize,
as I attempt to swing down the slope,
are keeping my left side lower,
keeping my body moving with the slope,
hands pass the ball of course before I hit it,
and then chase a nice slow finish out there.
Believe me, if your finish is lower on this side of the ball
it encourages more of a downward hit,
as you run up to the golf ball.
Okay so here's a pretty severe situation,
I'm on a very steep downslope,
relative to what you'd see on most golf courses,
I'm just on the front side of a big fairway bunker complex.
And I've got about 115 yards or so,
to a fractionally raised green,
it's a pretty difficult shot.
Now whatever we discussed in the previous mild downslope,
lean with the hill, play it back a little bit et cetera,
swing down the hill,
and of course allow for a lower ball flight,
you've gotta do all of those here,
but you can just about double it.
You've really, really gotta adhere to those things.
But here's something I think you can do a little differently
that'll help you make this shot,
at least a little bit easier.
Instead of my normal swing shape,
I'm gonna play something more of a cut shot,
more out to in.
I'm gonna actually let my arms raise up off my body,
and lift a little in the backswing.
This allows me to have a much steeper or sharper
angle of attack, and it's a lot easier not to hit the hill
before the ball.
The other thing this does of course is when I hit a cut shot
I can play the shot with a slightly open face,
I'm still not gonna get my normal loft here,
but I can get some of the loft back,
so it's an easier way to attack these shots.
Again don't expect great distance,
stay fairly steady and just hit the cut shots,
so let's give it a try.
Lean with the hill,
kind of rehearse my swing shape,
and that was a pretty good shot for that lie,
just got it over the bunker there, onto the green.
I could never have gotten that kind of a height,
if I'd hit more of a draw shaped swing.
So do the same adaptions, but I think this cut shot
will really help you when you're on a severe downslope.
Well I hope you found that helpful,
as always the better your standard motion is,
the better golfer you are in general,
the ore easily you can handle these situations.
If you liked the video, got lots more like it,
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in every aspect of the game.
I appreciate your time.
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