- Welcome, Adam Bazalgette here,
two-time PGA Teacher of the Year award winner
down here in beautiful Naples, Florida.
Today we're going to look at some of
these awkward slopes and lies
you have around the golf course
and what are appropriate adjustments
and ball positions specifically for that, let's see.
(urban music)
So today's topic about ball position on these odd lies
was written in by David Cutch.
Feel free to write in yourself and make a request
and I'll try to get to that.
If you like these videos by the way,
please subscribe to the channel,
we've got lots of content and hopefully lots more coming.
So let's have a look then, and let's see today
ball above feet, ball below feet.
We'll save the other slopes for another day,
let's check it out.
Okay so ball above feet, this is
a pretty significant slope as well.
The lie's good, but it's a challenge.
And I've got about 165 yards or so to the green.
A couple of points for you: number one,
anytime you're in one of these challenging
side slope, up slope type situations,
always try to make the adjustments necessary
or as many as you can in your setup.
It's much more difficult to try to alter your swing,
so try to make the adjustments in your setup.
The other thing is, don't try for normal distance.
The more challenged your balance is,
the more you just want to try to stay stable
and swing smoothly; solid contact is king.
So remember those two things as we get started.
Now speaking of setup adjustments,
let's see what adjustments we'd make here.
First thing, I might stand a little bit taller
if it's a severe hill and maybe even lean
fractionally into the hill just for balance.
But the big adjustment here is shorten up on the golf club.
Most people know this, but they don't shorten up
nearly enough, they just wiggle down the club a little bit.
So shorten down to where you feel like
your arms can go out a pretty normal length there
and that you're not going to stab the club into the hill.
Now in terms strictly of ball position,
which is one of the questions in this video,
when the ball is above your feet
I wouldn't change it a lot, I'd leave it about like it is.
However, if it's a really severe slope,
you're probably going to find you almost
have no real use of your lower body,
I might play it back just a little bit
because often you'll release the club a little bit earlier.
So let's have a little go here, see how we do.
I've shortened up oh, three, four inches on that.
Just going to try to make a smooth swing.
(club striking)
And that ball, just a little draw,
it's about five yards to the right of the green.
Let's have a look at ball below feet.
So I'd say a little bit tougher shot here
with the ball below the feet.
So let's have a look at the kind of
adjustments you could make here.
Now unfortunately you can't make the club longer
as you could make it shorter on the last shot.
So what we've got to do is
we've got to make ourselves shorter,
and this is a little bit tricky.
What I see a lot of people do is just
bend forward to get to the ball,
getting themselves a little off balance.
You may not fall over or anything,
but I promise you at speed you will have a tendency
when that club starts picking up speed
to raise back a little bit and get yourself into balance.
So the key is, whatever would be
my natural setup balance points,
just squash those, add angle in here,
but keep the balance points the same.
So I'm going to feel squashed down in there a little bit
and feel like I can get to the ball that way.
Very important as well, if it's fairly severe,
that once you've gotten down in there,
stay down in those balance points through the ball
if you're going to make solid contact.
Now ball position, strictly again,
I wouldn't adjust it a lot here unless it's a severe hill,
and then again I might move the ball slightly back
just because I won't be able to get through it as well
and I might release the club earlier.
The big ball position adjustments
come in the uphills and downhill shots,
which we'll get to in another video.
Final thought on this one: a lot of people wonder
which way the ball tends to curve off these slopes.
There's a very easy way to know that.
It would curve the same way as it would in a putt.
So this one would curve that way.
If the ball is above my feet it would curve to the left.
But it does it for a completely different reason
than it does on a putt.
Let me show you a little closeup.
So let's see, why do balls tend to curve
off side hill lies?
Well this is an eight iron, I've got
a little magnetic pointer on it.
Any time you're dealing with a lofted club,
and every golf club has some loft,
if I get the leading edge of the club
square to the target line, even with loft
that's pointed straight.
But when I start to tilt the club backwards,
you can see because of the loft
it also aims the club face left.
Conversely when I tilt the club up,
again because of the loft, it aims the club face right.
So it's really the simple geometry of tilting loft
that makes the ball curve off these side slopes.
Well I hope you found that helpful,
I hope it gives you something to go practice.
I appreciate your interest in my videos,
would love to have you subscribe to the channel,
get you all kinds of free content.
There's a free course here to give you more distance,
feel free to take advantage of that.
If you have a question or a comment,
leave that and I'll try to get to it.
Again, I appreciate your time.
(urban music)