Instruction
When lining up square is wrong
From the time I first picked up a golf club, I was taught to align my body square to my target line to help me hit the ball with as little curvature as possible. The only time I was taught to alter that relationship was when I wanted to hit a big draw or fade. With the advances of club and ball flight monitors such as FlightScope and Trackman, I’ve come to understand understand that a golfer’s body alignments must be altered in order to “zero” out path. That allows a golfer to hit shots that have the minimal amount of curvature that you see from golfers on the professional tours.
Interestingly enough, the only information I’ve found written on the topic is from Ben Hogan’s book, “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.” The book illustrates the different stance arrangements Hogan employed, which were based on what club he was using. While Hogan didn’t know much (or anything) about the D-plane, he figured it out on his own. He aligned his feet more left with his shorter irons and aimed his body more right with his driver (more about why he had to do that in a second).
Here is a screenshot of a sample player showing his path (the blue line) coupled with the data of that particular swing. You can see that his path is a touch right of his target line at 5.9 degrees from in to out. For that reason, the ball started a touch right and then curved back to the target — the classic push draw that most players desire. However, if you look closely you can see that this player’s alignment is a touch LEFT of the target line. Why, you may ask? If you are swinging the club 6 degrees from in to out and line up square, then you would have to produce a face angle that is well left of your path in order to move the ball back to the target. This would also produce a curvature amount that is hard to consistently reproduce; thus, this player lines up a touch left in order to balance out the 6-degree in-to-out path.
Imagine if we could measure his alignment at address with the same numbers as above. If he aligned himself 3 degrees left of his target line and made the same swing, then his resultant path would not be 6 degrees from in to out. It would only be 3 degrees from in to out, which is a more manageable number to play from in a “perfect” world. Obviously humans are not robots, and I don’t expect them to deliver the club on the same path each time. But I will say that we all have tendencies and by using our alignment to buffer these tendencies we can play better golf.
Using alignment to make up for exaggerated paths is very easy and can be done by players of all levels. All you have to do is chart your true path on Flightscope or Trackman and you will have an idea of just how much you need to alter your alignment at address in order to make up for the path you have at the current moment.
Here’s a good rule of thumb with short irons: Try aiming your body more left than you currently do to give yourself the best chance to hit a perfectly straight shot. Why? With short irons, you likely hit more down on the ball, which moves your true path to the right. Aiming more left helps cancel out the “rightness” of the path, helping you hit the ball straighter.
With your driver, the relationship is the exact opposite. Try aiming a touch right to help you hit the straightest drives you can. Experiment with your body alignments relative to the path of your swing to help you dial in your ideal trajectory.
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Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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tlmck
May 15, 2014 at 3:33 am
Doesn’t everybody line up slightly open? I have been doing it for 35 years now with every club in the bag including the putter. I hit draw, fade, high, low, etc. Just feels natural to me. Lee Trevino made a few million with an open stance as I recall.
Ben
May 14, 2014 at 10:52 am
I have no idea what any of this means
Art
Dec 30, 2013 at 3:49 pm
I don’t see any consideration given to ball position. Since the club moves on an arc, the position of the feet in terms of the body’s orientation, as well as relative to how far forward/back the ball is placed within the framework of the club’s arc are relevant.
Intention also plays an important role. Was the player’s intention to swing in-to-out to impart a draw?
Ben
Jan 5, 2014 at 12:52 am
I haven’t read everyone’s comments but did anyone notice his ball finished over 8 feet left of his target? And that was with his club path going 5.9 degrees from in to out??
Ruddy
Nov 30, 2013 at 8:36 pm
Tom, according to Trackman, I swing in to out. I can only hit hooks with my irons, due to inconsistent, mostly toe contact and early release , according to GolfTec. This puts hook spin on the ball. Therefore I compensate by aiming 15-20 yards to the right. If I follow your advice above and align to the left instead, I’ll probably hit it into the Pacific. My other fix has been to try to hit a big slice by cutting out to in on my downswing, dropping my hands straight down from the top. Any pointers you have will be dutifully tried and much appreciated. Thank you.
tom stickney
Nov 30, 2013 at 11:27 pm
It sounds like a pivot issue to me…causing you to stand up on the downswing thus hitting the ball on the toe invoking the club’s gear-effect. I would suggest fixing your pivot before you try and adjust your aiming.
Dave
Nov 28, 2013 at 4:35 pm
I think that most people that play often and are relatively athletic will subconsciously adjust to their miss. We all know the guy that we play with whose setup is garbage and his swing looks like a seizure, but he stripes it down the middle with regularity.
Joe Golfer
Nov 27, 2013 at 5:34 pm
Besides the Hogan book mentioned, an old book by Tommy Armour called
How To Play Your Best Golf All The Time is also a book that recommends those same stance changes.
As for me, I really don’t follow those directions, but that’s because of a bad back.
If I line up slightly closed, my hips don’t slide like they should.
Thus, I just use a slightly open stance, play the ball a tad forward, and play a fade all the time, but only because it’s the best I can do with health limitations.
The advice given in the article does seem like sound advice.
Thanks for the info, Tom Stickney, and try to ignore comments from guys like JBro, who just want to say something snarky rather than positive and encouraging.
Tom Stickney
Nov 27, 2013 at 9:33 pm
You must always do what works best for you in the end as YOU are the player and thus has the last say. Thx for your note and comments
BS
Nov 26, 2013 at 7:28 pm
So If I swung with a path that is is 3 degrees out with a face angle that is 1 degree open while setting up square to the target it would start right and produce a draw ending up somewhere close to the target. If I swung the same way but set up 3 degrees left wouldn’t that produce the same shot just ending up farther to the left than where the original shot went? I’m confused on this. Tom, if you could clear this up for me I would appreciate that.
tom stickney
Nov 27, 2013 at 3:58 pm
It would all depend on your angle of attack and how much your swing direction differs from your true path. The more your swing direction moves one way or the other the more you must alter your plane line in efforts to zero out the true path for straight-away ball flight
paul
Nov 26, 2013 at 1:43 pm
So does this mean we should only set up square with long irons and woods when we are sweeping the ball?
paul
Nov 26, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Ha. figured it out, we just aim straight when we are trying to zero out angle and path and face for any club as long as the ball isn’t teed up. I think that is correct anyway…
tinytim
Nov 26, 2013 at 1:01 pm
well, with the driver only do, if you hit upwards!
Angus
Nov 26, 2013 at 12:02 pm
Quick question. Do you line the clubface up sqare to your stance when you open/close it or do you alter your grip and keep the clubface pointing at the intended target? Thanks
oneputz
Nov 26, 2013 at 3:47 pm
I am curious about this as well, i figured i would just go to the range and try to work it out through experimentation. Im very excited to try this setup as I have noticed my tendency is to push my short irons while my longer clubs draw/hook more than I would like. Thanks for the article.
Craig
Nov 26, 2013 at 3:48 am
That is amazing and exactly what I have found myself doing lately and striking the ball better, feeling slightly open with short clubs and closed aligning to the right to promote draw with longer clubs.
david
Nov 26, 2013 at 1:35 am
ty, great article. I’m not saying its a mistype, but im asking….in paragraph 4…when you say “It would only be 3 degrees out to in.” I am confused. Am I just not getting it completely, or did you mean to say “in to out”
am i not quite getting it…… or is there a mistype starting with the guy swing “in to out”, then finishing with him “out to in”?
Zak Kozuchowski
Nov 26, 2013 at 9:30 am
You’re right. It has been corrected.
Zachary yaz
Nov 26, 2013 at 1:26 am
thank you! give me a new insight on my swing!
FlyFish
Nov 26, 2013 at 12:43 am
I’ve been waiting for somebody to finally write something on this topic.
If you study the D-plane, you will realize that a stance adjustment is necessary when the ball is teed up and forward. A lot of pros setup closed with the driver.
JBro
Nov 26, 2013 at 12:23 am
Thanks for this information that is as old as golf, you just added numbers and buzzwords like “Flightscope” and “Trackman”. I want the 4 minutes it took to read this back into my life span, but alas, I get a lot of information from GolfWRX so we will call it even boring pointless article. Just hit the ball.
JMD
Nov 26, 2013 at 9:49 am
Nobody forced you to read the article Richard!!
Tom Stickney
Nov 26, 2013 at 10:26 am
We often criticize what we don’t truly understand…aoa shifting swing direction altering aiming based on spin-loft.
Take the next four minutes and remember to thank those of us whom write for this forum for FREE so that you can learn to become a better player.
CB
Nov 26, 2013 at 12:09 pm
Tom, you shouldnt have given the guy the time of day. Good article. Thanks for writing it.
CB
Nov 26, 2013 at 11:35 am
How embarrassing you wrote that.
TJ
Nov 26, 2013 at 3:18 pm
maybe it took him a while to read it?
TonyK
May 13, 2014 at 11:32 pm
Your confidence is ignorance. Once you become to understand this article, you would be ashamed of yourself. But chances are probably you won’t. Enjoy your 90’s scores forever.
Pastorcam201
Nov 25, 2013 at 10:31 pm
I play a pull and since I started to play lined up to the right I’ve dropped 10 strokes off my game and have way more fun I just aim to the right side of the green and boom right down the middle every time. Now if I could only learn to put????
Jeffrey Trigger
Nov 25, 2013 at 9:43 pm
I must be a freak. My ball almost always starts where my body is square too. However, my problem is I’m not always square to where I think I’m aiming…
ryan
Nov 25, 2013 at 8:54 pm
my path is very right of the target and in to out. Do you recommend I try aligning my body to the left to straighten out my shots? I tend to hit snap hooks if I stand closed especially with my driver.
Tom Stickney
Nov 26, 2013 at 10:27 am
Would highly recommend it or alter your swing direction.