Alignment or Aim

Chapter 2 Routine

Alignment begins as you stand behind the ball and pick out a target. The majority of players I teach don’t have specific targets. The first time we get together, their targets or flags or greens, not specific landing areas. Therefore this concept may be foreign to you.

I strongly encourage you to begin to pick out specific target landing areas, regardless of what club you have in your hands.

A good practice strategy for alignment is to set two clubs down at your feet when hitting balls align one club, just outside the ball and your target line align the second club parallel to the first along your stance line. When you stand behind the ball, both clubs will have created a path that looks like a railroad track pointing directly to your target.

As you stand behind the ball, the clubs are parallel. The club on the right points that your target the club on the left, your stance line is a couple of yards to the left of your target.

• One of the most common problems players experience is in alignment.
• Practicing with clubs on the ground will help train your visual orientation to target.

Another strategy to check your alignment is to set up to the ball, then take your club and lay it across both thighs. The club will be pointing to where you’re aiming.

I had one of my better students miss the first stage of PGA tour school. I met with him for a lesson and he said he had hit everything, right? The entire four rounds to compound things. He said the course was set up to play a fade on those shots where he set up to hit a fade. He hit the ball even further, right?

I watched him at a few balls and I put a club along his stance line. And one along his target line, he was set up 10 yards, right of his target.

He stepped back behind the ball and arrived at the same conclusion, shook his head and said it was that simple. Wasn’t it?

A few weeks prior to tour school, he had stopped using an intermediate target as a link in his routine during one of his rounds. As soon as he resumed using an intermediate target on the range, he began to set up at his targets and the ball started to fly right at the target with a nice draw. It was a tough learning experience, but one, he won’t forget.

The sequence of chain links is critical in alignment. Note that your eyes move from the intermediate target to the primary target. Before you assume your stance, as you stare at the primary target, you assume your stance.

Now I’d like for you to picture the last three links of that setup chain just before you started the club back.

• So we go to.
  • Link 14. You quietly set your club behind the ball and score your club face with your intermediate target.
  • Link. 15, your eyes go to your primary target. As you shuffle into your setup, your eyes never leave your primary target until you are aligned.
  • Link 16, you feel grounded and balanced. You stare at your primary target and glance at the ball.

No matter what mental strategies you use. If your setup has a weak link, it will show up in the shot.

Don’t miss the shot before you swing the club.

Remember following a consistent routine will help you establish patterns that minimize distraction and ensure you are set up to the ball correctly and prepared to start your swing.

Don’t change your routine without guidance from your instructor.

Developing a good setup requires more than a single lesson on the teaching team. Your old set up habits are well entrenched and your nervous system.

New learning takes many repetitions of practice.

Please continue with: Integrating the mental and mechanical Pre Swing Routines