Depending on the course you play, you may be faced with a plethora of lies that are far from flat. My old home course of Osprey Links offers a multitude of challenging lies on the separate nines. It is a very fun track that challenges all of our shot making ability because of the dichotomy of terrain. Specifically on the back nine, I was guaranteed to have lie were the ball was above my feet. It is a shot I work on in practice because I knew it was practice time well spent. Because of this, I thought it would be a good idea to cover how to make such a golf shot.
I generally try to write my own thoughts on such topics, however the write up provided with the video offers a better explanation for most viewers. Here is what it says:
- “When you find the golf ball above the level of your feet on a sidehill you need to understand what that lie will do to the ball flight and what it will do to your swing.
- First, because of the sidehill the ball will move from right to left in flight, or in other words the ball will shoot where the hill is pointing to. Accordingly you need to aim to the right of the intended target.
- Second, the hill will tend to have you lose balance towards the bottom of the hill and it will tend to see your club penetrate into the ground. Indeed, the ground being closer to you will tend to see your club digging in and produce a fat shot. In order to counter this and not hit a fat shot, grip down on the club at address. The more the sidehill the more you can grip down. Make one or two practice swings until your club brushes the grass nicely.
- Next, to prevent you from falling backwards in your swing you need to push your weight towards your toes rather than your heels. Try to keep your balance at your address position and throughout your golf swing for a clean contact with the ball.”
As explained above, I use the exact technique. For my swing, I definitely aim right, choke down on the club and do not overswing. The higher the ball is above my feet, the less aggressive I swing the club. I have found that by overswinging, my body moves more and poor contact is the result.
Understanding how to hit from difficult lies is a great step to playing successful golf. Practicing difficult lies a definite must for all golfers who want to improve their game. I have put in the time and feel confident I can hit such shots, but for you to be successful will have to practice and find out for yourself.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
Our clubs have one and only one lie angle that sends the ball straight down the line when we swing down the line and get the face exactly perpindicular to path.
Every deviation will cause directional changes. Lie angle is why our balls shoot left when we hit it from above our feet. We work to make the club bottom out at the same angle as the slope and doing that changes the angle the face points to.
If we don’t do that we can’t hit the ball well so we’re stuck with it. But it’s not so hard to deal with. Especially if, like me, your set up has you aiming the face down your line before taking your stance.
Depending on the slope angle we might need to be aimed well right of our target and the only way I know to get it right is to aim my club first, then take my stance based on that.
And that means you very well might look like your aiming someplace not even close to where you’ll know the ball will go.
Down here in flatland they sometimes build little berms running parallel along the fairways and if we have to hit from those lies it can often look like we’re aiming out of bounds or at other players. Because WE are. But the club face isn’t.
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Thanks Kevin!
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