Most golfers regularly have trouble with some type of shot. It may be shots from a bunker, deep rough or those requiring a fade or draw just to name a few. Another of the more common trouble shots are uneven lies.
Uneven lies occur when the ball comes to rest on other than flat ground. Since most golf courses are not built on flat land it is very common to find your ball in an up hill, down hill or side hill lie. To score well a golfer must be able to successfully navigate each these shots on a consistent basis.
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This article will focus on up hill and down hill lies. We will discuss side hill lies in a later article.
When a golfer has difficulty with these lies, they will most often produce a fat or topped shot. This occurs when club strikes the ground behind the ball before hitting the ball or in the case of the topped shot the club strikes the ball above its equator. The result in either case is a weak low trajectory shot falling far short of the intended target.
This failure adds another unnecessary shot at least to your scorecard maybe more. My observation has been that the next shot is often inside of 100 yards creating a "feel" shot. That is it requires something less that a full swing. These shots are difficult for duffers because of our limited practice time. We just haven't developed the touch the more accomplished golfers possess.
The up hill lie often causes us to lose balance toward the downhill side and makes it more difficult to transfer weight from our back foot to the front foot. This causes the swing to bottom out behind the ball and the ball is struck by the leading edge of the club usually on the upper half of the ball.
The down hill lie has a similar but opposite challenge. We tend to lose balance on the downhill side and to compensate we instinctively hang back on the uphill side. This again causes the swing to bottom out behind the ball. But since the turf behind the ball is higher than the ball, we most often hit the ground behind the ball causing a fat shot.
Double D (nickname) is the best in our group from hilly lies. It wasn't always the case. He had to learn how to make the correct adjustments. So many duffers struggle with hilly lies, repeatedly hitting behind the ball and such. Today he shares his tips with you. Double D says when playing from an up hill or down hill lie you need to make a few adjustments to your normal set up. He suggests you do the following:
Club selection is crucial. On up hill lies add enough club to account for the angle of the slope. On down hill lies take less club to account for the added carry. Ball position: Move the ball back slightly on downhill lies and forward slightly on up hill lies Tilt. This is the crucial tip. Bending from the waist tilt your shoulders so that they are parallel with the slope. This will set your swing to bottom out normally. Balance. Don't allow the swing to throw you off balance. You may need to move your down hill knee in toward your up hill knee to help your maintain balance.
Once you make the proper adjustments, swing normally and allow the club to do the work of creating the proper ball flight.
Trouble Shots - Get the Secret to Up Hill and Down Hill Lies For Duffers HILL
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