How many times have you hit a good golf shot or what felt like a good shot only to look up and see your ball heading straight for the rough, the trees, or even worse, out of bounds?
Golf Digest Top 50 and Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor Todd Sones will tell you that the real problem wasn’t the swing you just made, it was probably your alignment.
Todd is a Golf Channel Academy Lead Coach who also serves on the Golf Academy of America’s National Advisory Board. From time to time, he emails out some really valuable video tips that I also like to pass along to my students.
I’ve attempted to recap the following clip the best I can because it’ll only be available for about a week. Of course, you can always gain access to this tip and others simply by becoming an Impact Golf Member at toddsones.com.
Alignment on the course may be the greatest challenge with which players are faced. In this video, Todd shows you how to navigate those crooked tee boxes that can trip you up. Todd says alignment is one of the most challenging things to do well in golf simply because you don’t get to face your target. In golf, you’re standing to the side of your target line. It’s very easy to misalign by 50 yards, look at your target, think you’re correct, and end up with a bad shot.
Here’s the key: get behind every golf shot. Don’t trust the tee box. Don’t trust the tee markers.
So often, Todd says he sees people walk up to a tee box and set themselves perpendicular to the tee markers. Says Todd, “If you see a tee box that’s favoring left, go to the left side of the tee box. If you see a tee box that’s favoring to the right of a hole, go the right side of it and work across it. You’ll end up in the center of the fairway a lot more consistently.”
Todd likes to step back behind each shot on the tee line, find his target line, turn perpendicular to the line he just saw, and from there, set the club down.
“Remember this one phrase,” says Todd, “Aim the club to your target line and align your body to the club.”
Most people set their feet first and then put the club down. Aim your club to the target line chosen from behind the golf ball and then set your body to the club. Now you’ve got the club face going where it should be going – down the line.
“So when I make a good golf swing,” adds Todd, “I’m going to swing down that line. I’m swinging to the center of the fairway.”
Get behind every golf shot, stand on your target line, point the club at your target, turn perpendicular to it, and then make your golf swing. You’re going to line up much better.