Categories
Hit More Greens

Uneven Lies – Ball Below Your Feet

You make be working hard on how to fix a slice and in turn hitting more fairways. Your second shot, the approach shot into the green, is a more difficult shot. Besides the fact that your ball isn’t on a tee, there’s a chance you are not on level ground.

Uneven lies are a big reason it is difficult for high handicap golfers to take their progress on the practice range to the course. Even the flattest of courses will present at least a few uneven lies per round. On other courses, you’ll have more uneven lies than even ones! High handicap and beginner golfers many times do not make the small changes in setup and swing necessary to hit a good shot from an uneven lie.

The first uneven lie we are going to cover is the ball below your feet. There are a few key things to remember when setting up for a shot with the ball below your feet.

First, you’re farther away from the ball. You’ll need to bend more at the hips and flex more at the knees to compensate for this and get closer to the ball.

Second, both the slope and bending more at the hips will want to put more of your weight on your toes and give you the feeling that you are going to fall down the slope. Keep your weight back on your heels to stay balanced.

Being bent more at the hips and knees will limit how much your lower body can move, so the shot will be more arms and shoulder movement. It’s important to maintain your spine angle and not come up during the shot. This is why many golfers end up topping the ball from this lie.

Lastly, the ball flight will tend to follow the slope of the lie. So your ball will go to the right (for righties) a certain amount based on the amount of slope.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *