Golf Lesson (2/2/08) How to Effectively Hit the Ball on Uneven Lyes

No matter what course you are playing, you seem to get a fair amount of uneven lye’s. So, what’s the best way to play these shots?

 

Let’s begin with understanding which direction the ball will naturally go when hitting off an uneven lye. Simple. When standing next to the ball stretch out your arms like airplane wings. Whichever direction your arms are tilted will tell you the way the ball is going to fly. So, an understanding of this will lead to a better understanding of how to effectively hit these shots.

 

Let’s start by talking about the ball being above your feet, or an up hill lye. The ball will be closer to you so choke down, aim to the right and let the ball hook towards the left.

 

If you’re a slicer listen to the segment for Sean’s tip on how hitting on up hill lye’s can improve your swing!

 

If the ball is below your feet, or downhill…lengthen out you club and expect the ball to move to the right so aim a little left. Play for the curvature of the shot.

 

Now how about the ball placement on these shots…

 

You always want to heir on playing the ball towards your higher foot, for example if you are on an uphill lye and you are right handed then your left foot will be higher than your right foot, so set the ball higher in your stance.

 

Expect the ball to come off the club face significantly higher with increased loft. So now the ball will fly a bit shorter, so you may want to step it up a club. If you are between a 4 or a 5-iron, go with the 4-iron.

 

Now on a downhill lye, your back or right foot for right handed golfers is the higher foot. So we move that ball back in your stance. And now the opposite of an up hill shot will happen. With the ball in the back of our stance we are decreasing the loft of the ball so the ball will fly lower and have more bounces in it with less loft. So you will likely want to back down a club. If you are between a 5 and 6-iron, this time around you’ll want to play the 6-iron.

 

Now we’re not talking about moving the ball all the way up to your front our back foot. The ball won’t move a lot, maybe a couple lengths of the ball.

 

It’s that simple! If you have any additional questions e-mail the show at espn840golf@yahoo.com

 

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