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One really important fact that I’d like to asses before you hear any golf shot is the type and quality of the lie that you have. So you don’t just look at the shot and say well it’s a 150 yards that means it’s this club and away you go. This is one area that the golf professionals are very good at. When you seen them on the TV, they’re always having a good look at the lie and maybe even getting the caddie’s advise on the type of lie that their ball is in. And if you ask a professional would they prefer the ball to be quite height in terms of the lie, so not much grass or not very long grass behind the ball or would they rather have it sitting upon some fluffy ruff. The professional would always say the lower, tighter lie. Hence they like to play golf courses where the fairways are very nipped and neat and tidy. But I think a lot of club golfers, if they’re honest with themselves, would actually rather the ball was sitting in the semi-ruff in the fluffy lie. So you see the ball land in the middle of the Fairway it bounces to the edge and jumps into the fluffy lie in the ruff. Then when you get down to the ball it’s got a bit of spongy and better give underneath it. And that’s because a lot of amateur and club golfers actually like to scoop the ball up into the air. So why do the professionals like the ball on the tight lie? Well it’s actually because as a good ball striker, you should be hitting the golf ball first not the ground first. So a professional doesn’t really mind what is then under or after the golf ball because they hit the ball first. So to help you be a better ball striker when you’re playing off bare and tight lies, here’s a couple of key indicators that I’d like to work on.
The first would be to make sure the ball is in an appropriate ball position for a bare lie. I’ve got a 7-9 here and I’d normally play the ball very slightly ahead of centre with a seven, but actually if the lie is bare and quite tight, I could move it just back an inch into the center of my stance. That would encourage the ball to be hit with a more downwards blow of club hitting ball first and not trying help or scope it up into the air and that could be appropriate for your hybrid clubs and your mid-irons as well, playing the ball slightly more centrally. If were playing a three widow hybrid club .you might nudge it a little bit more forwards but certainly taking the ball along way forwards towards your left leg and then trying to play it off a bare lie could be quite difficult, because we’d still like the club to be coming down on the ball. Now having the ball move forwards, the club would be leveled or more rising up onto the golf ball so that could be a lot harder to do. If you put the ball too far back in your stance you would probably get a good contact but you maybe loft the club and hit it a bit too low so it’s a balancing act. Too far forward it’s difficult, middle should be okay, too far back the strike would be good, but the flight would be too low. I’d then just encourage you if the lie isn’t great to grip down a little bit, just give you a bit more control on the golf club. So nipping down on the club just an inch just to make sure you’ve got a really good tight contact. And then one last feeling is make sure you get forwards on the golf ball, we definitely don’t want to be caught back trying to hit the ball up in the air. The ball doesn’t need hitting up in the air, the club will do that bit for you. So if you’ve got yourself a good grip, a good ball position, one last feeling is get forwards and hit downwards, make contact with the top of the ball first and then what doesn’t matter what is underneath the golf ball, you feel like you’re hitting down on the top, the club gets under the ball then you take out of the area where there might be no grass but you’d still fly the ball up nicely, leaning back flicking and scooping isn’t going to work. If there’s absolutely no grass to stand on at tall and you feel it’s a little bit slippy on the foot, just widen your stance an inch or two just to make sure you’ve got a good firm platform on base. But remember the pros like the bare lies, if you can learn to like them as well, your ball striking will definitely improve.
