GET YOUR "AIMER" RIGHT

One of the most basic principles of this crazy game is that you need to get your body set up in the proper posture, with a sound grip on the golf club before you attempt to execute any shot. And a huge part of the proper posture is to have your body aligned properly in relation to your target.

Sounds simple, huh? But of the hundreds of golfers I observe on the course, driving range or during demo/fitting events, most do not give more than a passing notice to this very basic fundamental.

In a golf magazine I was reading a while back, Keegan Bradley, the PGA champion, said that he never hit even one ball in practice without an alignment club or stick on the ground. That stopped me, as it made so much sense I was mad that I hadn’t thought of that before. But hitting balls on the range without such reinforcement of your alignment and aim is rather pointless. Let me explain.

When you go to the practice range, your goal is to ingrain a swing that you can count on when you are on the golf course. You pick out a target flag and begin hitting away. But if you are aligned right or left, those shots that appear to be right on are really pulls or pushes from where your body is aligned. In other words, you are practicing swings, but not hitting accurate shots to where your body is really aligned.

The odds of replicating that same amount of pull or push repeatedly throughout a round of golf, from driver to wedge, are really pretty dismal. But, if you practiced your aiming at the same time you practice your swing, you bring the two together. You will get a very clear and ingrained picture of what proper alignment looks like every time you practice a swing.

Trust me. This works. I’ve used it to discover and correct a right-erred alignment flaw in my own game which had crept in over the past month or two. My swing, therefore, had become an increasingly “pull” move to compensate for that, until it got to a point where I had no idea what I was doing.

Your eye hand coordination will force you outside the learned swing in an attempt to make the ball go where you are looking . . . NOT where you are aimed. There is a huge difference.

So, take the PGA champ’s advice and always carefully place one or two alignment clubs or sticks when you are hitting practice balls on the range or in the short game area. It will pay huge dividends in your scores.

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Terry Koehler is "The Wedge Guy" and President of SCOR Golf- The Short Game Company.

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