What Nobody Tells You About How to Break 80 - Lie of the Ball

do you want to get under 80 in golf you're probably focusing on trying to hit the ball further try hit more greens in regulation you're focusing on the wrong thing the correct thing is actually getting the ball in play to a good position and analyzing the LIE of the ball and then hitting the correct club for the lie of the ball that is going to be the biggest secret to get you into the 70s and I'm going to show you exactly how to do it the first lie is the tea box now the tea you're allowed to do anything you want here so you can tear it up you can Bunch the grass up you can put the ball flat on the surface from here you're starting the hole start it off the best way possible I don't want to put this on a te because when I put on a t Peg I go underneath it I hit it high and I don't have any control now with a ball above my feet it's automatically going to pull the ball right to left so what I like to do is aim further right than I normally would and anticipate that ball just drawing in or slight pull now this lie is on very dry Turf kind of bare you can see just beyond the ball there's a bit of turf over here on a shot like this because of the dry ground it's not going to be Lush to take a easy nice divot do you see there it's very Sandy very firm if I hit my normal 7 iron from 180 it's not going to work I'm going to hit a little fat and if I don't catch it perfectly crisp it's just not going to reach so I Club up to a six iron and try hit a Punchy shot The Punchy shot with a six iron is determined by The Firm ground it's probably going to move less right to left if you hit a normal full swing around the slope it's probably going to draw a lot I'm going to hit a Punchy shot with a six iron and that should reduce some of the draw so we'll aim it to the right edge of the green so if it stays straight it's perfect and if it does draw we're next to the pin grip down a little because the ball is above my feet we don't want to hit it fat if you grip all the way up to the top generally your big problem is hitting it fatty boom booms okay we're just on the front of the green there okay gang bangers yeah we have a ball on the grass but it's dry grass and the the turf is very firm but you've got a short pitch of probably about 20 yard 25 yards to the hole it's very scary to take out the sand wedge because you don't have much Turf and much room for error if you hit this a little fat the bounce of the club is going to bounce off the turf the sole is going to Skid into the equator of the ball and it's going to teeth the ball over the grein we don't want to try clip it with a pitching wedge we don't have the skill we W trying to break 80 here we're we're not trying to become Pros playing at Augusta so what I would do here is probably take a hybrid or a 79 I'll play both of those shots for you the reason we do that is it just takes out a lot of the guesswork on the LIE you want to simplify the shot so that it's just so super Bare Bones easy that you don't have any doubt over the shot the first one I'm going to show you is a bump and run with a 7 iron I'm going to do the toe down chipping that's a very easy way to get out of tricky lies always when you're in a lie you don't understand for chipping just take out the toe down chipping you lift the handle up you try hit it off the toe and you use your pting grip this is all you need to know about the LIE of the ball chipping when you don't know what's going on and that's going to Sidle up there just next to the hole and that's tough because I'm playing on elephant grass not a nice fine grass like you might have the next option I show you is the seven wood I would normally use a hybrid here but we can't seem to find it the seven wood idea is also like a putt you don't have to do like tow down but you just do a normal one you can do toe down with a hybrid if you want but it's the same concept you're just trying to eliminate that chunk and the thin because if you chunk this it should be okay and if you thin it it should be okay because the bottom of the club skids through the grass it's just about getting a good strike and being confidential on the shot so that's not a bad shot it's much better than having a double chip or teething it over the green just pick the correct Club that's going to work with your lie and feel you want to feel what's happening with the club you know it's like when I get on good lies I play Everything virtually straight-faced the minute I get into something that's like a little weird just a little automatically just opens up but even when I get even on perfect lights like this I'm always fidgeting like I'm always trying to find is a little bit of path do I feel better with a little bit more out to in with an open face do I feel better like square square cuz I I all I feel is Turf interaction like I don't care how I do it but that Turf slide interaction with the club that's what does it for me it can be in it can be it could be anything like it's just variables of that and all I'm doing here is until I can get that feel it could even be like a like this could be a little bit this it it's weird I don't know how to explain it all these thoughts of like technical things that have been put in my brain along the way yeah I mean we got to get we got to get all that technical stuff out to be frank with you most terrible thing I think about is that thing coming in like that what I like you to do is just just ditch it and just understand and feel Turf interaction that feels okay feels like a slidy and you just go there you go because that's the reconfirm and for me it's like I I I could be in the same spot on different different slight different grain of grass or different length of grass or something and it feels completely different even though I'm textbook tells me to do ABC like how to drive a car turn your BL it no you feel it you're you're anticipating you you there's so much of that going on so look just look just throw all of that that that rubbish out of your head and just understand what the head is doing through the turf okay that's it find a way where it feels good it can be anything I don't care yeah absolutely I don't hit but I don't hit that shot no yeah I know okay this ISS for me if I were here it's just a pitching wedge on the front roll up which is also a good way to do it as well but I go as low LT as I can because I'm worried about yeah yeah and but look there's nothing wrong with it yeah just dinking it around the course but I'd like to be comfortable in a position where I need a shot I can go okay my heart's not thumping that I'm going to yeah kill someone does does this help Yeah by by just being creative yeah I mean for me I'm an artist anyway like I I've always been artistic yeah it's very difficult for me for you just I can say to you hey Eric how do I do it but you're going to show me and I'm going to I don't get it and you can say feel this then I'll go okay yes yes but if if you told me okay you have to do that and then at that position your face should be like oh I can't like golf yeah but if you told me to just feel something yeah I can play golf yeah it that's your strength that's the thing that makes you tick that's how you got to do like all your short game stuff so weird like I would never hit this shot that floats 80% of the way ever yeah never ever and it'll always be a pitching wedge like yeah which is which 100% can work as well and I mean I also like the feeling of that yeah I mean this is the thing it's like there there's so many ways to now just for shits and giggles right put it way off your back foot Hood the club face get your hands up a little bit actually that feels good yeah that one didn't feel as good but I'm what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to get all this technical jargon out or all this beautiful textbook stuff because to me it's not textbook I didn't think about this you've rid of your 17 swing thoughts that you're talking about if I do that look at your Turf interaction that's what I mean yes what matters can I get it close have I got a chance yeah because you can have funky technique with the right interaction through here and the results fine is that wrong for the purists it's wrong come on man like look this is a general thing everyone's different you chip differently you swing it differently you draw it you fade it you do whatever it's like look this just gives you a a rough idea we have two balls close to each other 30 cm 1T apart the one on the left is a li sitting on the grass and the one on the right is sitting on some sand that's the exact same distance to the hole and despite having the same distance to the hole both of these lies will play completely different to the other the ball on the grass is below my feet and the ball on the Sandy part of the turf is also below my feet in equal amounts on this kind of Li you can expect the ball to go left to right you don't want to grip down on this one a lot I've seen a lot of people grip down on this one I grip toward the top of the grip now if you do Fade the ball this is going to make the ball fade even more if you tend to pull or Draw the ball this might just straighten out your ball flight because of my swing sometimes smothering the ball I go a bit left often I play this one like it's a dead straight shot you have to know your tendency from each of these lies based on the guidelines if you can do that you're so far ahead of the game you're breaking 80 way before Rick Shields does on a lie where the ball is sitting up nicely I can hit a normal shot here without any fear of consequences we just aim this just left of the pin and hopefully it fades back in just a tiny baby fade that looks like absolute money yeah perfect on the on the left Edge now because this one's on the sand it's not so nice to take a divot cuz I clipped that one off the top of the grass this one I'm not going to be able to this one is going to be off the hard pan so on hard pan I like to take one more club and just hit kind of like a Punchy shot now because this is lower Loft I find lower Loft seems to fade a little more so while the six iron faded just a bit I think the five iron will fade just a bit more I'm going to hit a pun shot just to get better contact if I come and play this one like I did here if I catch it a little thin it's going to bounce off and I'm going to teeth it and probably end up in a very bad place in the bunker so we take the five iron and I think I'm going to aim it on the same line but this will be a completely different shot more like a 3/4 punch shot and that one worked out even better than the six iron do you see how two different lies in exactly the same position dictate two different clubs and two different shots that's how you're getting into the 70s guarant aned adapting to the LIE right here is the mowing line what I mean by that is the mower has pushed the grass toward the hole making it more slick and slippery easier to hit the ball on the way back down it mows the grass into us meaning the club will get stuck in the grass producing those explosive divots instead of the beaver tail this is a very important concept especially if you play at the coast generally the coastal grasses can be very grainy this is uh Bermuda or zo here and it can make a very big difference to your shot you'll see if I do this the the club slides if I do this the club bounces it bounces you there's there's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine bounces and in this one no bounces down the grain you're going to find a standard ball flight slightly lower see so we only had maybe two parts of a div there and then into the grain well let me do another cuz that was ining into the grain so that one broke up a little bit more and let me show you the difference you can see the two different kind of divots this divot was with the grain you can see the grains of grass have been hit this way and have not resisted and have been clipped and then over here we have the more explosive divot and you can see how this grass goes into you and this grass goes into you and the grain of grass there is like straight up or into you instead of with the shot now the line the Fairway bunker can affect your shot a little bit sometimes you get fluffier sand or something that's been red with the big bunker machine and it leaves just a little bit of a depression and there's some like little bits of sand behind the ball that's second best the best is where it's been a bit watered and that leaves this very smooth sand cuz it's basically a perfect lie now from this lie I know in Fairway bunkers I generally fade the ball what it is with my swing I don't know it doesn't matter whatever your tendency is is what you have to play now I also know in a fairway bunker generally you have to Club up one so if this is generally a nine iron distance you want to go with an8 iron if the wind is into you then you want to go even higher to a s iron in a fairway bunker there's no room for ego only what works so I'm going to hit an A on from this lie I think it just generates a little bit more Spin and that's why it seems to go a little bit shorter plus the fade so from 145 I normally hit a 9 I hit an eight from here and what I do with these lies in a fairway bunker because it's not really on the turf I don't like to dig my feet in because now my feet go below the ball we don't want that we want our feet in line with the ball I mean as in horizontally but before the shot here what I like to do is just lift my chin up just a little bit so it kind of lifts my swing above the ground compared to normal and that's all I do just lift the chin and hit the shot so I'll start there lift the chin just a little fader yep just a little fader on the left edge of the green now over here it's kind of similar it's just not as perfect so you want to come in a little steeper instead of coming in and touching the sand at the back of the ball so what I do with this is go the exact same thing I don't want to dig my feet in it's not a green side bunker so I go in a little steeper which could mean I TG it left lift m in and that one comes out about the same baby fade just on the left side of the green don't overthink it get the ball out lift that chin don't dig your feet in don't get below the ball easy game these balls are on an UPS slope toward the pin over there now this shot is very tricky because you feel like you want to slam the club into the turf but it never works what I found is that a lot of people and me included want to put a 56° there which you can do but you want to adjust yourself a little bit to the slope and then hit up the slope cuz you you can't hit into the turf it just doesn't work I've tried so many times but what happens with a 56 is you're adding like 8 or 9 or 10° of LOF so it's a 66° you have to go very aggressive which can be very difficult for people to do and has much less control so what I have here is a 48° so I add 10° of Loft now it's a 48 to 58° so basically the same shot as that heading up the slope means I can hit the same swing get a further carry and roll out just like that and that's going to serve you much better than trying to hit into the turf or hit too much loft and then add 10 10 12° of Loft you want to just get a lower lofted club and hit up the slope when the ball is on a ramp on an UPS slope you're going to find that it wants to go a little bit right to left now if you combine the ball above your feet and an UPS slope it wants to pull double left so plan for even more right to left movement so up slope like a ramp toward the hole going to go higher with a chance of a draw ball above your feet also chance of a draw combine to it adds up to more right to left movement so I always aim just a little bit further right on an UPS slope shot from my Target and then you should see it come around what I like to do is just get my shoulders level with the slope so we're in play perfectly there now remember if you combine that with the ball above your Fe it draws more but if it's on an UPS slope with a ball below your feet it can cancel it out and create a straighter shot now let's go for the extreme example which is not really nice it's on a down slope off a bare lie and you're quite a far way out now I've got a four eyon here this is going to slice way more and it's on the down slope so it's going to tend to go left to right let's see what happens change my shoulders so it comes out way low and a little fader and of course I'm in the water because it's not a shot I should be taking on just to illustrate the purpose now as well as knowing what club to hit from Every Lie part of that is understanding how far the ball goes depending on the shot you've chosen and the lie that is the key to Breaking 80 to get that distance control correct on every single lie if you can get the ball Pinn high or in the position you want to miss you're going to score lower because you know how to assess the lie and hit the ball the correct distance to hand it where you need it either on the green or for an easy chip now the flat Li is also very valuable because here we can work out exact distances of how long we hit each Club that's very key to Breaking 80 that's going to be a standard distance we'll measure it from the pin how many yards behind the pin and then on the into the grain shot the exact same Club same golf ball see are just dug in there sometimes it can feel like you've hit a very bad shot but actually you've hit a good shot it's just that the grass has gripped the ball whereas there the grass didn't and it slid right through creating a nice divot from the Fairway the ball flew the green so it's gone about 15 116 with the green ball down the Grain and then one yard further into the grain could it be that there's lower spin on the on the into the grain shot maybe but either way I'll play that rough range of 115 to 120 with my 52 degree we have to graduate to what that actually means for your game let's say you hit a fader let's say off a standard lie and then you can adapt it wherever you are you have to learn to miss the green or hit the Green in the right place so if you're a little bit uncertain we're in the middle of the Fairway here just for illustrative purposes you hit a fader either on a fading lie or you are a fader of the golf ball we have to aim correctly because the best way to avoid crappy lies is to hit the ball to where we want to hit it now if we hit a fade the pin is in the middle of the green a little bit on the right side we've got tons of space left if anything will'll stay short left here to have a flat chip up the green we don't want to miss too far right cuz also crappy crappy lies there so you want to aim for the shot shape you expect to come but if it doesn't come and it go straight you leave yourself on the green or On The Fringe in a nice place and if you do get a little fader or a little draw ski it's going to be right where you want it so if it were me and I had a feder let's say we're 150 out I would be aiming this at the left edge of the green anticipating my fader and if it doesn't come I have an easy chip or long putt if it comes I'm right next to the pin and it's just as easy as that I know it looks super simple I don't play this this is a woman's hybrid now let's say you draw the ball you want to aim it at the pin here because the pin's kind of on the right you don't want to miss it on the right you want to miss it left but now because you don't shape it left to right you don't aim it left you aim it more toward the pin or to the right side of the green and then shape it toward the safe side of the green your aiming spot changes depending on your shot shape so with a big draw I mean I haven't done this for long that's why I'm taking a 48° give me more L to create a draw I'm going to aim this at the pin so if it goes straight hey we're at the pin if it does doesn't go straight we're on the left long putt easy chip there we go just a on the front edge on the left side that's exactly what we need now let's say you know your shot shape you're just a man you have a very low dispersion you're you're a good iron player but you're just not picking the right Club pick the correct Club distance this is50 yard I'm just going to hit a standard N9 iron there's not too much shape on this shot I'm just going to hit it kind of straight but because I'm not sure if it's going to fade or Draw too much I'm expecting a straighter ball flight that's for me don't hit Phantom shots hit your shot shape accept your shot shap I'm going to hit this straight at the middle of the green and let's see what happens there we go send of the green little fade unexpected and absolutely money pin high on the left nothing special about that so whenever I get into a situation we have obviously a practice shop so I'm I'm out here and I'm feeling how how is my sh how is my club and turf interaction between my club and the grass I'm really looking at how the club reacts with the grass and the turf and you can just sort of see explody yeah it's it's it's quite sparse it looks fluffy and nice um so you're either going to catch it very clean and play like a normal shot or if you catch it very slightly heavy so I read the situation with the grass first before I know what type of Shing play then you got to relate it back to what you do now are your chip shots clean because if they are you don't have a you don't have a care in the world this is going to react normally but if you are a little bit on the chunky side then you're in trouble because this will go short left if anything because it just grabs and gets stuck right so it comes down to the technical side of things but if I was going to play with this I play it as cleanly as possible with your 58 so in instead of having your ball position let's say it's in the middle just move it a little ball forward and play it clean you feel the grab can't you yeah for sure and then it explodes little Roots out you you feel the grab this is why but when you're playing it clean you'll be okay okay there you go yeah but understanding what that grass is going to do to the ball what are your chances like everything is just like a balancing thing right it's always like this is the condition this is what I'm if I do this this is what's going to happen if I don't do it well what's going to happen you know so you've got to understand your good and your bad and then once you've got that it's like okay okay then you can judge because I think you go up there first things first your brain's already like it's not going to work and then you're not thinking about what do I need to do to to to hit that shot your brain sort of gone the other way it's like I'm in trouble yep it's not this is what I'm going to do to hit that shot to get that result understanding what the grass is going to do on a clean shot versus a chunk shot that's like half the battle because once you got Clarity on that then it becomes like okay well that's all I need to do so this is your tester you're feeling what the grass does now this is this is experienced memories right now mhm right it's like okay that feeling of type of grassing condition with this type of shot so it's just like put it in your memory banks so when you get into this situation again it's like okay Cru cruising I know what's going to happen this is the thing it's it's such a massive part of golf you talk to any pro golfer that's like they're re before they're getting up they're reading things so here we got a situation and this is really a a a thinking man's process right so we're hitting on to a downhill slope all the way it's feeding down towards the hole I like to plan and try and execute my plan all right what I'm trying to say here is when I'm going downhill if I'm left short and I've got to hit a downhill putt sliding into the hole I get quite tentative and I think every player on earth does I always would prefer to be below the hole and even further away from the hole than hutting downhill down or down downhill down grain cross grain whatever I would rather have a 5 six 74 going uphill relatively straightforward I just feel like I would have more chances and I'm quite positive with my stroke that downhill slider is quite scary trying to be a little past the hole I'm reading I'm feeling through my feet I'm seeing I'm seeing where I could land it how it's going to release you know I've got the 58 here which is going to be a little softer flight you know probably land it somewhere around here this region and let's let it feed out towards and past the hole hopefully through so as you can see after that yeah the first one got away with a little bit you know that's that's a that's a great leave but the main thing is that I've ex I've planned it it's executed all right I've got 3 4 ft left straight uphill you know sorry 4T and I'm I'm I'm I'm more than happy with that you know that to me is a lot more comfortable than me standing up through here Cross Hill Side Hill down slope I miss it I hit the high side bang I'm another four five ft give yourself a good chance technically it should be one of the easiest shots in golf but it's not uh I don't think people have enough idea of what strikes the sand what's making that ball come out you know and uh I think if if people actually had that idea that you don't actually hit the golf ball golf ball sitting on there so let's say this is your imaginary line ball sitting on the heel 60 70% forward depending on you into your left knee with your toes really trying to like squeeze into into the sand and all you're trying to do is just sink so that your angles of your Club can also sink and that flattens it out all right so if we can do that really good chance as long as you commit to the shot so as we've got this hold your weight into your left knee so you can sort of see the weight stays forward it almost feels like almost like your weight almost comes out yeah yes absolutely this is a club or this is a shot that you never let this slow down too much the head so I don't want you to go all right this is a club that is going to continue its momentum forward so ball position press your weight forward sink into the ground you might want to feel felt you further away from it if that's more comfortable that's the best shot you've hit all year probably the best of my life good so ball position pressure we forward I can that well I haven't hit two bun of like that in in the last year are we opening the club face yes 100% yes so when we open the club face are we are we laying it down for example and gripping it yes that's the best way yes we're not no exactly right that's that's we're opening it and then gripping it normal way while it's open yes sir okay it's basically where you've got like a wash out area where you've had a lot of heavy rain uh all the sand sort of come back in it's it's it's clogged out there's no ation in the sand so it's compacted uh there's very little sand underneath and it's just compact sand like tight right so we just call this a wash out area basically the way I play this I play this almost like a half chip half bunker shot if that makes sense uh because the sand is quite firm I don't take a large swing and I don't try and create as much momentum or Force Through the shot all right so this is a lot more like a chip shot so you can play this with a relatively squarish face your feet doesn't have to be big slightly bigger than a Chip Shot slightly smaller than a bunker shot something in between you can see the ball position it's kind of running through not like a driver not like a Chip Shot balance you don't have to be 70% forward it's just very very minor you might be like 55% right and all you're trying to do from here is just hit a normal Chip Shot you want to experiment have you done this before never neither have I 15 years so we'll soon find out jeez look at that grip what a gripper now show me your chipping stance so just a little wider than that there you go okay it's good ball slightly forward to Center and your and and your weight pressure is like very very marginally on the left 60% I can feel yeah okay that's fine and Square Face yep and then am I just like a Chip Shot just like a chip shot and entering the sand early yes yeah yeah just just just a little there you go great Beauty you can see how simple it can it can be okay A little wider than a Chip Shot yep beautiful Square Face exactly 60% left yes sir less RIS yes it's beti great contact right wow I like that a lot I would say as as long as it's like compact sand uh wet sand is another one um as long as you don't have a lot of sand underneath the ball you so the tighter the lie or the more compact the LIE this is how you play it okay you know so you you're in a situation where you've got such a small sliver to run through and it's it's something that even the top level Pros would be like let me think about this is it is it worth the risk you know and it's like look majority them at their skill level with the swings and the face presentation so finely tuned that they can start the ball very very close to the intended target line and where they're aiming at for Average Joe Blow Chopper maybe 1 in 30 right let's say 1 and 30 but is it really worth the risk no why not aim a little further left you've got a huge area here you can you can pitch it out onto the Fairway get it out there nice flat area you got 100 yards in there's a chance that you're going to hit the green hopefully twoot walk away with bogey okay be done with it you've got to be able to read grass all right you've got to be able to read conditions and understand what's going to happen to the golf ball from this like it's like you can keep it pretty darn simple you've got something that's a little bit like sitting down a bit sunken down a little bit more grass behind the ball obviously the ball so the the club face is is the grass is going to get caught between the club face and the golf ball so it should take off quite a lot of spin all right then you've got a cleaner shot which is also like even though it is rough it's light rough it's low moan grass you don't have the wispiness there this is going to act react a little bit more like a fairway I'm I'm looking at this thinking okay you're going to get very little spin out of this you're going to get a lot more spin out of that okay and you're going to have even more spin out of the Fairway you know so you got three different scenarios ball flight's going to be completely different all right assuming you catch it pretty good right gang bangers that's how you do it that's how you break 80 you know the lie you know the way your Club reacts off that lie you know what shot to hit from that lie the shot shape and you aim for your shot shape that's how you break 80 do you want to see how else to break 80 check out this video on the 666 sub 80 system of golf sidekick if you need any help with putting or chipping check in the link in the description below it's all there come on break 80 this season or don't

Channel: Golf Sidekick

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Id: rnXWP2Dq_zM

Length: 35min 3sec (2103 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 02 2024