Why Is Alignment so Important For a Simple Short Game?
All great short game players are consistent strikers of the golf ball. And constant ball striking comes from utilizing the golf club effectively. So how can alignment affect the characteristics of the golf club, and how can correcting your alignment simplify your short game?
This article will discuss what effects a simple change, such as alignment, can have pre-swing with your short game, and some key thoughts to consider next time your out on the range or the course.
What can alignment affect?
Alignment can affect a number of factors with regards to set up. Primarily it will influence ball position, which in turn will affect club characteristics such as; bounce, loft, shaft angle and angle of attack into the ball.
Alignment Breakdown.
You will see a series of lines drawn of the images in this article. Here, I’ll explain what the lines are reference to, and color code them
Target Line – The target line is a straight line between our selected target and the ball. A neutral address will see the feet parallel to this line and the leading edge of the club face perpendicular. What ever shot we are attempting I don’t like to see the club head deviate too far away from this perpendicular position.
Feet Line – This is fairly self explanatory. This is the line in which the feet are aiming. For a neutral shot I like to see the feet parallel to the target line. However when we talk about skill shots, such as flop shots, the feet line will move away from parallel. This is an important aspect as adjusting the feet line can change the ball position. Something we’ll talk about later in this article.
Ball Position – This line is drawn from the ball, perpendicular to the target line. Wherever this line intersects the feet line will establish our ball position relative to stance.
How Does Alignment Affect Ball Position?
Ball position is always relative to our body. A neutral set up position will always be constant. This is evident if we took away the club and had no target to reference to and took our set up position. The body will be square and balanced, with the arms hanging vertically down. The hands will sit in a fairly centered position under the sternum.
To explain this lets take a neutral set up (feet parallel to target line) with the ball in the middle of the stance. If I simply open my stance by turning on the spot I will effectively be moving my ball position back in my stance.
Alternatively if we close our stance the ball position will be moved further up in the stance. Again this is relative to the ball position being perpendicular to our feet line. You can see this in the images above.
Sure if we drew a perpendicular line from the ball, the ball position still appears fairly centered. However if we look at the position relative to our body the ball position has significantly changed. This is why it is best not to associate ball position to the target.
Check out this article to see how ball position affects the club head.
What to Think About When Aligning Yourself to the Ball?
Like i mentioned above we don’t want to just pivot on the spot when adjusting our alignment. Visualize a circle/radius around the golf. When adjusting alignment actually shimmy your body around this circle.
By doing this you may feel that your moving well off the ball, but again this is imperative to ensure you maintain your desire ball position.
If you are trying to open up your stance pick a temporary target a few yards open to where you want the ball to go. Get yourself set up neutrally to this target. Once your comfortable simply open the club face back up to the target you want the ball to go. This will ensure the club face is at target and the ball position is in a sound position relative to your body.
This may feel awkward at first, but give it some time and practice and you should begin to start utilizing the necessary characteristics of the club head.
