Mental Mondays: Work On Your Alignment

If the ball is not properly aimed, you cannot possibly hit your target. Incorrect alignment also can cause horrific swing faults as your body unconsciously tries to compensate by bringing the club off plane to send the ball in the right direction.

A hallmark of the inconsistent player is that he consistently aligns his body, rather than the ball, to the target. In reality, a player’s body should be aligned to the left of the target (for a right handed golfer). That’s because player and ball are on parallel lines, with the player ‘s feet a few inches inches to a couple of feet to the left of the ball.

It is a mantra of golf instructors that players should imagine a railroad track, with the player standing on one rail, and the ball sitting on the other. The rail with the ball is the one that runs to the target.

Improper alignment is a mental mistake that can easily be corrected by consistently applying a preshot aiming routine.

Before taking your stance, stand behind the ball and visualize a line through the ball to the target. Keeping that line in your imagination, pick an intermediate target on the line about a foot in front of the ball. The target can be a dirt spot, a tuft of grass, a shadow or some other point.

When you step up to the ball to take your stance, align the clubface so that it is on the line running from the ball to your intermediate point. Then, take your stance, maintaining the clubface on that line. Finally, ensure that your feet and shoulders are parallel to the line created by clubface, ball and aiming point.

With the line of your body and your aiming line in parallel, take your waggle and swing away.

If your alignment has been at all out of whack, you should notice immediate improvement.

About this series:

Here’s the problem: Even with all the improvements, the one thing we haven’t been able to improve is the golf intelligence of the players. Most hackers—and more than a few better players—just play dumb golf. So here’s part one of a series on playing smarter golf. I’ve been collecting mental game golf tips for years in a series of notebooks, on my palm pilot and in various computer files. They’ve helped my game. I know they’ll help yours

This tip is an excerpt from The Five Inch Course: Thinking Your Way To Better Golf. The complete book is available in Kindle format at Amazon.com.