WrightBalance.com - Golf Tips

Golf Tips and Articles

Golf Tips & Articles Archive

Check Your Line

Email this Article to a Friend

Announcement:

We are moving December 1, 2004! After 12 years at Pelican Hill Golf Club, I am moving my Golf School and my private lessons to a new home facility, Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, Mission Viejo, CA. It is 15 minutes south of Pelican Hill Golf Club off the "5" Freeway. Pelican Hill will be closing the range in the months ahead to build a hotel and new clubhouse.

Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club opened July, 2004. The course and practice facility were co-designed by Tom Lehman. I will be teaching at the back of the practice range with Bob Laskin and Perry Parker. Our facility will be much more extensive than the teaching area at Pelican Hill. We will have a biomechanics lab, hitting bays with video and launch monitor feedback, grass hitting areas, a putting green studio with video, fairway and greenside bunkers, an uneven lies practice area, a "wedge alley" for practice and fitting and a full club fitting studio. We will use name brand balls for the wedge area to help students determine what ball performs best for them.

We are working with Dr. Michael Mellman to set up a replica of the PGA Tour fitness van. Dr. Mellman will have an office at the back of the range. We will continue our biomechanics research. We will have the top sports medicine physicians and trainers in the country working with us at our new facility in the months ahead. I will bring you photo illustrations of our new facility in our future newsletters as it develops.

Also, there is a 25 mile bike path that runs from the Saddleback Mountains to the Dana Point beach. The bike path is at the side of the practice facility and passes within 20 yards of our teaching area at the back of the range. Ride your bike and come visit us in the spring of 2005. If you are attending a school, bring your family and bikes so they can ride while you learn.

Check your line

Players who are good putters use a line on their ball, a logo or related marking to line up their putt.

These players determine the line on which they want to start their ball and aim the line on the ball at a precise point on that line. (See the March, 2004 tip: Be Precise if you use an Intermediate Target)

It is a great practice strategy to develop the skill of "seeing the line." I use it in my golf schools. The first thing I do in the schools is to determine how well a student aims the line on their ball at a precise target. I use toothpicks as targets. Your targets on your line should be toothpick precise.

Place a toothpick on the green behind a hole. From 3 feet, aim the line on your ball at the toothpick. Take a string line and hold it over the top of the toothpick and the line on your ball.

If you use a line on your ball, you must be accurate. Use a string line to check your accuracy. It will only take you a few minutes of practice a day to become accomplished at aiming the line on your ball at a precise target. If you are not accurate aiming the line and you don't practice, you would be better off not using a line on your ball when you line up a putt.

When a player describes "seeing the line," they are referring to their visual perception of "seeing" a precise path over which their ball will roll as that set up to putt. Interestingly, when a player "sees the line" they are in balance and the path of their putter swings perfectly up and down the line they "see." Balance=path. The body and brain work in concert. When you are in balance, you see lines accurately and your path will be on that line, assuming you don't change your balance as you stroke the putt.

Many players describe "seeing the line" some days but not others. When I work with tour players, I teach them to see the line every time by adjusting their set up. I use these same techniques in my golf schools. Recall that Kevin Stadler's hips and shoulder lines were crossing behind when he reported problems "seeing the line." He was out of balance. See the August 2004 tip, Crossing Lines and Clubface Aim. (Kevin is currently number 1 in the Nationwide Tour putting stats.)

The next few months I am going to start on the putting green and walk you through a strategy to "see the line" every time starting behind the ball and working into your set up. Your ability to "see the line" comes out of your set up. We will get you visualizing and rolling the ball better than ever.

Two For One:

In Celebration of our new facility, we are offering a 2 for 1 tuition to our full day golf school at Arroyo Trabuco through March 2005. If you are an alumni, you may return to the full day school for $75 during that period. Come see our new facility!

Email this Article to a Friend