Learn to Line Up for a Leg Up on Your Golf Game

The other day I was out running our Ladies’ Invitational Horserace when my General Manager made a comment to me after watching a couple of holes that wasn’t an indictment of the Ladies in particular, but for the most part, golfers in general.  “You ought to be able to make a fortune just giving people lessons on how to line up!”  He said, following a handful of putts we witnessed in which the player missed just because they were very obviously lined up incorrectly.   The trouble with alignment issues, though, is that they are very often obvious to everyone but the person holding the club.  And whether it’s poor golf swings, or poor putting strokes, poor alignment to begin with is very often the pre-cursor. Let’s look at a couple of ways we can start to fix that.

Now to begin with, I’m all for putters with alignment aids (preferably lines) on top of them.  If you’re not using a putter with at least one line on top of it I think you’re starting off at a disadvantage.  Secondly, most of today’s golf balls have some form of line on them, but if they don’t there are plenty of inexpensive devices on the market that give you the ability take a sharpie and draw a nice line on your ball of choice.  These are basically the only two alignment aids currently allowable under the rules, so for (insert your preferred deity here) sake please take advantage of them before the mean old USGA decides to make them go the way of square grooves and belly putters.

Next, start practicing with some of the alignment aids the USGA doesn’t allow during competition until you can start seeing that line a little better without the aid of them.  My two favorites are the standard alignment rods you see most often on the driving range, and the chalk line (see images below).  The alignment rods can be placed on the ground parallel to each other about an inch from either side of the hole and the chalk line should be snapped at the distance at which you start to have doubts as to whether or not you’re lined up correctly.  In both instances you should pick flat putts if at all possible because the goal is just to train your eyes to see and feel what it means to be lined up correctly, which is best achieved without bringing break into the equation.  Finally, make sure that your feet and shoulders are parallel to either the alignment rods or the chalk line every time before you hit a putt.

Now I can’t guarantee this means you will actually hit your putts exactly where you’re lining up, but I can promise that if you at least practice with these alignment aids that you can’t use during play, and make a practice of using the ones you actually can (on the putter and the ball) during competition, you’ll have a leg up on the majority of golfers out there.  And with that ace in the hole, you just might start standing over all those putts with a lot more confidence about where your once wayward golf ball is going to go.  Let me know what you think.

Cover Photo via Flickr