7 Faults Most Amateurs Make

7. Bad Alignment? Conquer Your Aim!

Most amateurs don’t properly aim the clubface in the right direction. If they aim at a distant tree, their club might be aimed well left of it, or their body well right, or both! When that happens, you have to make a lot of compensations in your swing to hit your target. While this might occasionally work, it’ll eventually lead to major swing flaws.

Whether it’s a putt or a drive, always follow this sequence to ensure proper alignment: First, aim your clubface, then your feet and finally your body. Never place your front foot in front of the center of the ball until you’ve set the clubface behind the ball. If your feet walk in front of the ball, you’ll line up closed to your target line.

To ensure that you’re properly aligned, practice with some simple colored alignment sticks (golf shafts work well, too). First lay a stick down so it aims at your target, then another one that’s parallel to your foot line. Finally, add one more so that it runs perpendicularly from the ball back to the foot line stick. (The perpendicular stick helps show proper ball positioning.) If you’ve watched Tour pros practice before a tournament, I bet that you’ve seen them doing this.

Once you feel confident that your alignment is good, remove the sticks and address the ball the way I suggested above, making sure that your body and feet lines are parallel to your target line. Then lay a stick or club against your toes and see if it’s parallel. You can’t take the sticks on the course, so perfect it on the range first.

Susie Corona, LPGA, instructs at the PGA Tour Academy in Scottsdale, Ariz. She’s a member of the Puma/Cobra staff. For more info, visit www.susiecorona.com.