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Imperfect lies: The reality of golf.

By: Bruce Munch

Head Professional, White River Golf Club, Rochester, VT.

During most of my articles to date, we have been dealing with swing techniques that work great on good lies. For those of you who play the local mountain golf courses, you know that a nice flat lie is more the exception than the rule. In order to deal with this, we must learn how non-level lies will affect the shot we are about to attempt.

Now, don’t get me wrong, before you can attempt to deal with uneven lies you must have a swing that works on flat, perfect lies. If you are still working on that you should be spending most of your time on the driving range perfecting that swing, but log this information away for future reference.

Uneven lies exist in many forms but can be broken into four main types. Uphill, downhill, ball above our feet and ball below our feet. The combinations of these lies that we can face are infinite but in an effort to deal with these combinations, we must learn to deal with each type individually.

Uphill lies: The ball is lying on an up-slope. This type of slope has the effect of adding loft to the golf club. A common mistake in dealing with this lie is to fight the slope of the hill or lean into it. Doing this will prevent a player from swinging along the slope and will cause the player to hit into the hill which will usually produce a fat shot. To effectively hit this shot, you must allow your body to tilt downhill so your position relative to this slope will be the same as it is for a flat lie. In doing so, you will find that you have a much greater percentage of weight on the rear foot than would normally occur. Herein lies the difficulty. With more weight on the rear foot and the front foot above the rear foot, it will be very difficult to shift your weight to the front foot. It is tough to move your weight uphill. To compensate for this you must do a few things. First, shift the ball position, back in your stance because your weight shift is likely to be impaired. Take a flatter club because the up-slope adds loft which will lead to a higher, shorter shot. On a very steep uphill lie, you might have to take two or even three more clubs.

Downhill lies: The ball is lying on a down-slope. This type of slope has the effect of reducing the loft of the golf club. A common mistake in dealing with this lie is to fight the slope of the hill or lean into the hill. Doing this will prevent a player from swinging along the slope and will cause the player to hit the hill before the ball which will usually produce a thin shot. To effectively hit this shot, you must allow your body to tilt along the slope so your position relative to this slope will be the same as it is for a flat lie. In doing so, you will find that you have a much greater percentage of weight on the front foot than would normally occur. With more weight on the front foot and the rear foot above the front foot, it will be very easy to shift your weight to the front foot. Try not to lose your balance toward the target on the forward swing. You might have to move the ball forward slightly to compensate for the more aggressive weight transfer. Take a more lofted club because the down-slope decreases the loft, which could cause the ball to hit into the ground before you intended. On a very steep downhill lie, you might have to take two or even three less clubs. Here is the rub; you have to convince yourself that you have enough club. Remember, it might say 9 on the bottom of the club, but on a downhill lie it can come out like a 7 iron.

Ball above your feet: This is the easier of the side hill lies. Choke down on the club to maintain your natural spine angle at address. Move your weight more to your toes to prevent falling backward and swing normally. This type of lie is known as a hook lie. A right-handed player will need to aim to the right of his intended target to compensate. Since you have had to choke down on the club, you might need an extra club.

Ball below your feet: This is a much tougher shot. The club doesn’t get any longer. To maintain correct spine angle at address, assume a wider stance with more knee flex. Move your weight a little toward your heels to prevent losing your balance down the hill and swing smoothly. Since your stance is wider and has more knee flex it will be difficult to make as strong a swing as normal, so you might want to take one more club. This lie is known as a fade lie. Aim appropriately.

Bad lie, Rough: If your ball settles in the rough it will be difficult to sweep the club through the grass and make solid contact with the ball. Move the ball well back in your stance and take a more lofted club. Moving the ball back in your stance causes a steeper angle of attack, which will decrease the amount of grass between the clubface and the ball. The bad news is that a steeper angle of attack reduces the margin for error in the shot. Hit behind it a little and you will lay the sod over the ball. Hit on top and you will tend to drive the ball into the ground. In U.S. Open play it is not only the deep grass but also the shot it requires the players to use that makes it so difficult. Since there will be grass between the face of the club and the ball, the grooves of the club will not impart the same backspin to the ball as they would on a clean lie. This is what they mean when they talk about a flier lie, which could cause the ball to go farther than normal. Don’t take less club to compensate if there is trouble in front of the green.

Bad lie, un-repaired divot: If your ball comes to rest in an old divot, you have become victim of the luck of the game of golf. The rules require you to play it where it lies. To play this shot properly, move the ball back in your stance about an inch to encourage striking down on the ball first and your follow through should make the divot longer than it was. You must do some excavation on this lie to hit the shot effectively. Any attempt to pick the ball out will lead to a thin shot. If everyone replaced his or her divots, we wouldn’t have to deal with this problem.

For any uneven or bad lie, take a practice swing to see how the lie will affect your point of impact with the ground and adjust your stance accordingly. On side hill lies, to understand how the lie will affect the flight of the ball, stand behind the ball, facing your target and think about which direction a ball rolled toward the target would travel. If it would roll to the left, it will fly to the left, aim right to compensate. If it would roll to the right, it will fly to the right, aim left to compensate. If the lie causes you to aim right or left of your intended target, remember one thing that will be a good rule to live by during your golfing life: NEVER AIM WHERE A STRAIGHT BALL WILL HURT YOU!