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Hi, everyone!
I hope you can help me out here.
Like BigdazUk, I have a problem hitting behind the ball on my approach shots, well sometimes I do. The reason I am asking this question in a different thread is that the problem seems to happen most often when the lie I get after my tee shot places my feet below ball. As soon as I walk up and see that I don’t have a flat or nearly flat lie (a common occurrence here in the Philippines), I know I am in serious trouble.
I’ve tried two approaches to remedy this problem. The first is to choke up on the shaft a bit so that the club is shorter and easier to hit. In my mind this should work, since the major problem is the disparity between a normal flat lie and the elevation that ball has relative to my feet on the fairway. Nonetheless, I top the ball nearly every time I do this, with the ball being slammed first into the ground and then jumping out for maybe 25 or 30 feet. This is followed shortly thereafter by my bellows to the trees.
My thinking is that by choking up I’m actually forcing myself to top the ball, when all I really want is to hit it as squarely as I do when the ball is lying flat. For all the common sense I believe I am practicing, it does not work at all.
This failure has lead to my second option, which is to assume my normal stance and then step back away from the ball a bit (anywhere from three to four inches). The only reason I am doing this is that someone who is “in the know” told me this is a good solution to my problem, that and my other solution has not worked at all.
I tried this on a few courses over the last few weeks with my 7 iron and then later with my 5 iron, and I admit that occasionally I did get the ball just right and got the distance I wanted as well. The bad news is that I can easily still hit behind the ball when I do this, in fact, I do this quite often. In essence I have made no real progress, since I can swing as I normally do with the ball above my feet and “get lucky” also. It is a major frustration to say the least to have the same result with two different stances. This only adds to my confusion.
What am I missing here? Choking up seems logical but doesn’t work. Stepping back a bit doesn’t make sense to be honest, but it is the only thing that has had any effect, marginal though it has been and really not that much better than my normal stance.
Lastly, what possible drills could I use at the range for this problem when the range is itself a flat surface?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
I hope you can help me out here.
Like BigdazUk, I have a problem hitting behind the ball on my approach shots, well sometimes I do. The reason I am asking this question in a different thread is that the problem seems to happen most often when the lie I get after my tee shot places my feet below ball. As soon as I walk up and see that I don’t have a flat or nearly flat lie (a common occurrence here in the Philippines), I know I am in serious trouble.
I’ve tried two approaches to remedy this problem. The first is to choke up on the shaft a bit so that the club is shorter and easier to hit. In my mind this should work, since the major problem is the disparity between a normal flat lie and the elevation that ball has relative to my feet on the fairway. Nonetheless, I top the ball nearly every time I do this, with the ball being slammed first into the ground and then jumping out for maybe 25 or 30 feet. This is followed shortly thereafter by my bellows to the trees.
My thinking is that by choking up I’m actually forcing myself to top the ball, when all I really want is to hit it as squarely as I do when the ball is lying flat. For all the common sense I believe I am practicing, it does not work at all.
This failure has lead to my second option, which is to assume my normal stance and then step back away from the ball a bit (anywhere from three to four inches). The only reason I am doing this is that someone who is “in the know” told me this is a good solution to my problem, that and my other solution has not worked at all.
I tried this on a few courses over the last few weeks with my 7 iron and then later with my 5 iron, and I admit that occasionally I did get the ball just right and got the distance I wanted as well. The bad news is that I can easily still hit behind the ball when I do this, in fact, I do this quite often. In essence I have made no real progress, since I can swing as I normally do with the ball above my feet and “get lucky” also. It is a major frustration to say the least to have the same result with two different stances. This only adds to my confusion.
What am I missing here? Choking up seems logical but doesn’t work. Stepping back a bit doesn’t make sense to be honest, but it is the only thing that has had any effect, marginal though it has been and really not that much better than my normal stance.
Lastly, what possible drills could I use at the range for this problem when the range is itself a flat surface?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
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