#9 An often disregarded mistake

Anyone who enjoys watching others play golf has seen this before: The player on the tee tees up the ball, grabs the club and - just doesn't immediately get into tee position and address the ball. Instead, he takes a few steps behind the ball and aims at his target over the small ball.

That's how everyone does it, at least every professional golfer. With this statement, the question that is on the tip of many people's tongues becomes superfluous: Is that so important? Yes, it is. And in the following I will explain why.

Multiple sources of error

For many amateur golfers, it is certainly a topic that comes up not infrequently: Why did the last long shot go so wrong? After this question is asked, the next shot is poked around. The sources of error are manifold. Be it a wrong grip, a wrong swing, the wrong club head position at the moment of impact.

And so every screw that comes into the player's head as a possible source of error is desperately turned. The grip is changed ("But only minimally!"), the swing face is made less steep ("But only minimally!"), the club head was probably too open, i.e. turned outwards, it is turned in slightly ("But only minimally!").

It only gets worse

But unfortunately - the reader already suspects it - the result is not the desired one. Rather, it only gets worse, nothing wants to work anymore, because one has broken up the long-trained by force. So what has been forgotten?

Yes, right, that is the crucial question and it leads us back to the beginning of the text. Because the answer is simple and easy for every shooter. (Why shooters of all people as an example? Because for them, too, the answer is essential ...) It is quite simply a matter of aiming, i.e. in golf, of aiming at the landing zone where you would like to place the ball.

Of course, only those who know exactly where the ball is supposed to land can position themselves accordingly to the ball. Of course, it is important to know approximately how far you will hit the ball - i.e. how far you can hit it.

Once this area, as long and narrow as possible or necessary, has been found and aimed, both feet are aligned with the ball in such a way that a thought line running from one toe to the other and then in the direction of the fairway can end exactly in the aimed area.

Pay attention to foot alignment

This should make it clear: as important as the distance of the feet to the ball is (which is based on the club shaft length), so is the foot alignment to the target.

Especially for beginners, here is another tip that should be obvious: it can be difficult at first to work with target area and foot line because of the distance.

Thought line is important

You can't do without the imaginary line, but it can help to look for a point on the line to the target area that is not so far away. Of course, you don't play on this point, but you use it as a guide.

By the way, there is of course also this aiming at the target from a position behind the ball on the green. But here it is less about alignment and more about "reading" the green.

Comparable to the putt

This means that the player kneels a few feet behind the ball to study the topography of the green. Any undulation or dip on the putting line makes the straight putt impossible.

Therefore, it is necessary to estimate how much and in which direction the ball is deflected and where, in order to finally get the ball into the hole with the right amount of force and the precisely considered stroke direction. But this will be dealt with again in a separate article.

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