Tom's Tips

Aim

Aim is a very important part of a solid set up and is one of the most common faults in all golfers. There are two aspects to aiming, firstly you must aim the clubface then you must aim your body.

Step one

The best place to begin your aim is situated behind the ball so that you have the ball between you and the target. From here draw an imaginary line from your target to your ball, this is your ball to target line (Figure one).

Step two

We now need to align your clubface with your target. To do this you then need to pick a spot in front of the ball that is on the ball to target line approximately a yard in front of the ball. On the golf course this can be a blade of grass or blemish, when practicing you can use a tee or ball marker, in the picture I have used a yellow golf ball (figure 3) When you aim the clubface you need to focus on the bottom leading edge of the golf club and not the top (figure 2) and align it at 90 degrees to your chosen spot and therefore target (figure 3). It is a lot easier to align the clubface with something that is directly in front of you rather than something that could be hundreds of yards in the distance.

Step three

Once the clubface is aiming at the target we now need to align your body. Start with your feet together with the ball opposite the middle of your feet, take a small step towards the target with your left foot and a small step away from the target with your right so that your feet are shoulder width apart. The line that your feet produces should run parallel to the ball to target line and    therefore be parallel left of your target (figure 4). The easiest way to visualise this is to imagine a train track running up the practice ground with your ball on one track going to the target and your feet on the other running to the left of the target.

The most important thing to remember is that the clubface points towards your target and your shoulders, hips and feet aim parallel to this line.