Point of View

Learn to change or control your ball flight with this simple drill.

Every action happens from a precise point of view. If you need to change your ball flight – turning a slice into a draw or a hook into a fade, for example – then a great place to start is with your point of view.

You can change your ball flight by putting a stick in the ground. Sounds too simple? It’s really not, but it will take some hours on the driving range to completely change your ball flight.

You can use a shaft, wooden dowel or colorful fiberglass rods. You can even use an umbrella, as I have with Ryan Palmer at many a PGA Tour event. (The umbrella might need to be replaced after one range ball, though.)

This is how it works: Set up a work station when you practice by placing a club on the ground parallel to your intended target on the range. About four or five yards in front of you, place your desired stick in the ground directly on your ball line to the target.

If your tendency is to pull the ball left of that stick and slice it back to the target, see if your point of view is always looking to the left and expecting a slice. If so, change your point of view and look to the right of the stick. Try to get the ball to start to the right of your stick and hook back left – toward the target.

If the opposite holds true, and you normally start the ball to the right but hook it left, then your point of view probably is looking to the right expecting a hook. If that’s the case, change your point of view by looking to the left of the stick. Then try to start the ball left of the stick and cut it back right – toward the target.

This is an excellent drill to work on your ball flight. It even works if you think you’ve been hitting it too high. The stick is a marvelous way to learn “launch control” and get the ball flight down to a lower trajectory.

With a 7-iron, hit knock-down or punch shots trying to hit the stick every time.

Get creative in your practice, and it will be more fun for you. If you can start the ball right of the stick and hit a controlled draw, and you can start it left of the stick and hit a controlled cut, then you can certainly hit a straight shot.

Your impact position can control the launch of the ball, if you work hard on this element of the golf swing, your handicap will drop and you will have all the shots needed to go low.

Consider, if you change your point of view, you just might change the outcome.