How Do You Hit Solid Contact on Uneven Lies in Golf

⛳ Adjusting your stance and club selection based on the slope is crucial for successful golf shots from tricky lies.

📉 On a downslope, the ball comes out lower and faster, so moving the ball back in your stance and matching your body to the slope helps control the shot.

📈 On an upslope, the ball launches higher and shorter, so moving the ball forward and aiming slightly right compensates for the natural pull.

🔄 When the ball is above your feet, grip down and narrow your stance to avoid hitting too much ground and to counter the ball's tendency to go left.

🦵 For a ball below your feet, take a wider stance and aim left to get closer to the ground and adjust for the ball's tendency to move right.

00:00:00 - Something I've been struggling with recently is that when I get onto different lies, I don't really know what to do. I try to change my swing too much and it ends up not really working out. So, I'm here with Micah today because he's going to give me some tips for how to handle those different lies and walk me through what to do.

00:00:20 - >> Yeah. So, this is a really common one. Um, slopes can be really weird because there's all kinds of different ways you can go about it. So obviously if you're thinking about 5 million different things, you're not going to have a successful strike. >> So starting with like a down slope or where the ground is going from high to low, there's only a couple adjustments that I want you to do on this one. So first, knowing what this ball does, >> this ball's going to come out a lot

00:00:43 - lower and it's going to come out a lot faster. >> So sometimes that might warrant you changing the club that you're using or just clubbing down. >> Okay. So, with that height difference, because we're a little closer to the green, we we want to make sure we have enough loft. So, you have the right club in your hand. Now, we need to get set up for the difference in our slope. >> Okay. >> So, get set up in like your normal uh stance where you would normally take it. I

00:01:06 - >> probably do it like about right here. >> Okay. Now, if you will, the ground is normally level like this, right? >> Yes. >> But since we're sloped like this, you're going to come in contact with the ground sooner. >> Yeah. So to help with that, I want you to shift a little towards target. Good. So we're just moving the ball back a little bit in the stance. After that, you're going to match your hips to this slope. You're going to match your shoulders to this slope. And like

00:01:31 - always, we're going to keep our weight on this front foot, which should be easy on this line. >> Okay? >> And then after that, you're just going to make the same swing as always, focusing on trying to hit the ground in front of the ball.

00:01:45 - >> Whoa. >> Nice. It's crazy because I came out here before and I did a practice swing and I hit like three that went not anywhere near where I wanted them to go and that one worked out great. >> The biggest thing on slope usually is just trying to figure out where the slope that you're standing on. What do you have to kind of manipulate or change to help get the ground in the right spot? >> Yeah. >> After that, you don't really need to change much on yourself. >> Okay, that was easy. Cool.

00:02:08 - >> The last chip that we did was a down slope. Now, we are looking at an ups slope. So, Micah, how do I approach this one? So, as you can imagine, just the exact opposite of our previous conversation. So, starting off with like what the ball will do on an ups slope, the ball is going to launch a lot higher, but it's going to tend to be shorter with that. So, there's going to be more launch, more spin involved. Okay? >> So, you might have to get a stronger club. Um, you might not. So, with that,

00:02:33 - you have the right club for what we're set up on here. I want you to take your normal address just like we did before. So, on this up slope, ground's going to be in contact with the club much later. So, we're just going to move the ball maybe a half a ball forward in our stance. Good. So, normally you'd have a chip shot here. We just have it another ball forward. Now, the other adjustments you need to make is just matching your body to the slope. So, same thing as

00:02:58 - before, get your hips and shoulders. And it's going to be awkward, but try and keep that weight into that left leg. That's going to help you hit in front of the ball. Now, the last thing you got to know about your aiming is just this ball might have a tendency to pull a little bit on this ups slope. So, what I want you to do is just aim a little bit more to the right than you normally would. Perfect. [Music] >> Wow, that came out so much higher than I was expecting, like you were saying.

00:03:25 - >> And that's where sometimes if it's coming out too high, we'll just change the club that you're using. >> Yeah. Okay, awesome. Now, the ball is above my feet. So, Micah, what do I do in this situation? >> So, this can be a tricky one. So, again, let's start with how the ball flies. So on this kind of a slope, if I just like drop this ball from here, it rolls this way. So when you hit this ball, it's going to have a tendency to go left and move left. So we have to act on that. So

00:03:52 - for you, you're going to set up aiming a little bit more right. >> Okay. >> Now, once you get your normal stance, we're going to do some adjustments on how you're holding the club and setting up. So with the ground being closer to you, we got to make this thing shorter. So, all I want you to do is leave the club there and just start gripping down until you feel like you're a little bit more over that ball. >> Yeah. >> Then the next thing you'll do with your

00:04:13 - stance is just narrow your stance width. Narrowing your stance width will help get your pelvis a little taller off the turf. Another thing that's going to help us avoid hitting too much ground on this kind of a lie. >> Nice. >> Very pretty. >> That was awesome. We just worked through what to do when the balls above your stance. Now we're going to switch and do when the ball is below your stance. So Micah, how do I set up for this one? >> So this one is going to be the exact

00:04:41 - opposite as you can imagine what we just talked about. So when I get this ground and I get it further away than where you would normally set up, we got to figure out how to get down or closer to the ground. So I want you to take your normal stance. >> Oh, I'm so far from the ball. >> To get closer to this ball, there's one big thing I want you to do, and that's going to take a really wide stance. Taking that really wide stance helps you get your pelvis closer to the ground,

00:05:05 - but it also helps you to bend over a little bit more to get closer to that ball. >> Yeah. >> From here, this ball's going to have a tendency to move to the right. So, I all I want you to do is just aim a little more left than you normally would, and you're going to take the same swing just with a much wider stance.

00:05:24 - >> Lexi, nice. >> Wow. >> Oh, I'm so impressed with myself. >> That's how you do it. That's much better than my usual.