Mastering the Downhill Lie Golf Shot
Hitting a Draw Step-by-Step Checklist:
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Sean is the co-founder of My Golf Tutor, the top golf instructional blog helping weekend golfers play better golf. He played on the Irish National team that produced major champions like Rory Mcllroy, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington, and Darren Clarke before playing professionally for 5 years around the world.
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Do you find you catch shots heavy when you have a downhill lie golf shot?
Are you looking for a consistent technique to help you fix this?
I’m sure you have been there before, I think we all have. You just crush a drive on your tee shot down the middle of the fairway.
Everyone else in your group hit their tee shots in trees or bunkers. Only when you get up to your ball your find it on a steep downhill lie.
The good news is its in the fairway, the bad news it you’re not real sure what’s going to happen when you hit the golf shot.
Cody had a similar problem at a course he plays regularly, he asked, “I play a course with a lot of hills and slopes, I have trouble with the downhill lies I have a tendency to catch them heavy. Do you have any techniques can help me catch the ball first?”
Now, one of the most important parts of the golf swing when hitting a downhill lie golf shot is knowing where your weight is in your golf swing.
If you have your weight to much on your right side at impact you more in likely will catch shots heavy.
The downhill lie golf shot setup…
It is very important that we set our bodies up along the slope.
We want our shoulders and body to be parallel to the slop we are standing on.
Now another big part of executing this shot correctly is to make sure you don’t try and help the ball up in the air.
You have to trust the loft of the club is going to get the ball in the air.
Trying to hang back and help the ball get some height is going to result in your club bottoming out to far behind the shot, resulting in you catching it heavy.
When you hitting this shot I really want you to focus on where your sternum is at impact.
What I mean by that is I want you to feel when you get to the top of your swing as you start your downswing, your sternum gets about two inches in front of the ball.
What we are looking for here is trying to make sure the club strikes the ball first and then bottoms out after the shot.
This will help you in a cleaner strike to the golf shot.
Think like Gary Player for Downhill Lies….
The next time you go to the driving range, find a downhill slope (similar to the one in the video below).
Focus on what I call a “Gary Player Shot.”
What is a Gary Player shot?
Back in the day when Gary Player would always hit the shots and walk through after hitting them.
This will ensure that the club hits the ball first and prevent you from hanging back.
One last thing…ball position!!
You need to pay attention to where the golf ball is positioned in your stance.
For these shots placing the ball in the middle of the stance it a good start.
If you have it too far up it will mean you will have to throw your body too much forward in front of the ball.
Make sure the ball is in the middle of your feet or just maybe hair back.
To recap how to hit a downhill lie…
The downhill lie is not a challenging as one might think.
If you follow these few steps you will be more confident the next time you are faced with this shot.
-Body and shoulders parallel to the slope
-Sternum slightly in front of ball at impact
-Trust the loft
-Think Gary Player
See that wasn’t so bad, but if you know someone that might think differently-send them this line to show them how Gary Player does it.
Let me know in the comment section below what you think of my Gary Player impression from the video.
