Golf Intermediate Target Line Aiming Tips

Before worrying about whether or not your golf swing is good, knowing the Difference Between Aim from Alignment can instantly lower your scores. Golf intermediate target line aiming tips are designed specifically to address these important fundamentals. However, there is one important variable that could ruin proper aim and alignment. Your ball position.

I will discuss the relationship between your aim and ball position and the affects it can have. Also, addressing the ball requires a few steps which will take place at the end up the pre-shot routine. These include picking an intermediate target and how you use your left foot (for a right handed player).

First let’s start with what an intermediate target is. If you haven’t already read my article on the pre-shot routine, they kind of go hand in hand. The adoption of picking an intermediate target if you don’t already do so in your pre-shot routine is tremendously important. It serves as a reference point for you to setup properly and more importantly be aimed at your target.

Unlike pool or bowling, golf is played from the side of the ball. This makes aiming just that much more complex and could explain why so many golfers start off slicing the ball. (mostly due to a severely open stance that is further opened after seeing the ball go right)  So, to make aiming in golf easier, why not select a target standing behind the ball.

This target (intermediate target) is any small object (leaf, shiny piece of grass, brown spot, broken tee, whatever) 1-4 inches in front of the ball and in line with your target typically called the target line.

Since I am left eye dominant, when picking my intermediate target I close my right eye so I am seeing everything only through my left. I hold up my club so it covers the ball and slowly trace the shaft from ball up to my intended target. This will identify a spot right before the ball. My intermediate target.

Experiment what method works best for you.

After picking a spot, other than maybe visualizing the shot, you are ready to take your stance.

Taking your stance requires deliberate movements with your hands and feet. You don’t simply just walk into a shot willy nilly. The best way I can describe these movements would be to call them a specific sequence of motions. The key fundamental is making sure to planting your left foot before the right. (right handed player)

You must establish a connection between your left foot, intermediate target (target line), and the ball. If you can create a consistent distance between your left foot and ball, this makes setting up and aiming easy. Once you place your left foot down you are effectively deciding the distance you are away from the ball and the ball position. For most golfers, the ball position should be just off or inside the left heel. (usually places the ball just bellow left armpit or heart. ) And far enough away so that when your hands hang naturally the center of the clubface is over the ball.

Just remember that ball position ultimately has nothing to do with position relative to the feet, but rather its position relative to the shoulders and usually where your head is located.

Let me explain.

Now you have stepped into your shot, planted your left foot first and vary your stance width by how far to the right you place your right foot.  You take one waggle, and look at the target and decide you are aimed too far right so you adjust slightly to the left. This looks better, so you go ahead and swing.

WRONG!

Lots of golfers do this and its costing them strokes.

When you shifted positions to the left you changed the effective ball position to be more in back of your stance. This will cause all sorts of manipulations of the swing plane. The opening of your shoulders to the left caused the ball to sit more towards your right shoulder, effectively putting the ball more back in your stance changing the target line swing path. The opposite would happen if you turned your shoulders to the right, which would move the ball position further forward.

Next time you address the ball and it doesn’t look right, start your pre-shot routine again. Pick an intermediate target, setup properly and trust what you have done behind the ball.

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