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Start Line Focus - Build A Target Based Swing

Jack Nicklaus claimed that he made getting the ball to start where he wanted was a big priority in his practice. A golfer's path tends to be more consistent than his face control, but face control has a bigger influence on the starting direction. Perhaps part of Jack's brilliance was his ability to control the face, in addition to having a consistent path.

I often see golfers struggle with getting focused on where the ball should start, yet alone how much the ball is going to curve. In this video, I show you three ways that you can monitor your starting line and get focused on the target. This is great to do after some blocked practice, or to help you get a playing feel the day before a round.

Playlists: Find Your Best Swing Quickly, Squaring The Club Face Explained

Tags: Not Straight Enough, Drill, Intermediate, Beginner

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The drill is start line focus. So when you're taking your stocks wing that you're working on

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and trying to take it to playing to the course, it's always good to do something to make it

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more target oriented. So I got three different versions laid out for you and I'll talk you through

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the set of each of them and you can use them depending on your situation and your driving range.

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I'll go from the one that I think is the best for if you're struggling with path issues to the

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one that I think is the best if you're really getting ready for tournaments. So the three different

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scenarios I've got my alleyway. So this is just if I put a golf ball in the middle, I've got two alignment

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rods and I've got them a good distance away from the golf ball. So I'm not trying to be really

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picky here. It's mostly for the visual of where is this path of the club and where is this ball

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starting. So if I have these roughly aimed at my target, then what I can start to see is,

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well, compared to the orange lines on the ground, where is that blur of the club going and it

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helps me get a little bit more path focused down between here and here because it gives me these

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spatial relationships for my eyes to orient it around. So I can use this for helping with my path

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but I'm also going to be focused on where the faces which is going to help me figure out where the

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starting line is going to be. The second option is I can take these two away and I've got a

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alignment rod which you can put just kind of at the edge of the driving range mat or about a club

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length in front of you. So now I can kind of see it out of my peripheral but I'm not super focused

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on it. What I'll be able to do is as I'm taking my swings, I'll be able to see out of the corner

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of my eye where the blur of the ball is starting compared to that. And if I'm trying to hit a draw,

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I want it to be starting just off to the right of it and then obviously it will be curving back.

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Oftentimes, I hear players tell me that they're trying to hit a draw but then when I do something like this,

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they tell me they're trying to hit it straight at the target. So then I'll say, well, does that mean you're trying to miss it left?

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Because the draw is going to curve for a right hand to go for a right to left. So this gets you a little bit more focused on the

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angle of how you're shaping your shot, how you're seeing your shot. And most importantly, looking at where the start line is.

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That was one of Jack Nicholas's keys and I used it a lot in my playing days focusing on where is the ball starting.

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And then trying to my best to control the curve, but I knew that controlling the curve was a little bit harder than controlling a start line.

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So I put more of my focus there. Now the last one, which is actually my favorite, it really depends on your driving range situation.

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If you're practicing there during peak hours and there's 150 people on the range, you're probably not going to be able to go out there and stick a target in the ground.

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But if you're practicing in the middle of the day and there's only a handful of people, find one of the ends of the range where there's not going to be a lot of potential to get hit.

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And then walk a stick out there 10 even 20 yards and put the stick in the ground and then take all this away.

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So I've got a stick lined up pretty much right there. And what I would practice doing is practice getting the ball.

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So I'd aim like that was my intermediate target. And I'd practice taking swings trying to get the ball to start right of it and draw.

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Or when I was working on the nine shot drill, I would try to get it to start left and then fade.

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But this would help give me a visual references far as where am I getting the ball to start.

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So again, it's a great setup.

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Three different versions you can use for when you're taking your stock full swing and you've been doing some of this mechanical practice.

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How can you make it a little bit more target focus than less mechanical and start bridging that gap on how to take your range swing to the course.

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