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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? This is Sean McTernan and you are watching
another episode of My Golf Tutor the number one place on the internet to play your best
golf now. Welcome back today's question comes from Cody and Cody asks, "Hey Sean 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?" Cody, thanks for your question, it sounds to me you are struggling where your
weight is in your golf swing. I believe that if you are catching them heavy. I'm guessing
that there is to much weight on this right side when you are at impact. A big part at
playing a downhill shot is actually how you set up. It is very important that we set our
bodies up along the gradient of the slope. So as you can see here you are on a pretty
good downhill lie golf shot. So it is very important that we set up with our bodies going
with the slope. 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 that the loft is going to get the
ball in the air. Trying to hang back and get some height is going to result in your club
bottoming out to far behind the shot and resulting in you catching it heavy. When you execute
this shot I would really like you to focus on where your sternum is in your golf swing.
What I mean by that is I would like you to feel that when you get to the top of your
swing as you start your downswing that your sternum gets about two inches in front of
the ball. What we are looking for here is we are trying to make sure the club strikes
the ball first and then bottoms out after the shot. I feel if your sternum is up in
this area here you have a better chance of doing that. The one thing I would like to
work on when you go to the driving range is finding a downhill slope like this and the
one thing I want you to focus on is what I call a Gary Player Shot. What that is back
in the day when Gary Player would always hit the shot and walk through after it. This will
ensure that the club hits the ball first and prevent you from hanging back. So lets go
ahead and hit one to see what happens. So as you can see I caught the ball first, granted
it might not have been prettiest swing, but it enabled me to catch ball first and get
it up there on to the green. Cody, one other thing I would like you to pay attention to
is your ball position. For these shots placing the ball in the middle of the stance it a
good start. If you have it to far up it will mean you will have to throw your body too
much to get that sternum in front. So just make sure that it is middle just maybe hair
back and remember, let the loft get the ball in the air, don't hang back. I hope this information
helps Cody and if you or anyone else has any questions please your comments in the comment
section below. Don't forget to go to MyGolfTutor.com and sign up for our email newsletter. Where
I share my best information and tips to get to the next level.