Note: We down here at the PGA Learning Center in Port St. Lucie, FL with a group of Inner Circle members who are chomping at the bit to get to the beautiful lesson tees. The place is great and so are the students! One of the many features we’ll cover are side hill lies and how to hit them. Boy, are they going to need this!
Side hill lies come in two varieties. Right to left (with the ball above or higher than your feet), and left to right ( with the ball below or lower than your feet). Each lie causes a different ball flight and needs some different setup adjustment to successfully hit a good shot.
Ball Flight: The key here is to remember which lie causes which flight direction. There are two simple ways to remember without having to memorize the riddle, and surely not get them mixed up when playing and hit the dreaded and likely deadly double cross — the ball going exactly in the opposite direction as planned.
Ball above feet: ball flies right to left. Ball below feet: ball flies left to right. I guess you just figured it out The ball curves the same as the last direction mentioned. But in the event that that still may be confusing, I have a sure, can’t miss, never make a mistake direction determiner: your compass to the ball flight predictor.
Stand behind the ball, looking at your target. Now, look at the slope of the hill your ball is on. The direction or curve of the slope is the direction or shape of your ball flight. A slope is going to cause your ball to curve left if a slope is curving to the right.
Ball Position: You can adjust the ball position to help reduce the expected curve to hit a straighter shot. On the ball above feet, move it a little back. Hitting it sooner will help reduce pulling it left. With the clubface likely closing down, the flight will be lower and the ball will likely run out more. Using less club is a good decision. Conversely, on the ball below feet, move the ball a little forward. Hitting it a smidge later helps the face square up to reduce blocking or slicing it. Using more club is needed as swinging with the hill tends to add loft.
Posture: Ball above your feet means the ball is closer to you. You will need to stand a little taller with less knee flex, and choking down on your club is good to help hit it solid. Ball below your feet means the ball is farther from you. You will need to stand closer and have more flex in your knees.
Let’s examine a key move to get perfect posture for these different lies.
Setup Key: Once you figure out your distance from the ball, just stand up fairly straight, then do what I call the Accordion Effect to find your posture. The accordion effect means that you bow at the waist and then drop your shoulders while simultaneously flexing your knees downward, until you club reaches the ball. This equal moving of the shoulders and flexing knees squeezes the hips outward, creating the perfect counter balance. You get perfect balance for the lie.
For the ball above feet lie, you will be taller with less flex in your knees for a normal level lie. For the ball below your feet, you will have much more flex in your knees. You may even feel like you are squatting down and may fall down. These opposite postures in knee flex provide the setup needed for a balanced swing from side hill lies.
Alignment: Ball above feet needs to be aimed right of the target. Ball below feet you aim left.
Club Selection: Ball above feet, with the tendency to pull or hook, and going farther, less club for the distance is needed. Ball below feet causes a push or fade. Because the more than normal flex in the knees makes this swing more awkward and less powerful, you need to use more club.
Swing Thought: Ball above your feet causes a flatter swing, more around you. With the hill pushing you away from the ball, as you transfer your weight swinging your arms up to your finish, you will likely fall backwards. Ball below your feet will likely cause you to fall forward toward the ball.
For both lies, you need to take a few practice swings in the correct posture to sense and feel the timing needed to be level, still and solid at impact, and incorporate it into the real swing.
Lastly, the final swing thought is that you must swing smoothly, focusing on maintaining your knee and spine angles. Changing either of these angles dooms your shot.
Power Level: Swing smoothly and easy. Solid contact, accuracy, and controlling your ball flight are what you want.
The Surge’s Super Secret Shot for Ball Above Feet Side Hill Lie:
Playing this secret shot only applies to those of you who have the ability to work the ball. That is, the ability to curve it as you desire.
I have played this secret shot for years when I have the ball above my feet. Over the years of teaching top amateurs and PGA Tour professionals, I have found a few that played this lie the same as me. Those that didn’t really liked the secret when I showed it to them. They liked it because it gave so much more control and accuracy, actually reducing the pull or hook to a straight shot.
The problem in playing for the ball above feet shot to pull or hook is that no matter how well you execute it, you can never accurately judge and trust that you will get just the amount you played for. Get too little left and you are bunkered right. Way too much, over cook it as it is called, and you can be off the planet left.
The secret for the ball above feet lie is to cut it or even try to fade or slice it. The swing to hit this shot contradicts the slope, thus negates it and the left ball flight. You just aim straight at the target. A successful shot will fly straight as a bullet. This takes away the fear and problem of hanging it right or pulling it too far left. Straight is great, right down the fairway or on the green.
Final Thought: The main key to successfully hit any side hill lie is that once you are set in your posture, you must maintain you knee flex and spine angle. Changing either or both of them is fatal. Since the world is not made of flat lies, even in Florida, learning how to hit these side hill shots is necessary for playing successful golf. You can usually find these lies on the side of your practice ranges. If not, you have to find a way of getting some extra shots in out on the course. Playing early in the morning or late evening is usually a slow time to get in these extra practice shots. And when you hit the green, be sure to fix all your ball marks.
The Surge!
Tell me what you're thinking... and what part of the golf swing, or this great game... you'd like to know more about. If you want your pic to show with your comment, go get a 
Good read. Went to the three-quarter limited swing this year, and it took a while, but it is starting to come together. I would love to see a write-up on hitting the ball for distance if you have an uphill or downhill lie. I golf on a number of “mountain courses” or rolling types of fairways where your shot can end up on the fairway, but lying on the upside or backside of a knoll. I tend to chunk my uphill lies or top my downhill lies. I have never really found a good summary of what to do in those situations. Thank you. P.S. Got my first hole-in-one last month.
Surge:
First thing I have remembered and taught about which way the ball tends to turn off a hilly lie is “the ball will go the same direction as it would roll if you drop it on the spot where it rests.” I play golf.
Lou
Don
I started to play golf 4 months a go. Ans if I may say, I’m improving very fast. Driving, pitching, shipping and putting are ok, BUT… sometimes driving the ball I’m hitting the ground 6 to 8 inches before the ground and even smashing into the ground. My pro says my grip is ok, my stand is “atlethic”. Everybody say that my backswing is fantastic.
Do you have suggestions to avoid hitting the ground to early? May be you have excercises to improve my swing?
Best regards from Belgium!
Bart
It seems I do not hit from the tee consistantly, many times just dribbling the ball out 50 feet or so. Once in a while I get a great fly of the ball from the tee. How can I become more consistant? Also, I almost always curve to the right when I do get what I consider a great hit but if it went straight, I would be in great shape – just not able to figure out why I keep curving to the right.
Thanks, Surge
Thank you, Don, for these free golf lessons. I have been shooting my best golf in the past week, hitting a season low 77 score this past weekend. My drives are straight, long, and accurate, giving me excellent second shots into the green. I’m amazed that my game turned around so quickly. I’m definitely a believer in your system. So simple. So sweet.
Many thanks, Don!
Don: All due respect, but I believe you’ve complicated the “ball above or ball below your feet” ball flight direction. Here’s the simplest explanation that works for either right or left handed golfers:
When the ball is above your feet the ball flight will tend to go opposite of the way your facing. With the ball below your feet the ball will tend to go towards the way your facing. Voila!
Thanks,
Neil
Great article! Surge you mention in several places to bend from the “waist” in the stance.
The waist is defined as that area between the bottom of the rib cage and the top of the pelvis.
When i bend from the waist, I get lower back strain after a few shots. When I just bend from the hips
ala a shortstop in baseball, I have no problems. Can you help clarify this dilemma?
Thanks
Don,
I have been waiting to see how much of an improvement there would be in my golf before contacting you regarding the Peak Performance Golf Swing course. I have implemented most of your ideas into my swing and over the last 4 months my handicap has decreased from 15.4 down to 12.1. I am playing more consistently, more accurately, winning more and feeling I can get down to single figures within the next 12 months if my improvement continues. The main difference for me was alignment and set-up. I have always hit long but now I am also hitting straighter. Recently went around our course (Launceston in Cornwall, UK) in 9 over gross and I felt disappointed with the shots I know I let get away – so it could have been so much better.
All these improvements have only come into my game since I took the PPGS course – so I guess I have a lot to thank you for.
I would love to learn a foolproof way to get out of bunkers first time, every time. That is the weakest part of my game right now and needs attention. Any more suggestions – I have seen the bonus videos on your site but need more help. Maybe I’ll revisit these and put in the hard hours at my next practice session.
Regards, Alan
The simplest way to remember this is: “The ball will curve to go down the hill.” It doesn’t matter if you’re right handed or left handed, or ball is above or below your feet.
The ball will always GO DOWNHILL.
Don,
great articale.I”ve purchased your DVD collection and working on my swing.Still can’t get rid of my problem.How can you explain, that I can hit perfect streght shots from uphill lie always and when ball lies on level ground all I hit is cut (ball goes from left to right) or fade with every club.It gets worse with woods and driver(more fade).There is more golfers like me with same problem can you point out how this corelates with uphill lie.
Paul
The easiest reminder for side-hills lies is easier than any mentioned so far.
Just stand behind the ball and spread your arms like the wings of an airplane or glider, following the tilt of the lie. The ball will bank just that way.
An a bonus, this works equally well for lefties and righties about to play the very same ball. What is below the feet of one will be above the feet of the other, but the “wings” will tilt in the same direction.
Don I didn’t see on your dvd’s, where the ball should be placed when using short @ long irons as well as woods fairway and driver? ( unless I missed it ) .Or is this trial and error .The weather is so bad over the last few days I can’t even get to the driving range .
Thanks Ed
For Doogie,
Whether playing from an uphill or a downhill lie, it is essential that your swing follows the slope. In order to achieve that, you will have to ensure that you stand at right angles to the slope , rather than standing truly vertically, which creates the problems you are talking about.
`Don, I think your article on playing a side hill lie is very informative. However I find part of your explanation in the fifth paragraph a little bit confusing, “Quote” A slope is going to cause your ball to curve left if a slope is curving to the right. Correct I would say, but a smidgen confusing.
.
The easiest method for most golfers to to clearly understand this play (left or right handed) is that submitted above by Joe Sims ie;
The simplest way to remember this is: “The ball will curve to go down the hill.” It doesn’t matter if you’re right handed or left handed, or ball is above or below your feet.
The ball will always GO DOWNHILL
Don, I would really like to see you train people to teach your method, so that people like myself can have a PPGS coach in Australia or wherever your method is. It always helps when someone on the outside can see what you are doing wrong, especially if you are stuck and can’t get rid of a fault. I have had great success with your method and fortunately have been able to work out from watching and constantly drilling myself with catcher’s mitt up the tree to catcher’s mitt up the tree. I focussed mainly on the takeaway, ie catcher’s mitt, up the tree and forgot your “for every action their is an equal and opposite reaction. So I was slicing the ball but it just clicked yesterday that the catcher’s mitt, up the tree is equally important on the follow through and guess what, I started to hit the ball straight! The point I am making is that, if someone trained in your PPGS method was there to watch, I would have been hitiing clean, straight shots, a lot quicker and would have prevented a heap of frustration.
Keep up the good work Don, your method has changed my golf game and stopped a lot of pain in my lower back.
Don
Could you please answer Paul Henry’s excellent question in your blogg soon especially the part about how to add fade or draw to a normal lie shot.
Thanks
Leigh
Having problems hitting down hill and side hill shot . Can you help with ball position
reply for Bart Valgaeren:
As pointed out by my first Golf Instructor, and i have found it to be true in practice and on the course; When i hit into the dirt behind the ball, it’s because i did not keep my Forward (Left)Arm Stiff, allowing my elbow to break.
Assuming a shot from a flat lie actually goes straight, the trajectory is vertical or perpendicular to the ground. Now, the problem I have with a side hill lie with the ball above my feet is this: the shot trajectory seems to be vertical or perpendicular TO THE SLOPE. So, not only does the lie tend to cause a pull or draw shot shape, the “leaning” trajectory adds to the effect. Taking less club (more loft) seems to exacerbate this effect and the flight is even farther to the left (or downhill as others have said). The more the slope, the greater the effect. I’ve had lies where the ball is above knee level and the shot seems to want to go at a 45 degree tangent even if I get “lucky” and fail to add a draw to it. Give me a ball below my feet any day, thank you very much!
Don;
I would like you to cover what the “bump” is as it pertains to the swing. I have an idea that it is similar to the hip turn on a full swing style that many of the golfers employ on the tour.
Does the bump give the golfer that extra power going through the ball? Thereby giving more distance to the flight of the ball? Please explain.
Thanks.
Don
The consistency of my golf has improved greatly due to the PPGS – Thank you.
I look forward to your daily emails – they always make you think about your game and that has got to be a good thing! There’s usually a gem of information in there that I can take to my next practice session.
I do have a problem with playing a ball below my feet; particularly on significant slopes.
I set up as you recommend above; but this means that the toe of my club is raised off the ground. I then struggle to get a clean contact. Either the heel digs in or I thin the ball.
My other problem shot is a downhill lie; that is for another day.
Cheers
Colin
SURGE:
Here is “different” Amos once more — On the “ball above feet” I generally get a straight shot with little or no curvature. The ball below feet goes as you describe it though.
I would be interested in seeing your explanation of this phenomonon
Thanks,
Amos
Been practicing the PPGS swing, actually played 3 times this last week, was having trouble with my iron shots but just a slight adjustment with my left thumb made all the diffrence, I’m right handed and had been placing my left thumb at about the 2 o’clock position, with a overlap grip, I was chunking and hitting everything fat on the first 18 holes this week. Shot an 86. The second round of golf tried moving the left thumb to the 1 o’clock position, seemed to have a better feel at the top of the swing when to start downward and started hitting the ball straight and most were clean-pure hits that I actually had to adjust my club choice. My driving that day was also much better than before hitting 10 out of 18 fairways and getting to the par 5’s in regulation. Shot an 82 that day. Day three was a cold breezy day, here in Nevada they call a gentle breeze anything under 60mph. Couldn’t hit a straight drive if I tried, bad slices to the right. My fairway wood play was good almost reaching the par 5’s in two. Chipping and putting were good all days due to practicing that part of the game for two months 3 days a week while recovering from a broken neck. Shot a 84 that day. If I could just hit a fairly straight drive my game would improve remarkably. Can’t seem to get rid of the slice. Checked the alignment every shot, from what I have been told by on lookers when swinging my driver I swing from the outside in causing the slice, Any drills or pointers to help get rid of this cursed slice-I mean RIGHT turn of the ball off the tee, starts straight then just heads right.?
To answer part of Larry’s question as I know it.
Larry you did not state what club you are hitting off the “TEE” I suspect you are hitting your driver? If so I can tell you how I corrected this problem, eliminated it intirely. I am proud to share how!
Larry, try this it just might work, bend your knees more, more of a sitting stance, do not straighten your legs through the intire swing!
Sure worked for me,
Rod
Larry I forgot to say you might TEE a little higher so you are hitting the ball on the upswing also.
Rod
Please explain in detail Tempo, Timing and Release of the golf club
Art
I am a right handed ,if the ball is above my feet I move my left foot forward slightly or [ closed stance ] , with a slightly shorter club length , if the ball is below my feet I move my left foot back slightly or [ open stance ] with a normal grip . Both times Playing the ball in the middle of my body or [ middle of my stance ] it does work and simple to do . Doug .
Surge,
A slope is going to cause your ball to curve left if a slope is curving to the right. (Your words not mine), I imagine a ball curving left if the hill has my ball above my feet (righthanded golfer). How can it curve right? The only way I see this happening (curve right) is if ball is below my feet. THE BALL AT IMPACT WILL START OUT ON A LEFT TO RIGHT CURVE. Below is my hill and my curve:
Hill slope with ball below feet- Left to right ball flight>>>>>> ———ball moved forward in stance
Left to right ball flight>>>>>>
Left to right ball flight>>>>>>
Ball moved back in stance———- <<<<<<<<<Hill slope with ball above feet
<<<<<<<< Right to left ball flight
<<<<<< Right to left ball flight
So which is correct? I think I am but I’ll let your guest answer: Ninermike, speak up.
Thanks,
Clark K
PPGS It;s like having the Surge next to you when you practice