Your line to the target

The 1998 U.S. Open at San Francisco's Olympic Club featured a classic duel between former Open champions Payne Stewart and Lee Janzen. As I watched these great players battle the difficult course, I noticed something peculiar about Janzen's pre-shot routine: He stood behind the ball and then raised his club like a conductor's baton, pointing the shaft over his ball toward his intended target. He then approached the ball and set up square to where his shaft was pointing. Janzen used his club to create what I consider the No. 1 fundamental in golf: the target line.

1. Establish the target line

The "target line" is an imaginary line from your intended target back through your ball. It is the directional path on which you would like your ball to launch. Your target may be a tree, a mower line or the flagstick itself (if your intention is to hit a perfectly straight ball at the flag).

When practicing, you can create a visible target line with a chalk-line string that extends from your ball toward the target. When you are on the golf course, you can create a mental path to the target the way Janzen did with his club. Or you can do what Jack Nicklaus does -- look for divots that are on your target path.

2. Set up to the target line

I tell my students that everything in golf evolves in reference to the target line.

The alignment. This is the term used to describe your body's relationship to the target line. The terms open, square and closed describe how your feet, hips and shoulders are positioned in reference to the target line.

	The grip.
	The takeaway.
	The transition.
	From impact to target.

The grip. Even the way you hold the golf club should relate to the target line. As the clubface rests on the target line, positioned square to the target, take your grip. I like to have both hands matching the square clubface as much as possible. The thumbs, directly on top of the grip, match the leading edge of the clubface. The palms, square to each other, match the actual face of the club.

3. Swing the club along the target line

The takeaway. As you take the club back, you should move the shaft directly away from the ball along the target line. If the club drifts off this swing path, it is described as being "outside" or "inside" on the backswing.

The transition. As the club moves from the backswing to the forward swing, the grip end of the golf club should point to the target line. It then references this line in the forward swing. If the grip end of the shaft tips off of the target line, it is described as either "steep" or "laid off." This is a common place for the shaft to lose the target line.

From impact to target. This is the most important part of the swing, and it, too, must evolve in reference to the target line. The clubhead end of the shaft must work it's way from the ball to the target, as described in the lesson on the elements of ball flight. This creates the launch direction of the ball toward the target. If the shaft moves off the line in this area, you will pull or push the ball.

4. Confirmation from the ball

Your best indication of how well you are referencing the target line is the actual response from the ball. If you correctly reference the target line in your setup and swing, the ball will fly down the target line. If the ball works away from the target line, you know that something in your setup and swing is not in line.

© 2002 Rob Stanger

Rob Stanger is teaching professional at the Mission Hills Country Club Golf Learning Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Contact him at robstanger.com.

 

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