Luke is an avid weekend-warrior golfer from the East Coast who plays golf more than he cares to admit.
When you’re getting started out on your golfing journey, hitting the ball straight can be one of the most difficult things that a player needs to master.
If you don’t hit the club face against the ball squarely each time, it will divert and either create a slice, hook, or fade.
Don’t worry though, because although it might seem hard at first, once you get the right technique, hitting a straight ball actually becomes pretty easy.
To help you get that technique down, we’ve compiled a handy step by step guide on how to hit a straight ball every time. To find out more, simply keep reading below.
Step By Step Guide
Here, we have the step by step guide you can follow to learn how to hit your ball straight each and every time.
1. Your Grip
One of the most important steps in hitting the ball straight begins with your own grip on the club. Many beginners just aren’t gripping it properly, and this leads to a whole lot of issues when it comes to making a straight shot.
You need to make sure that you’re gripping the club high up, this way you can maximize your leverage. The best way to grip your club is by placing your thumb down on your lead hand, and placing it in the center.
After you’ve done this, you can go ahead and place your other hand on the club, this hand is called the non lead hand. Place the non lead hand on the side portion of the grip.
2. The Shot
Now that you’ve managed to grip the club in an accurate way, we can begin to discuss the actual swing. When you swing your golf club, make sure that it’s not in an exaggerated manner, which will cause a lot of backswing as a result.
You should always strike on the upswing on your club, this means the underside of your ball, and make sure that the club face is hitting the ball directly in the center.
As we mentioned briefly earlier, if your clubface is not hitting the ball directly in the center each time, this will lead to you creating fades, hooks, and slices.
Hitting the ball with the clubface is the most important aspect in getting the ball to go straight.
3. Stance
When you’re making your shot, you’ll want to make sure that you have a good golfing stance. You’re going to be spending a lot of time out in the green, so it’s important to get the correct posture.
Essentially, If you’ve got the previous step down, and you’re managing to hit the ball with the club face each time, you have a little leeway in terms of stance.
You can either choose to stand in an open stance, with your feet spaced apart from one another, or you can stand in a closed stance, where you’re facing away from the target a little, or a neutral stance, where you’ll be facing the ball directly.
Each of these stances are okay, just experiment a little and find out which one feels most comfortable for you.
As long as you’ve followed the steps above, you should be on your way to hitting the perfect straight shot each and every time.
Tips For Hitting A Golf Ball Straight
Now that we’ve provided you with a guide for hitting the perfect straight ball, let’s move on to share some extra tips which might help too.
1. Control Your Balance
Some of us have better balance than others, and when you’re trying to hold a certain position in golf before you take your swing, it can be difficult to keep said balance. This is something that can be improved with practice however.
Before you go out on the golfing green, practice keeping your feet tight together whilst holding your club and taking some practice swings.
You can do this in the comfort of your own home, and it will help to give you some confidence.
2. Smooth Swing
When you hit your ball, you might find that you’re struggling to get the tempo down. Perhaps you’re hitting it too hard or too soft all the way through. A master golfer will increase the speed of his swing as it is moving.
Make sure to gain momentum with your swing, as it will help to give you more control over your shot, and prevent any awkward or jerky movements.
3. Pivot Properly
Another thing that many beginners seem to struggle with is pivoting the ball properly. This again involves your balance, and shifting it whilst you’re making the shot.
When you’re taking your shot, and hitting the ball, your balance should shift towards your front.
This will help to give more power and direction to your swing. If you don’t shift your balance forward, then this will affect the swing, and the ball will likely trail in all sorts of directions.
4. Hold The Finish
If you want to look and act like a true golfer, then after you take your shot, it’s a good idea to hold your finish. By holding your finish, you’ll be able to notice all kinds of things about your swing and posture.
Holding your finish can help to let you know if you’ve messed up in terms of balance or stance, and help you correct things for the next time.
Final Thoughts
To sum up, hitting a straight shot in golf might seem difficult at first, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.
Just like everything else, it takes some practice. Just make sure you’re always keeping good balance, as well as hitting the ball directly with the club face to make sure it doesn’t trail off.
