In a past blog, I discussed how to properly aim your club and body to the target. Now it is time to add a component in your setup to help ensure you are aimed correctly every time. In the picture above, I have centered the camera behind the ball aiming at the red flag – which is my target. I circled a divot in front of my ball in red. This is what I am using as my intermediate target. Intermediate to me means halfway between my ball and my target, which is why I actually like to name it a “close” target. The closer it is to my ball the easier it is for me to aim. On the golf course you can pick anything: divots, grass, leaves (just make sure it doesn’t blow away!)

How to use this target: Now that I have this target I can stand beside my ball and aim my club at the divot (close target). This is a lot easier for me to see if my clubface is aligned then trying to look all the way out to the flag. Next I will try to draw an imaginary line from the divot to my ball and align my feet parallel to this imaginary line. Lastly, after this I turn my head a little bit and the flag should be right there if I did this appropriately. This takes some practice but this allows me to see my alignment much easier than having to look out towards the flag all the time.

If you do this with your irons, you need to do this with your woods, short game, putting etc. Basically it should be part of your pre shot routine for all shots: tee to green. The more you use a “close” target, the better you will become at aiming. As a result you will hit more shots closer to your target!