In this video, Ted Frick and Stefany King from the Classic Swing Golf School at Legends Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C., show you how to handle those pesky uneven lies in the fairway.
Ted Frick:
All right. Hi, I'm Ted Frick. I'm here with Stefany King. We're both from the Classic Swing Golf School at the Legends Resort. We're out on Hole Number 12 on the Parkland (Course). Hole Number 12 is a really healthy par four. Stef just busted a drive over the middle fairway bunker, but she's come here on an uneven lie.
Now here's how you handle uneven lies. Number one, always learn to lean into the slope. So Stef, give an example. This ball is below her feet, so when she sets up, she's got to set up with weight into the heels. Now Stefany, if you wouldn't mind, turn around and let's pretend that the ball is above your feet. So now, if the ball was above her feet, she's actually going to set up leaning into the slopes. She's going to set her weight on the balls of the feet. So you set up on the balls of the feet when it's above your feet, and then turn back around. And now, so we're leaning into slope's gravity on the slant. Gravity is going to move her weight right down to her toes. So she's got to counterbalance and she's got to sit back onto the heels.
Now here's course management. So we said, we're going to make three commitments. She hit this shot, she gets out of the cart, she says, “Coach Ted, what's my yardage?” I went right to the sprinkler, this sprinkler said 130, the sprinkler head said 130. I do not have my Bushnell or my phone app. So I got 130 at the sprinkler head. I got a yellow flag, I'm going to add 10, but then I'm going to put on another five because when the ball's below your feet, this ball's going to want to drift right and fade a little bit. So we actually, from a 130 sprinkler head to a yellow flag, we're going to try to play this shot 145. And off of this lie, if you think about an airplane on a runway, when the ball's below your feet, this airplane would start off on the runway and go this way, versus if it was above your feet on the runway it goes this way. So this ball is going to want to drift a little bit to the right.
So Stef's got to get in there and try to feel like she's going to start this ball left at 145. The weight sits back into her heels. Look at this golf shot. All right, Stef, I'm teaching you pretty good these days. There's another birdie pot!