! Scigolf presents Scott Hazledine Answers Your Golfing Questions On Your Golf Game.

Question 47

Dear Scott,
Is your stance opened up a little at the address? I have been tinkering with the alignment process and wondered what works best for you.
Also, when bringing the swing to a single axis it seems that conventional lie clubs dont hit solidly until I drop my hands a little. Is this what you suggest for those of us with conventional clubs?

Thanks for your help,
Ruth

Dear Ruth,

My stance is as slightly open at address. However, my shoulders are parallel down the target line. This is the most important alignment criteria. First, let me suggest that the dynamic balancing of the golf club will show you whether your grip allows for perfect alignment or sets you up to manipulate the golf club through the impact zone.

Dynamic balance is swinging the golf club from the top of the backswing all the way through into your finish, and then bringing the golf club back down in front of you so that the golf clubs is pointing down the target line, and you can easily see the relationship between the toe and the heel of the club. You want to notice where the golf club is leaning in relation to straight up and straight down. For instance, if the golf club is slanted toward the left for right handed golfers after the finish and brought down and held vertically in front of you you have a very strong grip in relationship to your relaxed release and it's very likely that the ball will be going to the left because through the impact zone the golf clubs would be closed, unless you are keeping your hands from making a complete release, thereby robbing yourself of distance and consistency.

The second most important alignment is the shoulders because your arms are attached to the shoulders and the first movement on the down swing is dropping your arms and hands on plane to the ball with only a slight weight transfer to the left side. The down swing is initiated by contracting the five muscles that surround the humorous and the three muscles around the hip contracting very nearly at the same time.

The stance is more of the function for balance then alignment. You can still swing to the right with an open stance and you can still swing to the left with a close stance. An open stance is perfectly acceptable as long as the shoulders are parallel down the target line, in fact, it may help you to line up the club face at address and to feel more comfortable swinging down the line. I must caution you to take special note of where your shoulders are lining up to if you do not want the ball to start to left. Most people have a tendency to keep their feet fairly well in line with their shoulders when they are at rest, by this I mean standing.

Depending on how far you or standing away from the ball, and depending on the lie angle of the clubs that you're using, you may be changing the lie angle by a as much as a eight degrees. This leads to unsolid contact because your catching the toe first so that your hitting the ground first. Or else you might strike the ball off the toe. This is why you are finding you must drop your hands of little. I suggest testing on and impact board and having your clubs bent to the proper lie angle. Lie angle is incredibly important for you to hit consistently accurate, controllable distances and directions. For this very reason I designed and produced golf clubs made of 431 stainless so you can bend them for proper lie angle.