While a straight ball can often look easy when we see Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler do it on our screens at home, it’s actually a fairly hard technique to pull off and requires a certain amount of factors to be perfect for the ball to shoot straight through the air without any curve.
While it does require practice, when there’s no need to add some curvature to a ball and when you want to cover a good amount of distance, a straight ball is your best bet which is what makes it a crucial technique every golf player must know so they can expand their skills further.
Why Is It So Important To Learn A Straight Shot?
The reason many golf players aim to perfect a straight shot early in their game is because it is almost always going to be successful as long as everything is perfect when you hit the ball.
While for some hitting a ball straight can come quite naturally, for many people they can tend to curve their clubface slightly which will result in a cut or fade(see also: Fade In Golf? ).
Additionally, straight and far-reaching shots are going to be the most common type you use throughout a game since more curved shots are better utilized when the hole is tucked into an angle rather than being in a direct position where you can accurately hit the ball.
How To Hit A Ball Straight
The basic technique of hitting a golf ball vertically and perfectly straight is not too hard in practice, but actually hitting it each time consistently takes a good amount of practice, however this does mean that getting to grips with the correct positioning is the crucial first step to hitting a golf ball straight every time.
Step 1) Place A High Tee
Straight shots are most commonly used in golf because they cover a long distance, and part of the reason for this is that the ball is placed on a high tee which allows you to strike it on an upswing.
Step 2) Prepare A Large Swing
Make sure the ball is lined up with your left toe while not being beyond your left foot. This is a good enough measurement to know where you can drive the clubhead into the ball from an upward angle to give it a good reach.
Step 3) Keep Feet Wide Apart
When you line the ball up, keep your feet far apart and take a wide stance so that you will have a good range of motion and power behind your swing.
Always keep both of your feet completely planted to the ground and even out your weight equally so that you don’t hit the ball from an awkward angle when you take a swing.
Step 4) Ready The Club
Start to draw the club up and back near the end of the grip, the higher you go the more power you will use at the cost of some accuracy.
As you start to draw back, gradually shift your weight onto your right foot and prepare an upswing with your club,
One of the hardest parts of hitting a ball perfectly straight is not overdoing it on the backswing since this can cause it to overstretch or wildly curve when you need it to be precise.
Step 5) Swing The Ball
From this position, hit the ball with an upswing so that you’re raising it from beneath when you make an impact.
Try not to face the clubhead too much to either side since this can cause you to cut or fade the ball, when hitting a straight ball you want the clubface to be as central to the ball as possible so that you get an even amount of power that’s directing the ball directly forward.
Extra Tips On Hitting A Straight Golf Ball
Don’t be afraid to adjust to the basic technique in your own way so that you feel most comfortable and confident when striking a vertical ball.
If you’re struggling with the distance, try taking practice swings and spotting where the club whiffs the grass.
This is usually a good enough distance to get a nice amount of power when striking from underneath the ball if it lines up with your bend and arm extension.
If your shots are a little too wild, using a medium-height tee will give you a more accurate shot, along with taking a shorter stance and keeping the ball closer to you which will exchange power for precision.
While a higher grip will give you that tremendous distance that puts so many of us in awe when we see it performed, you can also use a grip that’s lower on the club while keeping your hands straight to perform a shorter, but much more accurate shot.
While this kind of straight shot is used in many short-distance situations where you don’t need to cover much ground, it is also the beginning step for many people in golf to gradually learn the more advanced technique with a higher grip.
If you do need a little more of a curve on the ball when you swing, try keeping the same stance but hooking the ball by twisting your wrists as you make impact.
This will move the clubhead slightly and make it easier for you to reach holes that are a little more tucked in and hard to reach with just a regular straight shot.
Summary
A straight shot is the most common shot in golf, and considering the amount of distance it can cover, it’s easy to see why.
However, with this being said, it takes an incredible amount of precision and focus to hit a straight ball consistently, so it’s always worth getting some practice in even if it’s just hitting the ball a shorter distance with a lower grip since this will all feed into making you feel more comfortable when hitting the ball straight on.
Hi, my name is Garratt Shmidt and I have been playing golf in my spare time for almost a decade.
Before I found a passion for golf, I didn’t see the appeal. I thought it was slow, repetitive, and quite frankly boring.
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