A SIMPLE STRATEGY TO WORK THE BALL
Shaping the ball can take away the pressure of a tough tee shot. The key to the type of shotmaking you see here is that you alter the set-up position and then use subtle swing feelings rather than swing changes to influence the flight.
The feeelings for the draw shot (top) are of the hands, arms and the club being the ‘active levers’, while the body is relatively passive. The feelings for the fade (as you would expect) are the opposite: this time the rotation of the body leads the passive hand and arm action (bottom).
Apart from these overall feelings, if you go ahead and make your regular swing with your normal rhythm, the chances are that even your regular playing companions wouldn’t spot any difference between your fade swing and draw swing.
A final thought: using the tee box to assist the vision that you have of the shot on the tee is a simple but extremely effective trick from the professional tours. Favouring a particular side of the tee simply enables you to ‘see’ the specific shot more clearly before feeling and – ultimately – hitting it.
I should add here that it’s also good practice to tee the ball a little lower than normal to accentuate fade spin and a little higher for a draw. This accounts for the fact that the fade swing will hit the ball with amore downward strike feeling, while the draw is more of an upper strike feeling.
So go out and give these ideas a go.With a little practice you will discover you don’t have to be a tour pro to shape the golf ball.