Hitting from an upslope is tricky even if you have a good lie. If you fail to make the right adjustments, you could slap the ball well past your target. Or, you could launch it too high, in which case you’d come up short and land back on the slope. If the slope is steep enough, you could see your ball roll back down the hill past your original lie. Not making solid contact could cost you strokes.
Here are five keys to hitting from an upslope:
1. Set your shoulders parallel to the horizon
2. Set your weight over your front foot
3. Get your weight moving left
4. Extend your arms down the line
5. Chase the ball up the slope
Your back foot is the problem here. It’s well below your front foot at address. That’s a bad position to be in. Convention says to tilt your spine and shoulders to match the slope on uphill shots to compensate for your back foot.
But this advice doesn’t work for everyone. Tilting your spine and setting your shoulders parallel with the slope can cause you to “hang back” or fall back on the shot. If you do either, you’ll probably hit the ball fat, dribble it a few feet ahead of you, or launch it too high, landing short of your target.
To avoid mis-hitting this shot, try this: Set your shoulders parallel to the slope and place more of your weight on your front foot. As you swing into the ball, get your weight moving forward, which helps you hit the ball cleanly. Extending your arms down the target line and chasing the ball up the slope after impact also helps.
