My home course is hilly and I rarely get a level lie. 7 times out of 10 I'm dealing with downhill, uphill, sidehill, and combinations of the three.
There is no practice station on the range for dealing with the above, you have to adjust your machine to the situation at hand.
I'd like to start with how to play a downhill or uphill shot. Is the adjustment simply ball more forward or backward in the stance, respectively? Or do we attempt to get the shoulders more parallel to the ground in setup and leave ball position as though it's a level lie?
You want to feel as though your whole machine (especially the inclined plane) adjust to be 'level' to the terrain for which you play. Saying that, the different lies will create different ball flights:
UpHill: Higher flight, potential less distance
Downhill: Lower flight, potential more distance (especially roll)
Feet Below Ball: Potential for Big Draw/Hook
Feet Above Ball: Potential for Big Fade/Slice
As you said, most practice ranges do not have these types of scenarios set up....one thing we can do is to adjust our machine to the shot at hand. We have to assume that the ball flight may be affected by the stance/lie, so we adjust our machine accordingly based on our swing patter to 'balance out' the effects of said stance/lie.
I practice moving the ball around (forward, backward, away from or close to a levelled stance or their combinations) and still managing to hit it to the target.
__________________ Yani Tseng, Go! Go! Go! Yani Tseng Did It Again! YOU load and sustain the "LAG", during which the "LAW" releases it, ideally beyond impact.
"Sustain (Yang/陽) the lag (Yin/陰)" is "the unification of Ying and Yang" (陰陽合一).
The "LAW" creates the "effect", which is the "motion" or "feel", with the "cause", which is the "intent" or "command".
"Lag" is the secret of golf, passion is the secret of life.
Think as a golfer, execute like a robot.
Rotate, twist, spin, turn. Bend the shaft.
The more you can get your impact position looking like Hogan in the photo on the website the better you will cope with uneven lies.getting the hands, finger,arms and tendons streched to the limit at impact will enable you to get best result from any situation you face.has anyone seen Allan Doyle at impact he is about as good as it gets?talk about storing the power,i am supprised his shafts dont snap!!!
I'd like to start with how to play a downhill or uphill shot. Is the adjustment simply ball more forward or backward in the stance, respectively? Or do we attempt to get the shoulders more parallel to the ground in setup and leave ball position as though it's a level lie?
Although the Inclined Plane extends infinitely in all directions, it should be viewed as rectangular, with four 90 degree corners. This Plane is always erected perpendicularly to the ground: