How well can you see straight? It's a funny question, but an important one that GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kevin Weeks will help answer.
GOLFTEC
Every golfer is built different, from their head to their toes. It’s why golf swings are different, and why some tips work better for certain golfers than others. It affects everything they do with a golf club, from the way you swing, and even to the way you see the line of your putt on the green.
In a recent chat with GOLFTEC’s Nick Clearwater, fellow GOLF Top 100 Teacher Kevin Weeks dropped an interesting tidbit: Only 15 percent of golfers, based on Weeks’ research, aligned their putter best with their feet, knees and shoulders aligned parallel to the target line. Aligning by setting everything up “square” to the target line is generally the traditional method, but Weeks points to Jack Nicklaus as the best example of the contrary. Nicklaus set up to his putter in an “open” position, with his feet and shoulders pointing to the left of his target line.
“I once taught a Tour player who set up with his past the ball,” Weeks says. “That’s where he saw straight, so I didn’t care. Everybody has their spot where they see straight.”
As for how you can find where you can see straight — and therefore aim better on the greens — Weeks says to place a series of dots in a straight line, one foot apart. Then take your setup. Move further and closer to the ball, shift your feet and body around, until the dots on the ground look like they’re in straight line.
“Because we all have different curves in our eyes, everybody’s eyes pull a little differently,” Weeks explains. “This is how you find your straight, so that when you set up, it becomes easier to aim and roll your ball down that line.”
Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.
An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.