Golf is fun, whether playing solo or with others. Having a basic understanding of the game’s rules makes it easier to enjoy the experience and improve your skills. In this periodic column, I provide brief explanations of golf rules and answer commonly asked questions.

Question:

Jack then puts a club on the ground pointing on a parallel to the target and touching the toes on both of Mike’s feet. Mike is now able to see that proper alignment is achieved when his feet are parallel to the target. Mike tells Jack thanks and says that he can’t wait to get to the course with his new alignment aids. Can he take his aids to the course?

Answer:

Tip:

As always, have fun playing and practicing the game of golf. E-mail me at grahamgolf@darientel.net if you have any questions or suggestions.

When you stand behind your ball and look at your target, find a spot a few feet in front of the ball on the target side that you can use as a target reference. It can be a patch of grass, a brown spot, a leaf or anything else that is already there. Visualize a straight line from the ball through the spot all the way to the target. As you walk up to the ball to take your stance, visualize the line from your spot to the ball and place your feet parallel that that line. This should help. Practice this on the range and you will improve and feel more confident in where you are aiming. Yes and no. You are allowed to place a club or a tee or anything else you want to lay on the ground to help in alignment, as long as they are removed before you swing. If they are not removed then you incur a penalty. Mike and Jack are on the practice range trying to improve their games. Mike tells Jack that his biggest problem is not being able to align correctly. Jack shows him a few alignment tricks that he says might help. First he puts a tee in the ground a few feet in front of Mike’s ball and directly in line with his target. Mike then tells Jack that it is easier to align yourself to a target a few feet away than one 200 yards away.