LiesLiesAim: To gain an understanding of how the lie your ball is in will change the trajectory of the shot, and this will mean an adjustment is required for the club and/or the aim. Also to show that the different trajectory caused by a non-flat lie will mean the effect of eg.the wind will be changed.
Early Notes: You have to be aware of the lie of your ball when you hit a shot. You'll see this in the bottom left of your screen, as the diagram shows. An uphill lie ( arrow points upwards ) is the same as having some extra loft on the shot, and your club will go shorter than normal, and the opposite for a downhill lie, the trajectory of the shot will be lower and longer, equivalent to clicking the loft down. What you should do is to equate the lie with a loft, so for example a very small uphill arrow, I would say is the same as 1 click of loft, with a bigger arrow equivalent to 2, 3 or more clicks...especially at St.Andrews where the uphill lie arrow can be very big, that may be the same as 4 clicks of loft or more !. Once you've decided how many lofts the lie is equivalent to, you either play the club for the distance calculated without the lie and then click the loft down to oppose what you think the lie is worth or take a new club. For example if I have worked out my shot would be 130 yards without any lie, I would have picked 9 iron. If I then notice a slight uphill lie, I would take that as 1 loft, so I would click the 9iron DOWN 1 loft to oppose that, this should mean the 9iron is still the right club. Another way to think about it is to equate the lie to a distance, say up to 5 yards for a small arrow, and 10 for a bigger one etc etc...then just factor that into your distance calculation and shot selection. You should be aware that its the downhill lies which are more tricky, because they send the ball on a low running trajectory then it can actually bump into the fairway and come much shorter than you think, also you might not clear a hazard or something, when I have a severe downhill lie I always click the loft up on the club to compensate and maybe then loft one more just to make sure the ball gets airborne. You'll soon get the hang of lies, but you do need to be aware of them, and I would say that 90% of the time your lie will either be a small arrow equivalent to 1 click, or a slightly bigger arrow worth 2 ( and sometimes 3 ) clicks of loft. It's very rare you'll face lies worse than this. Much more of a problem is the sidehill lie ( an arrow pointing to left or right ) and this is something which again will come with experience,and I still do this by feel so I dont have a magic formula for you. For a small side arrow I usually take about 10 feet say of drift on the shot, with 20 or 30 feet for the big yellow sidehill arrow. Watch out for the red side arrows as these are severe lies and tend to need more allowance for sideways drift.The only way to learn this is to make a note when you do have a bad sidehill lie, make an estimation of the drift and then note whether it was enough, you'll soon develop a good feel for how far to aim to take it into account. Even now I dont actually use a distance I just put the aiming marker on the green by feel according to how much drift I expect. Do be careful that your snap isnt too bad as if you miss the snap to the same side as a lie the effect is even more noticable, the same goes if you fade and draw (see later)..the sidehill lie will either cancel or enhance the shot depending on the lie direction relative to the shot- again this can be useful if you need to hit a real bananaball you can use a fade/draw PLUS the lie to make the curve even more spectacular.It goes without saying that a crosswind in the same direction as a side lie will drift much further than normal and vice versa.Lies shouldnt be a problem for you as long as you take care to check it, and factor it into your shot selection.
Further Notes: You can see that there are two ways of dealing with up and downhill lies, although they are effectively the same, its two different mindsets, JayEss and the Wils use the first philosophy,I use the second. The first one is that once you've got your distance with all factors except the lie, you can alter the loft of the club to balance the lie ( increase it for downhill lies and vice versa) and ignore the lie ( Wils uses this on chips...see that section ), the second way of looking at it is to get the distance and then add or subtract some distance according to the lie, and either change the loft on the club or the club itself. Almost the same but a slightly different way of thinking about it.....
How to do it properly: I'll take this opportunity to thank ForeLeft for the following way of looking at lies, it's very cute, very simple and seems to work very well, I've always done it by "feel" and recognising the lie arrow and equating to a distance...but here's a smarter way that Fore uses, although I am a bit surprised that the effect of a sidehill lie is not different as the club length changes.
SIDEHILL LIES ( the Fore Left method )
Very Very Easy to
figure out If you play with your grid on everywhere, All you have
to do is count the number of step transitions that your ball is
lying on, For example if there is a small arrow pointing to the
right you would want to count each step in the line directly left
of the ball. Sometimes you might not be able to see them clearly
so all u have to do is hit your drop button at the bottom and
this will remove the golfer and the meter ball,just make sure to
hit cancel when done counting.. Each step transition is equal to
one foot so u would just aim your marker left,right of the hole
this amount of feet..I personally play with reverse landing cam
to do my aiming to the sides of the holes..and use my top camera
if u start getting into say more then 30 feet or so. (One more
note if playing on champ level double the amount)
Bomber's note: Fore explained to me
that the steps you should count are only the ones along the edge
of the main grid ( 3 feet wide ) and at the other side of the
ball to the lie.....again, I wouldnt waste hours microscopically
counting every step on a big slope, but learn to count " by
looking "....
UP and DOWNHILL LIES ( the Fore Left method )
Upslopes my way to figure these out is fairly simple, Like I said Always play with your grid on everywhere. Then all u have to do is to take your aiming marker and point it 2 grids ahead of where your ball is lying approx.. 6 feet. This will tell you in inches how far the upslope is, so all you have to do is double the amount of inches and subtract 1 or 2 feet, example 6" uphill lie 6*2=12 -2 = 10 feet..So add 10 feet to your shot..very accurate in no wind conditions..So normally if on and upslope ball trajectory will be much higher so please account for a little more distance when shooting into breezy/windy conditions..Downwind I have found to be fairly close maybe just a fraction less distance.
Downslopes same as upslopes only Dont double the amount of downhill so if u had a 6 " downhill lie you would want to subtract 6 feet from your shot and again naturally your ball flight will be much lower so when shooting into the breez the wind wont effect 100% example say i had a 155 yard shot into a straight headwind with a 6" downhill lie, normally i would add 15 yards to the shot for the headwind but with the downhill lie i might add 50-60% , So lets work this out 155 yard shot add 8 yards for headwind =163 minus 6 feet for downhill lie = 157 yard shot for me this would be a 7 iron +1 12.1 on m eter.. Hope this makes a little bit of sense hehe
Thank you, Fore Left ...way to go !
Championship note:
At championship level you'll soon learn(!) that the effect of lies is much more severe, perhaps not so much for uphill/downhill but for sidehill lies the drift you need to allow for is maybe double that at pro level, so dont be alarmed, just take twice as much account for it.
Top Tips:
Use the "grid on everywhere" option to see step transitions where the ball is lying, even on fairway and rough
Remember to double the effect of a sidehill lie for championship level, up and downhill lies are the same
Think how the trajectory will change the effect of a wind..eg downhill lie, lower shot, less held up by wind
Check the rough page to see that up and downhill lies behave quite differently out of the rough