A Lesson On The Parallax Paradox Solved My Golf Alignment Issues

“Where were you actually aiming?” As a high-handicap golfer I think that this is one of the daftest questions my playing partners ask me after I’ve missed the target by several fairways (regular occurrence) or landed an approach shot on the green (twice, maybe!).

Don’t get me wrong, my partners aren’t stupid for asking, and the question is a perfectly reasonable one. The daftness rests firmly with me because, although I’d likely answer ‘somewhere in the vague direction of the fairway/green/flag’, it doesn’t matter.

Right now, the idea of actually aiming my golf shot and expecting it to get close to that place is anathema to me. You’d be better off asking me to predict this week’s winning lottery numbers.

Fortunately, Top 50 Coach Josh Mayo was on hand to help me with how to aim in the most recent of my three golf lessons with him... using something called the Parallax Paradox.

A Parallax Paradox Lesson Solved My Golf Alignment Issue

This is why I snort/laughed when my coach Josh Mayo asked me exactly the above early on in my third lesson at Windmill Leisure and Golf in Bristol, England.

I’d, yet again, unleashed a glorious hook from the tee box. The right-to-left flight of so many of my balls is something that Josh and I worked on in my last lesson, when he tried to address my strong grip with the help of a $10 training aid.

To give Josh credit, the learnings and subsequent practice following that lesson have seen an improvement but, as many of you other high-handicappers out there will know, one good shot can be followed by at least four absolute stinkers. Luckily, today Josh has a plan.

“Ball flight and direction are determined by four key factors: where you aim - pre-swing, and then the angle of the club face at impact, the path the club travels through the ball and the strike location,” says Josh.

“In the last lesson we looked at the club face angle, so you already know that you need to work on that, but I’ve got a great exercise to help with your aim.”

Josh tells me that my target is to hit over a black box on a pole out on the range. (As this is one of the reassuringly expensive Trackman radars I assume he’s confident my aim won’t improve that much in the next 30-minutes or so!).

“Show me how you’d aim at the box, and then hit a shot.” I address the ball, take a couple of looks at the target, swing, miss. A couple more goes and the Trackman radar is unthreatened.

Josh grabs a yellow alignment stick attached to a metal base and places it at the edge of the tee platform.

“Stand behind the yellow stick and tell me where to move it so that it’s in line with the target.” After a few left a bits, right a bits, I’m happy with my aim and Josh places a ball in line with the stick.

“Right, now address the ball and look at the stick. Is it still in line with the target?” Erm, absolutely not.

When I address the ball, look at the stick and then the target, the radar box has moved to the left. “That’s all down to parallax error,” explains Josh with the help of a diagram.

I get a bit excited here because, as a keen amateur photographer I'm aware of parallax from using rangefinder style cameras. No, they're not like golf rangefinders...

Put simply, when addressing the ball and then looking at your target, you’re looking at it from an angle and no longer straight on.

So, you need to adjust your aim to account for this difference, otherwise you'll likely find that you ball doesn't head quite where you want it to..

“So, I want you to stand with your body aligned parallel to the yellow stick and not the radar box and aim at the stick.” Says Josh.

I look at the stick. “Hit the yellow stick, go!” And what do you know? I hit the thin yellow stick at the first time of asking and the ball heads in the direction of the target. Even better, Josh was filming me (video below) and my glory has been captured for posterity!

Of course, my elation was short-lived, as I never hit the stick again. Even after Josh added a thick section of foam swimming noodle to create his (possibly) patent pending ‘noodle stick’.

“Adding the ‘noodle’ will help you better visualise what side you miss,” says Josh. “And align your body parallel to the target line rather than directly at the target.

This will force you to focus on where the club face is pointing and how the club path is moving to get to the target.”

“This drill will help build a physical ‘feel’ and routine for your aim,” adds Josh. “It’ll also encourage you to have a more structured approach at the range.

Try practicing with the same club and target to establish your routine. And then change clubs and targets which will help readjust your brain and aim, which is how you’ll need to play on the course.’

On the course, the routine obviously needs to be different. I’ll stand behind the ball and look at the ultimate target and then pick a much closer target like a different coloured patch of fairway or divot mark that also lines up with the green/flag/not-the-bunker.

That’s what I’ll then aim at when I address the ball. Or I might just stick a swimming noodle in my bag – that’s allowed in the rules right?