Edwards' tricks & tips No.1: High tee

Welcome to a new series of hints and tips featuring David Edwards, the Lincolnshire-based golf trick-shot specialist who has developed his career from being a PGA club professional. Over the coming weeks he will be showing Golfmagic what you can learn from these extraordinary shots and how to maybe impress your pals by doing some yourself.
 
Hittting off a high tee

This shot is a lot simpler than it looks and with a little practice, even the average golfer can impress their friends by making regular contact with the ball and smashing it down the fairway.

How to do it

First make sure your feet are parallel to the target then line up the clubhead to the ball on the tee with the neck of the driver.

Don't set it up with the normal address position on the ground first with the clubhead directly behind the tee.

Having held the clubhead to the ball on the high tee, if I bring it down to the normal address position it is well inside the ball on the tee.

As I go back up to the ball, with the clubhead my body automatically reacts to straighten up from the ground.

To hit the ball at this height I need the shoulders to turn horizontally in the same plane rather than the normal tilt. As the ball on the tee and the club go higher it's even easier to make the turn and make contact with the ball.

When I fetch people out from the audience to try this shot, even good golfers don't immediately grasp the concept (and tend to hit the tee peg a foot below the ball). That's because they're so used to picking up the club from the ground in a different plane.

Strangely non-golfers often make a better stab at it because they're not tainted by muscle memory from hitting proper shots with the sole of the club on the ground.

If you're a slicer...

If you are struggling with a slice this is a great exercise to help you attack the ball from the inside instead of out-to-in. It's worth putting the ball on a high tee (put a tee into a bamboo cane) and practice turning the shoulders in a slightly different, more horizontal plane. It will help get the feeling of hitting in-to out.

Watch Bernhard Langer, who is a perfect example of where the power is coming from and avoid coming in too steep to the ball.

Good luck!

(For more information visit www.david-edwards.co.uk)

(Images by Pip Warters)