Palm Beach, Fla.— If I had to put a percentage on it, I'd say upwards of 97 percent of professional golfers use an alignment stick (or something very similar) on the driving range. Honestly, that might be low-balling it.
Which is a little alarming, because if I had to put a percentage on how many amateur golfers use an alignment stick on the driving range, I'd peg it about 10 percent. Honestly, that might be too high.
To hopefully get the message across that you—yes, YOU—should use an alignment stick, club, or something similar when you practice, I spent a couple of days at this week's Cognizant Classic to share all the ways pros use alignment sticks on the range. Pick one, any one, then use it. It'll probably make you better.
1. Footline
Probably the most traditional usage of an alignment stick: Placing it a few inches away from their toes. A square stance means that your foot line, which is an imaginary line which runs along both toes, runs parallel to the target line. A lot of golfers tend to aim their footline out to the right, which causes them to swing over the top. This helps prevent that from happening, by making sure your footline is going exactly where you want it to.
2. Target line
Some guys don't care about where they aim their feet, usually because they feel more comfortable with their stance a little open or closed. But they do care about the target line, because that's where they want the ball to end up. So instead of putting a stick down their foot line, they just put one down the target line, like Peter Malnati is doing here.
3. No man's land
This is probably the most common alignment stick placement. Not flush with your toes, or on the target line. Instead, they split the difference and put it halfway between. This gives them a general sense of feeling square, without focusing too much on one specifically.
4. Footline and target line
Ok now I'm excited, because we're venturing into the two alignment stick world.
Want to know where your feet are pointing? Want to get a sense of the target line? Simple solution: Put one down on each.
5. Footline and takeaway line
Some golfers don't need help thinking about the target line, but need help visualizing the lines in their own golf swing. So, they'll use a second alignment rod to help them. Here, you see an alignment down the player's takeaway line. The goal is to land the club—or feel like the club is landing—directly in line with that alignment rod more behind him.
6. The long line
Some golfers, specifically Francesco Molinari, want a lot of help visualizing the target line. So they place alignment rods all down it. Both in front and behind his ball. It's an extreme visual, but one that makes it abundantly clear where the target line is.
7. Train Tracks
Generally speaking, the closer the stick is to your clubhead, the more it helps with clubface alignment (AKA, where the clubface is pointing). The more in front of the clubface it is, the more it's a visual for the target line (though yes, that helps with clubface alignment, too). The closer it is to your feet, the more it helps with your footline.
Target line is the big preference point. Some guys like it, some guys don't care that much about it. Gary Woodland is one of those not overly concerned with it, but wants the clubface and footline check, which is why he's formed two parallel train tracks.
Interestingly, Isaiah Salinda is using non-parallel train tracks here. He wants to feel like he swings in the direction of his feet, but the clubface points in the direction of the target.
"I do this every warmup session," he says. "I'm trying to hit more cuts, so I want to aim my feet more left, and feel like the face is open to the path when I swing."
8. Inside clubhead
This is actually very common. One alignment stick just inside the heel of the club. This does two things: It gives golfers a better sense of clubface alignment, and also prevents them from getting swinging too much from the inside. If they did, the club would hit the alignment stick. It's essentially acting like a curb on the side of the road.
9. Outside Clubhead
The less common version of this drill is to place an alignment stick just outside the toe of the club. It's essentially a different way of doing the same thing, though you're in no danger of hitting the alignment stick before you hit the shot. Mainly, you're trying to avoid it on your release.
I swear Ryan Palmer was using it this way here, but I didn't snap the picture in time and was too busy and lazy to wait around and snap a second one.
10. T-line
Wyndham Clark is perhaps the best known practitioner of the T-line. Sam Ryder is using it here. The stick pointing at the ball is there as a ball position check. Some guys prefer seeing perpendicular lines. This is a way to do that.
Bonus: In the sweetspot
When you stick one stick out of the ground like this, the goal becomes to swing through it without hitting a stick. This makes it more of a swing path drill—making sure you're swinging in the direction you want. Tommy Fleetwood's the master of this one, but he's not playing this week.
Extra Bonus: Towel on stick
Even caddies use alignment sticks! Jordan Spieth's caddie, Michael Greller, is displaying the towel-on-stick method here. Idea is that you put the towel on the stick, because the towel is wet, so you let the wind dry it out. Like clothes on a clothes hanger.
