Rule 1: Improve Your Lie

According to a USGA study only one tenth of one percent of male golfers shoot par golf consistently. Only two-and-one-half percent are below a five handicap. Why do so few  golfers produce good results? The reason is clear, it's because the golf swing is impossibly hard! 

It's very reasonable that most recreational golfers are frustrated by the game.  The traditional golf swing demands an extremely complex, unnatural swing action that can never be mastered. The body, arms, hands, club head and club face must be rotated on multiple planes in both the back swing and the downswing. These completely unnatural and complex rotary movements make it extremely difficult to square the club face consistently at impact, even for a golfer of the highest proficiency.

The margin for error in the golf swing is minuscule. A golfer is only allowed about two degrees of club face error when hitting a golf ball to keep it in the fairway. Not to hit it where it is exactly intended to go, but just to keep the ball somewhere in the fairway.

Unless a golfer is genetically blessed with world class tempo and timing and has at least 5 hours a day to practice, they can never hope to join the golfing elite who regularly play at par or better. For the vast majority of golfers not so blessed at birth, a frustrating fate awaits.

(a) The first rule of SortaGolf is to be sure to Improve Your Lie so as to give you the best possible chance to play your best golf. Golf is challenging enough even from a good lie. There's no reason for golfers to be further penalized by poor course maintenance or the randomness of nature.

Golfers instinctively know this and have over the years developed solutions of their own, like "bumping 'em in the fairway". Now this kind of progressive thinking can be expanded to almost every shot you play. The last thing you should be asking yourself before addressing the ball is, "Could my lie be improved?"

(b) Proximity to the original location of the ball should not be an impediment to this process. As a result, if it is necessary to move your ball a full clubs length in order to accomplish the task, then you should do so. This is especially true if a little extra distance will not only provide you with the optimal lie, but will also have the added benefit of allowing you to more easily avoid an obstacle (a tree, for example)or otherwise provide you with a better approach to your target.

Although, improving one’s lie cannot result in moving your ball closer to the hole or result in taking the ball from the rough to the fairway. The only areas of the course were this rule does not apply is in sand traps or on the putting surface. There, you must play the ball were it lies.