Quick Answer: Push one alignment stick into the ground about 10 feet in front of your ball on your target line. Hit chip-style swings first, then full shots, starting the ball right of the stick, then left of it. The stick shows where your ball starts, and your clubface at impact decides that start line.
Most golfers judge a range shot by its finish. Judging a practice shot by its finish is the slowest way to learn face control.
A ball can finish left for three different reasons, and the finish alone will not tell you which reason caused it. Start line narrows the question to one thing you can see in the first yards of flight. This is start line drill golf at its simplest: one stick, one target, and two sides to hit. Adapted in original wording from MyGolfSpy’s Drill of the Week: The Start Line Stick by Brittany Olizarowicz, with instruction from Scott Stiles, this drill gives you that one thing to watch.
The setup takes one stick and a target
You need one alignment stick and any club. Pick a target on the range first, because a start line means nothing without a line to start on.
- Pick a target on the range.
- Push one alignment stick into the ground about 10 feet in front of your ball on your target line.
- Hit short chip-style swings first, then work up to full shots.
- Start the ball to the right of the stick, then to the left of the stick.
- Left-handed golfers reverse the directions.
Keep the stick upright and on the target line. A leaning stick gives you a crooked reference, and a stick off the line turns the whole drill into a guessing game. Use any club you like for the drill, and start small. Chip-style swings let you feel the face without a full swing hiding it.
Your clubface picks the start line
Face angle at impact decides where the ball starts. Swing path shapes the curve after the ball leaves the face. Golfers mix those two jobs together, and the mix causes most range confusion.
A ball that starts right and curves left didn’t start wrong. Its face pointed right at impact, and its path sat left of that face. A ball that starts left and keeps going left tells a different story. Its face pointed left, and its path failed to bring it back.
Watch the first part of flight, not the landing spot. Landing spots reward a good guess. Start lines reward a square face or a face you placed on purpose. Once you separate start from curve in your head, you can stop fixing the wrong fault on the range.
Why the stick sits 10 feet out
A stick on the ground beside your feet checks alignment. A stick standing 10 feet in front of you checks something else entirely. It turns the first yards of flight into a visible test. Your ball passes right of it, left of it, or straight over it, and you see the answer before the ball finishes its flight.
A range session without a visible start line is guesswork, not practice. Without the stick, you watch a ball land and you reconstruct a story about your swing from the ending. With the stick, you watch the beginning and you know one fact for certain.
Face direction at impact sent the ball to that side. That fact holds for a chip-style swing and for a full swing, and it holds whether the ball curves after it passes the stick or flies straight.
Distance matters here for a plain reason. Ten feet sits far enough out that the ball has truly started its flight, and close enough that you can still judge its position against the stick without squinting down the range. Closer than that, you judge setup more than flight. Farther out, curve starts to blur the start line you wanted to measure.
Score the drill by sides
Don’t score this drill by good shots. Score it by sides. Ask one question after a set of swings. You started the ball on both sides on demand, or you did not.
Both sides on demand means you control the face at impact for that swing length. One side only means your face has a bias, and the next section tells you how to read it.
Move up in swing length only when both sides come at the shorter length. Chip-style swings first, then full shots, in that order. Full swings hide face errors behind speed and body motion. Short swings expose the face, because little else in a short swing can rescue a face that points the wrong way.
When a longer swing loses a side you owned at short length, go back to the short length and win both sides again before you build back up.
Read one side that will not come
One side that refuses to come is useful information, not a failed session. It tells you where your face points when you swing without thinking about it.
Change where the face points at address first, before you change anything in your swing. Address gives you a clean, repeatable place to make the change. Swing changes take longer to own, and they often mask a setup problem instead of solving it.
| Side that will not come | What it suggests | First change |
|---|---|---|
| Ball will not start right, right-handed | Face points left at impact | Point the face further right at address |
| Ball will not start left, right-handed | Face points right at impact | Point the face further left at address |
| Ball will not start on one side, left-handed | Face points toward the opposite side at impact | Reverse the directions above |
Work the stubborn side on its own for a few swings, then alternate sides again. Alternating sides stops you from grooving one start line and calling it control. Control means choice. Choice means you pick a side before the swing and the ball starts there.
Start line and curve answer different questions
Start line answers one question. Curve answers another. Confusing the two questions ruins an otherwise useful range session.
A golfer who starts the ball right of the stick and watches it curve back toward the target has not failed the drill. That golfer shaped a shot. A golfer who starts the ball left and watches it curve further left has a different problem, and more start line reps alone won’t solve it. That golfer needs face-to-path work, which sits outside this drill.
Use the stick for the start question only. Judge curve separately, on shots where you already own the start line.
That order keeps your practice honest. You fix the start first, then you work on bringing the ball back to the middle. MyGolfSpy makes the same ordering point in its own way, and the order matters because a curve fix applied to a random start line just moves the randomness around.
When the drill stops helping
This drill isn’t for every golfer on every range day. Golfers who already start the ball on both sides on demand own the skill this drill teaches. Those golfers gain more from curve work, strike work, or distance work than from another round of start line reps. Honest practice means knowing when a drill has done its job.
Face direction matters more as loft drops, so the drill grows more useful as you move toward longer clubs. A wedge forgives a face error that a driver punishes. That fact gives the drill a natural progression. Own both sides with a short club, then test both sides with a longer club, and watch how the same face error shows up larger.
The drill also targets start-line awareness for golfers fighting a slice, in the source’s wording. It doesn’t fix a slice by itself, and no result or timeline comes with it. A slice involves face and path together, and this drill isolates only the start half of that problem. Treat it as a diagnostic and a training tool for face control, not as a cure.
Range rules set one more limit. Some ranges and mat bays won’t let you push a stick into the ground. Pick a range bay with grass in front of you, or skip the drill that day. Forcing the setup on a mat with a stick you cannot plant just creates a wobbly reference.
FAQ
What does the start line drill do?
It trains face control and start-line awareness with one alignment stick. You learn to start the ball where you choose, right of the stick or left of it, instead of hoping the ball starts on target.
How far in front of the ball does the stick go?
About 10 feet, on your target line. That distance lets you judge the start of flight against a visible reference without waiting for the ball to land.
Do I need a specific club for this drill?
No. Use any club you like. Start with short chip-style swings, then work up to full shots with the same setup.
What if I can only start the ball on one side?
Point the face further toward the missing side at address first, before you change your swing. Then work that side on its own, and alternate sides again once it comes.
Does this drill fix a slice?
No promise comes with it. The source says the drill targets slice problems by building start-line awareness and face control. A slice also involves swing path, so start line work alone doesn’t cure it.
Take this start line drill golf routine to the course. Pick a start line before every shot, not just on the range. Choose an intermediate target a few feet ahead of your ball, see the ball starting on that line, and let the drill do its quiet work in the background. For more range work in the same style, see the drills in Golf Ball Striking Drills.