Gear
Choosing a Golf Hitting Mat: What Actually Matters
How to choose a golf hitting mat for home or a simulator: thickness, honest feedback on heavy shots, joint comfort, size, grip and durability.
Choosing a Golf Net for the Garden: What to Look For
How to choose a garden golf net: size, frame, netting, side barriers, anchoring for UK wind, where to put it and how to keep neighbours and windows safe.
Golf Practice Equipment for Home: A Buyer's Guide
What golf practice equipment is worth having at home, by category and space: putting, chipping, nets, mats, launch monitors, mirrors and slope practice.
DIY Ways to Practise Sloping Lies (and Their Limits)
Garden banks, plywood ramps and wedges under a mat all give you a sloping lie at home. How to build one safely, measure it, and where DIY falls short.
Motorised Swing Platforms: Are They Worth £20,000+?
Motorised golf stages tilt your hitting area at the press of a button. Who they suit, what to weigh up, and cheaper ways to practise slopes.
Training Aids for Uneven Lies: What's Out There and What Helps
An honest look at training aids for sloping lies: alignment sticks, strike spray, balance aids, sloped mats, platforms and the free option.
Sloped Golf Mats vs Tilting Platforms: An Honest Comparison
Fixed sloped mats are cheaper and simpler. Tilting platforms give you more lies and repeatable angles. How to choose for home or sim practice.
Course management
Downhill approach shots: how much less club?
How much less club to take when the green is below you, why the ball goes further, what wind does on the way down, and the mistakes that cost club golfers.
Uphill approach shots: how much extra club?
A rule of thumb for clubbing up when the green is above you, why it works, when to adjust it, and how it differs from playing off an uphill lie.
Tips for playing a hilly golf course
How to club up and down, pick tee shots, handle blind shots and keep your legs fresh on a hilly golf course, from a club golfer's point of view.
Parkland, heathland, links: the lies each UK course gives you
What kind of sloping lies to expect on UK parkland, heathland, links, moorland and downland courses, and how to prepare for each one.
Lay up to a flat lie: the shot club golfers rarely play
Why laying up to a flat patch of fairway often beats hitting it as far as you can, how to find the spot, and when going for it still makes sense.
Course management when the fairway isn't flat
How to plan tee shots and lay-ups around the slopes on a hole, so more of your approach shots come from a lie you can actually play.
How to Read the Slope of Your Lie Before You Pull a Club
Read a sloping lie in three checks: your eyes as you walk in, your feet in the stance, and a practice swing. Then choose the club and the aim.
Sim and launch monitor
Hitting Mats vs Real Turf: What Changes in Your Strike
Why shots feel better off a mat than off grass: mats hide heavy contact, give a perfect lie and never slope. How to keep mat practice honest.
A Golf Simulator Practice Plan That Transfers to the Course
A simple 60-minute golf simulator practice plan: warm up, gap your yardages, work on one fault, then play shots like a real round.
Launch Monitor Numbers That Matter for Beginners
Launch monitors throw out dozens of numbers. These are the few a beginner or mid-handicapper should watch: carry, start line, face to path and strike.
Why Your Simulator Scores Don't Match the Course
Shooting lower on the sim than at your club? Flat lies, forgiving mats, easy putting and no weather all play a part. Here's what to do about each.
Home Golf Simulator Setup: What You Actually Need
A plain guide to setting up a golf simulator at home: room space, hitting mat, net or screen, launch monitor, software and the bits people forget.
Using a launch monitor to learn uneven lies
How to use a launch monitor to measure what each sloping lie does to your launch, carry and direction, and turn it into numbers for the course.
Golf simulators only give you flat lies. How to change that
Why home and indoor golf simulators leave you hitting from flat ground, what sim 'slope' settings really do, and the options for adding real sloping lies.
Practice
Block vs Random Golf Practice: What the Research Says
Block practice feels good on the range. Random practice feels messier but tends to stick. Here is the idea in plain words, and how to use both.
A 20-Minute Golf Practice Plan That Transfers to the Course
A simple 20-minute golf practice plan built on variety, targets and a routine, so the shots you hit in practice show up when you play.
Winter Golf Practice Plan for UK Golfers
A realistic winter practice plan for UK golfers: what to work on, where to do it when the course is wet or frozen, and how to arrive in spring ready.
How to Practise Uneven Lies at the Driving Range
Most driving ranges are flat. What you can still do there to prepare for sloping lies, from grass tees to short-game banks and a few mat tricks.
How to Practise Uneven Lies at Home
Garden slopes, DIY boards, mirrors and tilting platforms. The honest pros and cons of each way to practise sloping lies at home.
7 Drills for Uneven Lies You Can Do This Week
Seven practical drills for uphill, downhill and sidehill lies. Some need a slope, some work at home or on the range, all take under 20 minutes.
Why Practising on a Flat Range Mat Holds Your Game Back
The range mat is perfectly flat and forgiving. The course is neither. Why flat-only practice doesn't transfer, and how to fix it without quitting the range.
Uneven lies
Wedge Shots From Sloping Lies: Distance and Direction
Slopes change a wedge more than any other club. How uphill, downhill and sidehill lies affect wedge distance and direction, and how to adjust.
Fairway Woods From a Downhill Lie: Should You Even Try?
A downslope takes loft off an already low-lofted club. When a fairway wood from a downhill lie makes sense, when to take a hybrid and how to play it.
Hitting Driver or Fairway Wood Off an Uphill Lie
An upslope helps a wood get airborne, but costs distance and pulls it left. When to take a wood off an uphill lie and how to set up for it.
Downhill Lie With the Ball Above Your Feet: How to Play It
Downhill pushes the ball right, ball above your feet pulls it left. How the two partly cancel, how to set up and why the ball still comes out low.
Uphill Lie With the Ball Below Your Feet: What to Do
Uphill pulls the ball left, ball below your feet pushes it right. How the two partly cancel, where to aim and why you still need more club.
Downhill Lie With the Ball Below Your Feet: Golf's Hardest Lie?
Downhill with the ball below your feet sends the ball low and right twice over. How to set up, pick a club and stay balanced, for a right-hander.
Uphill Lie With the Ball Above Your Feet: How to Play It
Uphill with the ball above your feet sends the ball left twice over and higher. How much to aim right, which club, and how to stop the hook.
Ball Above Your Feet: How to Stop Pulling It Left
With the ball above your feet the shot goes left for a right-hander. Grip down, stand taller, aim right and swing flatter. Here is how and why.
Ball Below Your Feet: How to Stop Slicing It Right
With the ball below your feet the shot goes right for a right-hander. More knee flex, a wider stance, aim left and stay down. Here is how to play it.
How to Hit Off a Downhill Lie Without Topping It
A downhill lie sends the ball lower, further and right. How to set your shoulders, ball position and aim, and when to change club, for a right-hander.
How to Hit Off an Uphill Lie: Setup, Club Choice and Aim
On an uphill lie the ball flies higher, shorter and left. How to set up, which club to take and where to aim, for a right-handed golfer.
The Four Uneven Lies in Golf, Explained Simply
Uphill, downhill, ball above and ball below your feet. What each lie does to the ball, how to spot it fast and the one setup change that matters most.
Technique
Why You Thin It From Downhill Lies
Thin and topped shots from downhill lies come from where the club meets the falling ground. Why it happens and the set-up and feel that stop it.
Why You Hit It Fat From Uphill Lies (and How to Stop)
Fat shots from uphill lies come from where your club bottoms out. Why it happens, the three usual causes, and how to fix your low point on the slope.
Gripping Down: The Simplest Fix on Sloping Lies
When to grip down on the club on a sloping lie, how far to go, what it does to distance, and the one lie where you shouldn't do it at all.
How Your Swing Plane Changes on a Sloping Lie
Why your swing gets flatter with the ball above your feet and more upright below them, how it tilts uphill and downhill, and how to work with it.
Golf Ball Position for Every Club and Every Lie
Where to put the ball in your stance for every club on flat ground, then how to adjust it on uphill, downhill and sidehill lies. One simple table.
Weight Shift on a Slope: Where Should Your Weight Be?
Where your weight should sit at address and through the swing on uphill, downhill and sidehill lies, and why gravity keeps pulling it the wrong way.
Libro
Libro vs a Sloped Golf Mat: An Honest Comparison
Sloped mats and Libro both help you practise uneven lies. Where each one works, where it falls short, and which suits the way you practise.
Why I Built Libro
Libro's founder on why golf needed a simple, portable way to practise sloping lies, and the four years it took to build one.
Libro Works With Any Launch Monitor or Simulator
Libro adds uphill, downhill and sidehill lies to any launch monitor or golf simulator. Nothing to pair or charge. Here's how to use the two together.
How Libro Sets Any Lie in Seconds
How Libro's cam lock and laser-engraved height lines let you set an uphill, downhill or sidehill lie in seconds and repeat it exactly.
What Is Libro? The Portable Slope Platform Explained
Libro is a portable platform that tilts to recreate uphill, downhill and sidehill lies. What it does, how big it is, and what it works with.