A lot of golf books will tell you how to align. They suggest that you place a ball on one side and stand on another railroad track. You should also be sure to aim the ball at least 20 yards away from the target if the tracks you are on point to it. The warning in this image is misleading and unhelpful.
First, let’s address the warning. The tracks that run parallel to your feet will also be running parallel about 150 yards away. It is possible to see that the tracks diverge if one stands behind them. “tracks”You can look uprange but it’s not the whole story. European painters overcame this illusion in the 15th Century. The tracks should be parallel so that the ball-target and stance target track are always two feet from each other, regardless of how far you move down the range.
You can try this experiment to find out for yourself. Two golf clubs are sufficient to cover 20 inches of ground. Place your right-hand golf club on the ground and aim it towards a distant target. The other club should be placed parallel to the right hand club. As if you were trying to reach the ball on the right-hand team, raise your hands and place your toes in front of the left-hand group. Look at the target with your head. You can locate the target within your field of vision, but you must remember where it is.
Get down on the ground, aim your left-handclub at the target, and then adjust the right hand club parallel to it. Now, take a position at the address on the left-hand side club and look directly at the target. Your field of vision will show the target at the same location. The first set-up will be the same.
This is what I want to repeat. When they are located 150 yards apart, parallel lines which were 20 inches apart at the feet of your feet will be still 20 inches apart. You will miss the target if you point your body at it. This could have been a problem for Johnny Miller in early 1970s.
It doesn’t really matter if your shot is on the ball target line or the player target line, geometriically speaking. It does in practice, however, as it’s harder to line up with the ball-target lines. Would you aim your gun by holding it in front of you and looking down at the barrel? Or would you just hold it straight up and aim it downwards from there? You make alignment errors when you try to align a line parallel to yours, but it is off.
Forget the railway tracks and the line to the ball-target. These images are not only confusing, but they can also lead to alignment mistakes. Aim for the target. Practice swinging and keep your focus. Your swing is aimed at where you’re looking. That’s it.