Position the Ball in Your Stance
My golf coach, as one of the first things he taught me, gave me the right way to position the ball for a good swing. This might not seem important to non-golfers, but if you play you’ll already know there can be big differences depending where the ball is on the ground.
In your normal stance, side on to the direction you want the ball to go, there are 2 factors that come into play. Firstly, you need to know where to put the ball directly in front of you – ie how far from your eyes when staring ahead, rather than in the direction of the shot. Secondly, where the ball should sit in relation to each foot.
Let’s start with distance from your body. Essentially, this should be at the point your club head will meet the ground during a normal swing, so the distance is pretty much a club’s length away from you, at the point of impact of the clubface during a golf swing.
That is, stand with your legs apart as they will be through your swing, holding the golf club directly out in front of you with the club head on the ground. This is how far away from you the ball should be, at a right angle between you and the direction of the shot you’ll be making.
You’ll know that golf clubs come in different shaft lengths, so the distance of the club head from your body will obviously change for each club. For example, the driver has the longest shaft, so the club head and ball will be furthest away from you. Wedges are much shorter, so the ball will be on the ground much nearer to you.
Next is where you put the ball in relation to the position of your feet. We’ve started with the ball where the club head would naturally go – that is, in the middle of your feet, at the right distance from your body for the club head to hit it correctly.
Now we draw an imaginary line along the direction of the shot. This line should begin a few feet back from the ball and continue through the ball and along the direction line a few feet, with your club perpendicular to the line in the middle.
Along this line, the ball will be placed at different points for different types of shot. For the driver, woods and long irons, the ball should be placed nearer to your front foot (left if you’re a right hander). For the shorter irons and pitching clubs, the ball should be placed in the middle, equidistant between your two feet.
Mike Jackson runs an online golf equipment store, where you can buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf gifts, golf bags etc.
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