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I've had problems with my setup all year.. I just can't get it to stay consistent. I get lessons weekly from my pro, but all he does is just like fix it for about a day and then it all just goes back to ****. My setup is what is really causing my inconsistency.

My tendencies are (I'm left handed):
Open shoulders
Ball too far forward in stance

When I square my shoulders and put the ball back in my stance, I tend to aim left, and sometimes I'll put a good swing on it and end up way left and then other times I hit a huge hook. I can barely even get the driver off the ground it's so bad, I've been snap hooking it horribly lately. Now I can just hit 3 iron off the tee and put it in play, but then I can never get my approach shots close enough (with my bad swings) to get birdies. I normally just put them on the green but far away and end up 2 putting for par or 3 jacking. Other times I'll have to rely on my pitching game to get up and down, which has been hard for me this year as I haven't been able to practice as much as I would like to.

Does anyone have any good drills or techniques that would help my setup be more consistent? My swing isn't really that bad at all, it's just my setup that is killing my scores. Thanks in advance.

Well in my opinion you know what the problem is. Your shoulders are open and the ball is to far forward. Having the ball to far forward in your stance is the cause of the open shoulders, because basically your shoulders have no other choice but to be open with the ball up. Then you say when you put it back in your stance and square your shoulders you tend to aim left, well how about just not putting it so far back? Here is what I do:

For irons I try to play them all in the center of my stance, but when I say stance I really don't go by my feet to align the ball. You can't really go by your feet (if you do this, I don't know?) because you may have your feet slightly farther apart one time or closer another. You need to have the ball in the middle of your shoulders so it's consistant. With woods I play it slightly forward of center, but not off of my left heel like a lot of people will tell you. I play my woods at my left armpit (right handed) or what would be the logo on the left side of my shirt (again for right handers).

Hope that helps you some.

Both of those issues can be controlled by one simple thing -- a spot check.
Take the extra 10 seconds on the tee occasionally to make sure that your shoulders are square/parallel to the target line. You can do that by taking your setup, and placing the shaft of the club across your chest or shoulders. If you have a good friend that is playing with you, ask him to stand behind you on occasion and be your "eyes." Or if you're playing by yourself, try to guage as best as you can if the shaft is running parallel to your target line when you do this.

Without going into a long spill about "feel" and "perception," I'll just say that we are creatures of habit. Until your square setup (feet, hips, shoulders) "feels" more natural, you're going to fight the tendency to compensate with your swing. Why? Because it's different. It feels like you're setting up way closed, when in reality you're setting up square. It will take some time for the swing to adjust, but when it does, you should expect to see a better flight on the ball. How much time? Until you engrain the new habit to where it feels more natural. The toughest part about the game and taking lessons is change and committing to practicing.

Tell your pro exactly what you told us. Tell him you need something to work on in between practice sessions that will enable you to engrain what he's communicating. And if he doesn't help you with this issue, find someone else that will. But with any teaching professional, you've got to commit to your end of the deal. Listening to your instructor for 30 minutes each week is only part of it. The APPLICATION part is on you, which means practicing what he teaches.

Good luck.

I've had this instructor since I was 8, I'm not about to go find another one.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I know the problem with aiming left. I think that once I put the ball back, I tried to square my shoulders again, so I would drop my left one back, which would then make them closed, causing me to aim left.

I'll try this stuff when I'm out tomorrow afternoon. I have a tournament Thursday, so we'll see if I can get comfortable with it (it doesn't normally take too long).

It's nice to hear your first line. Too often, folks are eager to suggest that the student find a new teacher... and the student does, only to find him/herself more frustrated because of a new teaching style or the time needed to adapt to it.

It sounds like you have had success with your instructor, especially considering that he has been the main guy all these years. Maybe you should have him go out on a playing lesson with you, but maybe you've already done that.... But playing lessons give the instructor instant feedback on things that happen in real playing conditions, and might enable him to see exactly what happens when you tense up under certain stressful situations. Can't hurt!

Good luck.

Yeah, I've done that plenty of times with him, but lately we've been just doing little tweaks on the driving range. I think that's a good idea. I'll do it the week after next since I'm going on vacation next week.

Thanks again for the help.

I have a technique for you. Setup to the ball with your feet all the way together but make sure that the ball is in the middle of your to feet but also try to leave a little space in between. When hitting a driver setup with the feet together but take a small step with the right leg for you and a big step with the left leg this will put the ball in the same position every time just behind right heel. Same with long irons. But with mid to short irons setup the same but take a medium step with the right and left leg so that the ball is in the middle of your stance. And always remember to aim the clubface first then the body. All this will help to be more consistent, after all it did help me dramatically

Guys, thanks a lot for the tips.

I worked out some things yesterday on the range before my round and found out I was aiming waaay left, I mean waay left. And that was causing me to be uncomfortable. Especially since my clubface was square to my target.

So I got that fixed by just pulling my left foot up a bit, it must have been dropped back a lot. So now, my aim is very very good, it's just going to take some time to get it comfortable. I hit some really good shots yesterday, and I hit some really bad ones.

Thanks again for your help, and I'll do some of those tips for consistent ball position.

-Bryan