golfrewind.com

At the start of the season , which was last month for me since i live in canada. So hence
the snow is finally gone! Anyways . At the beginning of the season I was placing my
ball about one ball lenth away from my left foot inside. which resulted in alot of inconsistent
shots.. Ive since changed the position up abit and have moved the ball about 3 ball lenths
away from the left inside foot which I seem to be hitting really solid shots with more control.
Where do you all position the ball during setup?

Depends on the club. If you are playing the ball forward of center for all clubs, you will probably struggle quite a bit.

I play the ball off the inside of front foot for driver and 3 wood, about an inch back for 5 wood, 3 inches back for 7 wood, about 5 inches back for 9 wood, and about 7 inches back for 11 wood (which is about an inch or 2 forward of center. I place the ball in the middle of my stance for all my irons and wedges unless I want to deloft the club when I will address with the ball an inch or 2 back in the stance.

With wedges and short irons, it is very hard to hit the ball well when the ball is forward in the stance.

I work out the ball position from my lead shoulder downwards (not from my feet), using the following steps:

Lead arm hangs down vertically.
Clubhead is soled as per its design.
Ball is just in front of the clubhead.

I don't think you can make such a broad statement. It depends a lot on your swing. Hogan played every single ball about one ball length off of his left heel toward the center of the stance. From driver to wedge.

Now, of course, the width of his stance was significantly wider for the driver than it was for the wedge, so even though his setup for the wedge shots was still definitively forward of center, it wasn't nearly as forward of center as that for a driver shot. But, nevertheless, the point is that Hogan played every single shot with the ball forward of center and I don't think that he struggled "quite a bit".

There are other teachers who advocate just off the left heel for all shots today, too. Butch Harmon is one. I think that Leadbetter does as well. (I'm not quite sure, but I know that a few of the big-name teachers prefer this setup.) There are just as many teachers who advocate putting the ball in the middle of your stance for every single shot except the driver. Yes, from 3 wood down to wedge. And, then most like to see the ball drift from center for the shortest clubs to front heel for the longest. You can find a book/teacher/someone who will advocate almost any scheme you can come up with.

I think that each person should figure out what is best for them. With the added complexity that to really start to learn to control the ball flight, you'll probably want to learn how to hit all you clubs from any position. Moving the ball forward in the stance does tend to cause the shots to go higher, and moving the ball backward in the stance tends to make the shots go lower. It can be useful to learn how to hit a low-flying 3 wood (like under a tree, or to keep it low in the wind) or how to hit a very high 4 iron (like if you have to go over a tree). It is also how you can hit high-flying draws and low-flying fades... usually the pattern is low-flying draws and high-flying fades because the club face has less loft when closed and more loft when opened. But, if you can learn to hit not just the curve of the ball you want, but also the height of the ball, then you're really going to open a lot of scoring opportunities.

Well Bignose, I qualified my statement by saying 'you will probably struggle quite a bit', not 'you will definitely struggle'.

It wasn't as broad a statement as you made it out to be.

yeah, yeah, so you gave yourself a tiny little out.

Nevertheless, the main point is that it doesn't even need be "probable" that a person struggles with the ball front of center. There are so many variations in the golf swing, that I don't think that it is fair to even say "probable." There are many, many instructors who strongly prefer their students to play every ball off the front heel. If it was so "probable" that those students would struggle with that, then those teachers are either incompetent or stubborn or beyond foolish.

What could be said is that with a particular player's individual swing style -- that that one person may find it "probable" to have difficulties with a ball forward of center. But, unless you've seen that person's swing, how could you know?

So, again, I reassert, I don't think it is correct to make such a broad statement.

Also, in order to be technically correct (the best kind of correct! -- Futurama), you did say "With wedges and short irons, it is very hard to hit the ball well when the ball is forward in the stance." without any qualifiers at all. And that statement is definitely too strong, as best evidenced by Hogan who didn't find it very hard at all with his wedges and short irons with the ball well forward in his stance.

depends on the club you're hitting and whatever feels comfortable for you. Ball placement for most of my irons are in the middle. woods, hybrids and 3,4,5, irons are about an inch or 2 in front of middle, driver is about my left heel. My brother on the other hand, places all of his balls 2-3 inches behind center, including driver! It seems weird for me but it works for him so who's right and who's wrong?

Well , i went out for a round today. it was quite windy . I struggled abit with the game but still managed to shoot an 82 , keeping my ball placement about 2 or 3 balls right of the left foot. I making good solid contact so it must be working for me. Golf is certainly a funny game. so many varibles to the game.

Nice post Big...

Quote from Hogan as to why he chose the same ball position for each club..."I'm not good or smart enough to be able to move it around (sic)"....this is what the range is for...experiment and keeping track of the results...like BN said, this will expand your armory and increase your shot selection...there is no one right answer...

With the shortest irons, the position is in the middle of my stance, and it moves up about one ball for every club up from there. With a driver it's right about even with my left heel. There is no right position for everyone, but I don't advocate having one position for every club in the bag.

As Bignose said, it depends on the ball flight you want for that shot also. In the wind I'll play some knockdowns and move the ball towards center.

Good luck!