Golf Ball Position In Your Golf Stance

Golf ball position in the stance is an important thing to be aware and do correctly to help give you the best chance of hitting good golf shots. Incorrect ball position in the golf swing setup will make things a lot more difficult and also can cause unnecessary compensations in your swing. It will be much easier to achieve golf swing proper technique when you play the ball in your stance correctly.

Ball Position With The Driver and Woods

The correct golf ball position with your driver is off you left heel for the right handed player. With the woods, you should play the ball almost all the way forward in your stance, just slightly back of the left heel is correct.

Make sure to adjust the ball position in your stance depending on the club you are using. This will make a big difference in your swing. Improper ball placement in the golf stance can lead to unnecessary swing faults developing.

With your driver, you are trying to hit the ball a bit on the upswing. Playing the ball all the way off your left heel will allow you do to this. The driver is the club that has the least amount of loft. Playing the ball farther back or towards the middle of your stance will de-loft the club making it very difficult to get it up in the air. A forward ball position with a slightly wider stance will help you launch your tee shots higher and farther.

Ball position in the golf stance is important to get right. If the golf ball is too far forward in your stance, you may have a tendency to pull or slice your golf shots. If the ball is played too far towards the middle or back of your stance, it can lead to hooking or pushing the golf ball. When the ball is too far forward the club has started to move left in the swing arc or swing path. This left movement of the club head too late causes the ball to either go left with a pulled shot. The ball can also go right with a slice ball flight because of not being able to get through the ball completely at impact.

A slice and pull generally will result from the same swing path or too forward of a ball position. A hook and push shot will also come from the same swing path or from playing the golf ball too far back in the stance.

Ball Position With The Irons

With full swing shots with your irons, I recommend having the golf ball in between the middle of your stance and your front or left heel. The above picture demonstrates where the ball should be on most iron shots. For full swing shots, keep your golf ball forward of center for best results.

Many golfers will have a tendency to compensate with their golf ball position if there are errors in their swing path. If a golfer is suffering from slicing the ball, they may start playing the ball farther back in their stance to compensate for this. This is equivalent to putting a band-aid on the golf swing. It may help temporarily back playing the ball too far back in the stance can lead to developing other golf swing problems.

It is recommend to play the ball correctly in the stance and then work on the necesary swing path adjustments that need to be made to get you hitting it straighter. With all your full swing iron shots, remember to play the ball about 3 quarters of the way up in your stance so it is right in between your the inside of your left heel and the middle of your stance. This ball position will allow you to bottom out your swing arc at the perfect spot and greatly improve your contact with the club head coming through impact.

When you start to get into pitch or chip shots, the golf ball position will be played more towards the center or back of the stance. Using a wedge or lofted club will allow the golf ball to get up into the air easily. You simply want to hit down on the golf ball and let the loft of the club get the ball up into the air.