The Smart Path To Better golf |
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Ball Position |
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BY GEOFF GREIG
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What about correct ball position and how does it relate to “fat” and “thin” shots? The position of the ball relative to your right and left feet is ONE of the most critical variables in our search for solid ball clubface contact. Let’s take a look where the little white orb should be and how that can help us have more fun on the course. Whenever the ball is on the ground and we are attempting to get it airborne, it is critical the bottom of the swing arc is slightly AFTER the golf ball. It does not matter if we are using a 3 wood or a wedge. Consistent contact between the middle of the clubface and the golf ball can only be achieved with a DESCENDING blow. The backspin created from the descending blow is what gets the ball up in the air. This is the reason the touring professionals always take divots AND the divots are always after the ball. When we attempt to lift the ball into the air with upward movement we will do one of two things; hit the top of the ball or hit the ground before we hit the ball. There are two major things we must do to make sure we strike the ball solidly before we strike the ground with our swing. The first and most important is to make sure we execute a consistent and properly timed weight shift. Every time we make a full swing the weight should be 75-90% in the LEFT foot by impact. No matter how precisely we place the ball in our stance, the club will be approaching the ball improperly if there is too much weight on the right foot at impact. The more weight on the left foot the better the chances we have for solid contact. The key to transferring the weight is ROTATING the legs and torso toward the target at the initiation of the downswing. If the swinging of the arms precedes the turning of the body you will be in trouble. Now let’s check ball position. Since everyones swing is different it is difficult to state EXACTLY where each person should place the ball with each club. I am going to give you some general guidelines and you can adapt these to your swing. The furthest back you should place the ball is in the middle of your stance. I would recommend this for all the short irons (sand wedge-7iron) with a hip width stance. The furthest forward is opposite your left heel using a driver off the tee with a shoulder width stance. The rest of the irons and fairway woods should be approximately halfway between the two. The key is to CORRECT YOUR WEIGHT TRANSFER FIRST then experiment with each of the major club groups and place the ball just to the right of the bottom of the swing arc (except for the driver which should be just to the left of the bottom of the arc, since the driver is on a tee we want to swing slightly upward through impact. A couple other variables you might check on are grip pressure, eye focus and tempo. If any of these are poor they will also cause contact problems. I hope this helps you eliminate those dreaded tops and chunks. See you next time.
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I recently was examining swing sequences of some of the greatest players in history. Knowing that some of these players favored a draw as their standard shot while others preferred a fade, I sought to identify swing features within each group that would explain their respective ball-flight tendencies. Something profound emerged that I think will benefit all golfers, especially those cursed with a wicked slice.