Ball Position

There are a couple of factors that affect where we position the ball between our feet. Getting it right will help your consistency.

Firstly we are going to look at ball position for a standard shot because you can change your ball position depending on the type of shot you want to play. More on that later.

I’m also going to break this down into club type as well to look at ball position for Irons, Hybrids, Woods and Wedges.

First of all let’s get a bit of jargon sorted out! I’ll briefly explain a few bits if terminology as they will then relate to ball position.

Angle of attack – The up or down movement of the club head at impact. Attack angle is measured relative to the horizon so your attack angle will either be negative (hitting down) or positive (hitting up). Shots hit off the ground should have a negative attack angle in order to optimize the trajectory.

Swing arc – when the club swings through the ball it is moving on a gentle arc as you will see in the pictures below.

Low point – This helps to determine your attack angle. If you have a negative attack angle then the lowest point in your swing should be ahead of the ball.

Irons:

Visualise the clubhead travelling around you in a circle. With the in mind when the clubhead swings between your feet and through the ball it will be travelling on an arc. That arc has a low point and in order to get the ball in the air using the loft on the club face then we need the lowest point in the swing to be ahead of the ball, giving an attack angle that is going down slightly at impact.

For this reason we position the ball in the middle of our stance with irons when you are a beginner.

Wedges:

The ball position as a beginner should also be in the middle of the stance.

Woods:

When we put the ball on a tee peg we need to move the ball position forwards in our stance so that it is level with the heel of your front foot.

To get more distance with your woods then we want the clubhead on an upward attack angle as it strikes the ball. We want to make contact with the ball after the low point in the swing which will sweep the ball away.

When you make practice swings to a tee peg then the club should just clip the top of the tee peg.

 

Hybrids:

When using a hybrid or rescue club with the ball on a tee copy the ball position for Woods.

When using a hybrid or rescue club with the ball on the ground copy the ball position for Irons.

Tee height:

As a general rule when putting the ball on a tee with a wood or hybrid the top half of the ball should be above the top line of the clubhead.

With an iron you want to tee the ball at a height that put the ball level with the middle of the club face.

As you develop as a golfer then your ball position may move very slightly to accommodate your own swing. We can also vary the ball position to change the trajectory of a shot.

Moving the ball position further back in your stance will help to make the ball fly lower and moving the ball position further forwards will help to create higher flying shots.

By all means experiment with this but ensure that you have a consistent ball position for your normal shots.