Ball Position: Critically Important!

I often get asked what the recommended ball position for the PPGS is. On page 39 of the Foundations Manual in the opening paragraph covering Ball Placement/Position it states, '€œWhere you play the ball in your stance is vitally important. Ball position affects the shot'€™s trajectory and direction, as well as the alignment of the clubface and body relative to the target.'€ Ball position being responsible for trajectory and direction makes saying it is important an understatement since golf is such a target oriented sport. Adding that it also affects clubface and body alignment further adds importance to getting your ball position correct. We know how important alignment is in making a good swing and determining the direction of the shot.

I believe in, teach and play the wedges thru the 7 iron with the ball in the center of the stance (as figured by the ankles because we flare the feet in the Peak Performance setup.) The wedges thru the 7 iron are played in the center at the point of the bottom of the swing arc. From the 6 iron thru the hybrids the ball moves around 1 inch left or toward the forward foot for each club until the long irons and/or hybrids, the ball is just behind your left/forward heel. The 3 wood is placed from just inside the left or forward ankle and the driver is hit from just opposite your left/forward instep. These ball positions are recommended but are open to slight individual adjustments based on your preference for finding the positions that produce the ball flight you prefer.

We play the wedges '€“ 7 iron in the middle because these clubs have sufficient loft to hit the ball with a high and penetrating trajectory that will hit the green and stop. As the loft decreases on the longer irons to the hybrids the ball must be moved to the left/forward. Less lofted clubs require an impact where the club will be ascending sooner after impact to get a higher launch trajectory for carry and stopping the ball on the green. With the driver teed up, you are actually hitting the ball on the ascending arc of the forward swing.

I believe that although we have a descending blow hitting all the irons, we should approach impact with as shallow a descending angle of attack as possible. I describe this as we want shallow divots. We want to hit the ball with the sense and feeling that we are nipping or pinching it or even bouncing or ricocheting the club off the turf. We are tearing the grass out of the ground, not digging the turf out. The late Moe Norman, considered one of the greatest ball strikers ever, called a good divot a '€œbacon strip not a pork chop.'€ My motto for good ball striking is '€œThin to Win.'€ That is because a shallow angle of attack thin shot goes farther and straighter than a steep angle attack. Hitting down on the ball too much produces a deep and thick divot that also causes what we call a heavy or chunk shot, likely the result of hitting behind the ball.

Lastly, as the definition stated in the first paragraph, ball position affects the alignment of the clubface and body. A player setup up in a perfect parallel alignment position to the target is effectively mis-aligned if the ball position is incorrect. A ball too far back in the stance effectively has the alignment aimed to the right for a right hander (left for a left hander) and a push, block or slice will be hit with a direct on line hit. This is because impact happens before the arms and club rotation has the clubface square to the intended aiming line and is aimed right of it. With irons, the ball too far back causes the heavy or chunk shot because of hitting behind the ball. The ball too far back causes a too steep angle of attack, especially if the player swings with a reverse weight shift, hanging back on the back foot. With a teed up driver the steep angle attack of a downward blow will cause swinging under the ball, hitting the ball on the top of the club head, popping the ball up.

With a ball too far forward, the setup is effectively aimed left for a right hander (right for a left hander) and most shots will be pulls and hooks. This happens because by impact which is late/after to where the hands and club square up, they are now over rotated and closed facing left of the intended target line, so the ball will be pulled and or hooked.

The scary part of bad ball position is that it affects alignment and it doesn'€™t take being too much off, back or forward, to start really having direction problems. The dilemma is that many times the hits are solid and the flight is straight, but just off line. The real problem comes from blaming the swing and beginning to try swing corrections when in fact the ball position is the cause.

Parallel alignment is critical to swinging online to hit solid and straight shots to the target. Ball position is a critical ingredient that must also be correct to keep the parallel alignment 100% on target. So, let'€™s not forget the importance of correct ball position for hitting good solid and straight shots.

The Surge!