How to Take the Correct Stance

The basic idea of the stance is that it should be wide enough to provide stability at high speed yet narrow enough that you can rotate correctly and transfer your weight.  A fare judgment of this is to have your heels at shoulder width with a 6 iron – a little narrower for the shorter clubs and a little wider for the longer clubs.

Here’s a simple exercise for you to follow to insure you know how wide to stand, and maintain this in your practice.

Place a club (an old one if you like) across your shoulders.  Have the end of the grip touch the corner of one of your shoulders, and make a small mark with a pen on the shaft in line with the other shoulder. (Picture) Now, when you place this club on the ground during practice, you can match the insides of your heels to the end of the club and the mark on the shaft, guaranteeing  the correct width of stance.  This can also double up as an alignment aid.  It is simple, but you would be amazed at the amount of swing faults that start with too wide or too narrow a stance.

 The Correct Ball Position

There are 2 different concepts in taking the correct ball position – STATIC or MOVEABLE.  I believe both are ok.  They are just 2 different ways of trying to achieve the same thing. As for me, I believe STATIC is the most easily understood, so this is the method I use in my teaching.

Rule 1 – All shots played with irons should be positioned one club head inside your left heel. (This would be the same as a vertical line drawn up from the ball, touching your left ear or left armpit)

Rule 2 – All shots played with woods will be played from the inside of your left heel.

Rule 3 – Keep the ball position the same with each club and move your right foot to change the width of your stance, depending on the length of club you are using. (check “Taking Your Stance”)  This way, the ball will be central for short clubs and more forward for longer clubs.  The picture on the right shows a mid-iron and short-iron.  Note the ball position is the same; it is only the width of stance that changes.