Mike Jackson

Improve Your Golf – Ball Positioning

My golf coach, as one of the first things he taught me, gave me the right way to position the ball for a good swing. This might not seem important to non-golfers, but if you play you’ll already know there can be big differences depending where the ball is on the ground.

Your normal golf stance should be with your body sideways to the direction you want the ball to go. There are now 2 elements to where you position the ball. The first is how far away from your body the ball should be. The second is what sort of position the ball should be in between your feet.

Let’s start with distance from your body. Essentially, this should be at the point your club head will meet the ground during a normal swing, so the distance is pretty much a club’s length away from you, at the point of impact of the clubface during a golf swing.

That is, stand with your legs apart as they will be through your swing, holding the golf club directly out in front of you with the club head on the ground. This is how far away from you the ball should be, at a right angle between you and the direction of the shot you’ll be making.

Obviously, with golf clubs having shafts of different lengths, this distance away from you will be different according to the club. For instance, the driver is the longest club, so the ball with be farthest away from you. Whilst a pitching wedge is a very short club, so the ball will be nearer to you.

Now you want to find out where to put the ball in relation to being nearer to your left or right foot. Currently, the ball will be in the middle of your stance, a club’s length in front of you at the right distance for making a swing.

With the ball in this position, make an imaginary line through the ball in the direction of the shot, with the line extending along the line both ways from the ball. (ie from the ball along the line in the direction of the shot, and also going beyond the ball away from the direction of the shot).

The ball should now be placed along this line according to which club you’re using. Drivers, woods and long irons should see the ball furthest up the line. (ie nearest to your left foot for right handers). Shorter irons and wedges will see the ball stay where it is now, in the middle of the line, exactly in between your feet.

Mike Jackson runs an online golf equipment store, where you can buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf gifts, golf bags etc.

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Golf Tips – Hit the Ball Forwards

There’s nothing more frustrating for golf enthusiasts than playing what they think is the same as they’ve played before, only for the ball to end up nowhere near their intended target. Certainly, I know that’s the case for me, anyway.

So some lessons from a professional will always come in handy, which is what I’ve been having for the last 2-3 years. I’ve condensed some of the info from these lessons into a set of article tips, starting with this one about keeping the ball moving forwards.

My golf coach impressed on me from the start of my lessons that almost nobody ever achieves the perfect swing, perfect grip, perfect stance etc. He assured me that most amateur golfers will waste 90% of their time trying to perfect what they see as a problem. And indeed most golfers have plenty of issues to be concerned about, such as keeping their arm straight or their head still.

But above all this, if you can hit the ball the right way – ie forwards and towards the green – perfect technique is almost irrelevant to how well you’ll play the game. My coach demonstrated the truth of this to me.

He took the club back in a swing that would make any amateur blush, even letting go of the club at the top of the swing. However, when he hit the ball, it travelled in the direction he was aiming, not especially quickly, but was definitely on target.

This showed me that the fundamental issue in golf is ensuring that the head of the club meets the ball in the right position to send the ball off in the right direction. Which is where I realised I should concentrate my initial efforts.

Obviously, the more control you have over the backswing and other elements, the more power you’ll be able to get into the shot and thus hit the ball further. And your club selection is going to be important here, too, for getting more distance on the ball.

Fundamentally, though, the aim of the game is to get a little white ball from a little wooden / plastic tee, all the way to a little hole which may be several hundred yards away from where you start. If you can keep that ball heading in the right direction, like me, you’ll find your game improving and can start working on the other aspects over time.

Mike Jackson runs an online golf equipment store, where you can buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf gifts, golf bags etc.

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